In recent weeks, New Zealand health professionals have been fielding an avalanche of queries from parents about how best to care for kids who've contracted Covid-19.
Most Covid-19 cases in children can be safely managed by parents at home, says Starship paediatrician Dr Mike Shepherd, but there are some warning signs to look out for.
Photo: Kristine Wook / Unsplash
Many of the children presenting with Covid-19 symptoms at hospitals around the country could be looked after at home, with some help from health officials, Dr Shepherd tells Jesse Mulligan.
Parents should seek urgent medical attention if a Covid-19 positive child :
- is drinking less than half the normal amount of fluid
- is having breathing difficulties
- is experiencing pain or discomfort that’s not going away with Paracetamol or Ibuprofen
- is very lethargic or sleepy
- has been feverish for seven days
A case of Covid-19 shouldn't last long for most kids, but if it goes on longer than a week, Dr Shepherd cautions parents to first call Healthline or their GP.
“Kids are often better within four or five days, but it may last seven days ... We typically say to people that if your child still has a fever for greater than seven days then that would be another reason to seek a further review or medical attention.”
- For more advice, check out the helpful video Caring for your child with COVID-19 from Starship Children's Emergency Department
Starship paediatric emergency medicine specialist Dr Mike Shepherd Photo: Supplied
Currently, Starship Hospital is seeing around 30 children per day with Covid-19 symptoms and many of those don't need to be admitted, Dr Shepherd says.
"There’s around 10 children in Starship Hospital at the moment and they’re there for a combination of things, either admitted because they’re unwell with Covid or they have other medical problems as well as Covid.”
Because of how Covid-19 can affect adults, parents are understandably concerned about their children but with the correct information, this virus should be as straightforward to manage as other viral infections.
Covid-19 symptoms are similar to other viral infections and so, too, is the treatment, he says.
“What we’re seeing often is children with a fever. They would often have a runny nose, they may often have a cough. They may be a bit off their food and drink. Sometimes they may have some diarrhoea and vomiting, and some pain, but typically those can be managed with keeping up fluids and the usual Paracetamol and Ibuprofen and keeping an eye on children.”
Parents are best not to wrap their kids in cotton wool and hide them away from daycare until this current wave of cases goes south, Dr Shepherd says.
“Our advice is to continue with [regular] activities because we think that’s really important for children and for whanau."
While it's hard to predict exactly how a child will fare with Covid-19, natural immunity should greatly reduce the extent of their illness, he says.
Under-fives, including those who are still bread-feeding, are coping well with a Covid-19 infection.
“Breastfeeding for children is fantastic on a whole range of fronts including [for] their immunity. As children get towards the one-year-old age group. that’s when their immune system matures and they have a mix of maternal immunity and their own immunity.
“Even in the unvaccinated under-fives, typically it’s a fairly mild illness and so they have an immune system which is managing to cope with this. They typically have much fewer things wrong with them and so they’re generally able to fight off this infection, which can be characterised as a natural immunity that children have.”
To parents who haven't yet had an opportunity to get their children double vaccinated, Dr Shepherd says not to panic.
Kids who've received even one dose of the Pfizer vaccine are afforded significant protection against Covid-19 symptoms, he says.
Dr Shepherd recommends parents wait the full eight weeks after their child's first dose before they get a second.
“What we’re seeing is the first dose does make quite a big difference, generally. I think some of the studies [show it has] up to 70 percent efficacy in terms of reduction and hospitalisation.
"What we’re seeing is a single dose might not necessarily prevent a child from Covid, but it would certainly do great things in reducing the probability of needing hospitalisation and passing it on to other people."
Dr Shepherd advises parents to keep up with any vaccinations they may be due for.
“We’d really love people to go and get their usual childhood vaccinations as soon as they can because we know that there’s still risk around those illnesses.”
That said, Covid-19 is almost always a mild illness for children and can be self-managed in the vast majority of cases, Dr Shepherd says.
“People are worried about Covid and they’re not sure what to do [except take their child to hospital] ... But we think that there is a number of people with a bit more information who could manage their children safely at home or with the help of other health officials."
