During the COVID-19 lockdown, kids came down with a lot of other health problems, and many times it was the circumstances which the lockdown created rather than COVID-19 illnesses. Dr. Vijayanand Jamalpuri, Consultant Neonatal Pediatrician at Rainbow Hospitals, Hyderabad spoke to ETV Sukhibhava.
What are the other issues seen in children during the COVID pandemic?
- Due to too much restriction in physical activity (no outdoor playing etc), one of the psychological problems coming up is boredom. Symptoms in a Kid who is already having underlying psychological issues can worsen with boredom. Children with special medical needs like an autistic child may suffer to some extent during this time owing to the inability to go to the special school or therapy because of lockdown.
Which children are likely to have a severe disease?
- Severe symptoms needing hospitalization and intensive care is seen in children with underlying conditions like a preterm baby who has chronic lung disease or a child who has severe asthma, heart disease, immunosuppressed diseases like cancer and those who are on long-term medications of steroids are all at high risk because they are unable to fight against these infections. Therefore, the parents of such children need to be extra vigilant.
It’s very common for a child to get a rash and/or fever as most of the eruptive fevers occur in childhood. So how do parents know that they need to see a doctor?
- Yes, it is very true that most of the eruptive fevers like measles, chickenpox, etc present with a rash and a fever, but keeping in view the pandemic, it is advisable that any child who has a fever and develops a rash needs to be seen by a doctor. They don’t need to panic but they need to see a doctor.
Kids having asthma may develop breathing difficulty? How can we differentiate it from COVID illness?
- If a usual trigger for asthma results in an episode and the child settles with the regular medication, then it’s fine but if the asthma episode is triggered off by an unusual stimulus in the environment or the child is taking too long to settle down, then it’s better to see the doctor.
- Nowadays, home nebulizer use is very common. A nebulizer is known to spread aerosols, so, the chances of infectivity of the virus become multiplied. So avoid nebulizer as much as possible and if at all it is really required then use only on the recommendation of your pediatrician. Instead, one should use an inhaler with or without a face mask and spacer based on the kid’s age.
“Tummy aches” on the rise in children–your opinion on the same.
- This is not necessarily due to COVID but due to increased and unsupervised use of the sanitizer and there is emerging evidence in support of it. So, I would say it's fine to use a sanitizer but, before you eat your food or before you take anything from your hand, it’s very important to wash your hands with soap and water.
Skin symptoms are seen in children nowadays.
- Skin rashes due to excess use of sanitizers for which I suggest that parents insist on hand-washing with soap rather than sanitizers. And use a moisturizing lotion to soothe the skin. The use of mild soft soap is recommended for hand washing in kids.
- A variety of skin manifestations like shriveled toes, measles-like a rash, chicken-pox like a rash, allergic urticarial type rash have been reported in children.
Considering all the above, it becomes very important that we look at the problem more comprehensively and optimize the health of the kids.
Inputs from:
Dr. Vijayanand Jamalpuri
MD, MRCPCH, FRCPCH, CCT in Paediatrics (UK) & Fellowship in Neonatology (NZ)
