While the world is out of the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, risks remain since it’s a virus that mutates quickly, transmits easily, and evades long-term immunity. Your children remain at risk of both primary COVID infection and its chronic version, called long COVID.
Dr 2 Kids, Smita Tandon MD in Fountain Valley, California, stresses the importance of vaccinations in general and for viral respiratory infections like COVID in particular. It’s the best way to prevent long COVID in kids. Here’s what else you need to know.
For a long COVID diagnosis, your child has had a COVID infection, and symptoms persist for three months or longer. Anyone can develop long COVID, and there’s no correlation between the severity of the initial infection and the duration or intensity of long COVID afterward.
Symptoms may develop immediately, or they could emerge months after the original infection. The symptoms of long COVID include:
Mood and mental health may suffer due to the chronic nature of long COVID. Anxiety and depression are common examples.
COVID is an airborne virus, like influenza and the common cold. The virus spreads from someone who’s infected when they breathe, talk, sneeze, or cough. The risk for transmission increases in crowded places, particularly indoors where ventilation is weaker.
The process starts with making it more difficult for your child to get COVID in the first place. If your child is vaccine eligible, stay up-to-date with the latest versions of the COVID vaccine recommended by your local health unit.
These provide protection against the most active and recent strains of the COVID virus. Even if your child contracts COVID, their symptoms are likely to be less severe. Beyond vaccination, other methods of prevention include:
Effective ventilation of your home along with air purifiers can help minimize the transmission of COVID and other airborne pathogens.
Should your child contract a respiratory infection that may be COVID, keep a close eye on their symptoms. Consult our blog, Is It a Cold, the Flu, or COVID? to help recognize which illness they have.
Normally, COVID follows a two-week pattern similar to cold or flu. Symptoms usually take an arc, emerging, getting worse, then resolving in 10 to 14 days.
If your child’s symptoms persist, or if they cause breathing difficulties or affect their daily lives, contact Dr 2 Kids, Smita Tandon MD online or by phone to book an appointment promptly.
