COVID-19 for Parents
I have talked to a lot of parents this week who are worried about their kids catching COVID-19.
Here’s the good news- COVID-19 seems to be a lot less severe of an infection in kids. Here’s the bad news- the infection in kids can look a lot like a typical cold. And kids with mild symptoms, and sometimes no symptoms, can still spread the illness. This is why closing the schools for now, social distancing, and trying to limit exposure to people outside of your own house is so important.
As parents it’s important to do our part by keeping our kids at home, encouraging them to wash their hands and participate in social distancing as much as possible. Out of all of those things, teaching kids how and when to wash their hands is probably the best thing we can do for them.
Here is a brief video which shows how (and for how long) we should be washing our hands.
As to when, with kids the answer would be “a lot”. Kids should be washing their hands before and after play, after coughs and sneezes and after touching their face.
Kids tend to have a lot of questions- “why is there no school?” “Why can’t I see Grandma and Grandpa?” “Why can’t I see my friends?” Knowing how to talk to our kids about what’s going on is not easy. It’s important to stay calm and hopeful, and to not overwhelm them with information.
This website has some good answers to many questions you might be hearing right now
https://www.brighthorizons.com/family-resources/talking-to-children-about-covid19
For kids who are more interested in the “how” this article answers their questions about what the virus is and how it makes people sick
If your child becomes ill, please call us. We will be doing phone screening for kids who are sick before we schedule the appointment, so it might take a few extra minutes to get your child on the schedule, but we want to know how they are doing and how we can help. At Grants Pass Clinic we want to make sure that your kids are safe and healthy. We are scheduling well child checks, vaccines, and healthy kids in the morning and keeping the afternoons open for sick kids. It’s important to see kids for their check-ups and update their vaccines, even in the middle of this outbreak.