To answer all your questions, we bring to you a webinar, “Living Through a Pandemic: How to Protect Your Family” with our speaker, Associate Professor Raymond Chua, Deputy Director of Medical Services, Health Regulation Group, Ministry of Health. Our webinar also includes panelists Professor Vernon Lee, Senior Director, Communicable Diseases Division, Public Health Group MOH, and Dr Chan Si Min, Hear and Senior Consultant, Division of Paediatric Infectious Diseases, Khoo-Teck Puat - National University Children’s Medical Institute, NUH.
Learn more about your child’s risk of getting infected with Covid-19, the symptoms, protocols when your child is infected, and all about vaccines and boosters. Tune in to our informative webinar wherein our speakers talk about:
Your Child’s Covid-19 Risks
Yes, you’ve heard it right. The Omicron variant has high infection rates and is pretty much everywhere! If you’re looking for statistics, there are about 243 cases per 100,000 population for children between the age of 0 and 4 and about 258 cases per 100,000 population for children between the age of 5 and 10.
While your child’s risk of falling severely ill because of Covid-19 remains low, a small number of children do develop severe complications that can require treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). If your child has underlying health conditions, then he or she is more likely to suffer immediate complications so do be extra cautious!
What to Do If Your Child Gets Covid-19?
By and large, there is no need to rush to the hospital if your child tests positive for Covid-19. However, it’s important that you inform those who have been in close contact with your child. Also, many parents are concerned about producing a medical certificate to your child’s school, especially if they miss tests or examinations. You can be rest assured that all you need is to send a picture of a positive ART test to your child’s school. There is no need for a medical certificate or doctor’s memo.
Depending on whether your child needs medical attention, or is asymptomatic, there are different protocols. Our speakers shed light on the 3 different protocols and what to do in each scenario. It’s important to ensure that their symptoms are not worsening. In the event of severe symptoms, see a GP or call. 995.
Here are some severe symptoms to watch out for:
It’s a lot to remember but don’t worry, all the information you need is available on this Covid-19 e-book.
Why Vaccination is Important for Your Child
Our speakers shed light on the importance of vaccination to keep our children, educational institutions, families, and the community safe. While vaccination doesn’t prevent Covid-19 altogether, it does greatly reduce your child’s likeliness of falling very ill and developing long-term symptoms. Furthermore, vaccination makes it harder for the virus to spread.
To maximise protection against Omicron, children aged 12 and above should take their booster shots as well.
Speaker’s Personal Experience with Covid-19
The next segment was a sharing by our speaker, Jacinth Liew, Parent Coach and Founder of Our Little Play Nest, on her experience with Covid-19.
Jacinth shared how it was a traumatic experience for her, much like many other parents. Her son was infected in October 2021, and it was believed to be the Delta variant. Although she had read up on what to do, when it really happened, her mind went blank and she didn’t know what to do. She was anxious and worried about her younger child getting infected, and how to keep everyone apart and so on
One piece of advice she wishes to give parents is to clear the isolation room of unnecessary items so you have less to clean and disinfect eventually.
Thankfully for Jacinth, her son’s fever broke within 24 hours and he was well on the road to recovery. Here are some key takeaways from her experience:
- No matter how much you think you are, you can never fully prepare yourself for when your child gets infected, so stay calm and find out what to do next
- Understand that your child is going through a difficult and painful time so be more patient and go easy on them during this period
- Jacinth did not want her son to have too much screen time during the isolation, so apart from just an hour a day on the iPad, she gave him books, Lego, colouring, and similar things to keep him occupied. However, her two-cents to parents is that if you really need to increase the screen time to preserve your own sanity, do go ahead, but within moderation!
- Upon completing the isolation, they left the room for 3 days before cleaning, as the germs are believed to die off the surfaces.
- Dettol and warm water as well as disinfecting sprays were her go to and she did not feel the need to engage a professional cleaning company.
- We don’t know the long-term effects of vaccination, neither do we know that of Covid, so it makes more sense to get your children vaccinated to keep them protected
Our speakers then moved on to take the questions of our participants. The questions fell into 3 broad categories. Here are some of the questions:
1. COVID infection amongst children
One of the most asked question amongst parents would be, “Are there any long-term side effects to my children if they contracted COVID?”
Dr. Chan’s response:
It is rare for children as compared to adults, but some children do take a few months for their symptoms to resolve. Loss of taste or smell, inflammation of liver (picked up through blood tests) and lethargy and tiredness are some things that can take a longer time to resolve. Children who have severe complications may also take a longer time to recover.
Parents also want to know what they can give their kids to ensure that they recover faster from COVID.
Dr. Chan’s response:
The short answer is that there isn’t really anything you can give your child to accelerate recovery and it really depends on the individual child. But you can help them to feel more comfortable when they are infected. Lethargy, vomiting and poor feeding are common. Allow them to rest well and give them lots of fluid to drink. If they have a sore throat, give them ice-cream or something soft and cold to help ease the symptoms. Simple medication like paracetamol or antihistamines (prescribed the doctor) may help your child to feel more comfortable.
2. Vaccination and Booster
Parents are concerned if the vaccine is safe for children with special needs like ASD and ADHD? Will the vaccine have any neurological effects on special needs kids?
Dr. Chan’s response:
At the moment there is no evidence to suggest that the vaccine has any neurological effects on special needs kids. In fact, we have vaccinated many children who have special needs and it’s all gone very smoothly so far.
Also, to answer the common question on the long-term effects of the MRNA vaccines, we will only know for sure with time but from what we know of the vaccines and how they work, it is unlikely. For nearly all vaccines, the side effects tend to happen in the first couple of months following the vaccine. So far, from what we see around the world, the vaccines are far safer than getting infected. Likewise, you also don’t know the long-term effects of getting infected. But the short-term effect of not getting vaccinated is the likeliness of a severe illness.
3. Tip on how parents can protect their children
Parents want to know how they can protect their unvaccinated children below 5 years of age, given that it is difficult to control them from touching things or putting their hands in their mouth.
Dr. Chan’s response:
Constantly reminding children about hand hygiene, cough etiquette, wearing your masks, not touching the outside of masks and to play in small groups. Young children learn quickly and by copying so if the adults can role model the same behaviour, it helps to instill the discipline and habit in the child. Once it becomes a habit for the whole family, children will comply better.
These are just a few of the many questions answered by the speakers. You can hear their responses to the rest of the questions in the video.
In conclusion, our speakers emphasised on the importance of vaccination to protect your children. Professor remarked that if despite all the strategies and SMM in place, your child still contracts the virus, the best defence against severe infection is vaccination
Mums and Dads, we live in strange times and our children must adapt as much as we parents do, so jia you to all the parents living through a pandemic! Watch the webinar recording here for more information.
We hope that you will find answers to your pressing questions about living through Covid-19 with children in this comprehensive webinar. Remember, we can’t stop what is to come, but we can protect our children from severe complications.