“The ongoing pandemic can have a severe effect on children’s mental and physical health” said Dr. Praveen Kumar, Director, Department of Pediatrics, Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi.
Explaining how the pandemic is affecting children’s mental and physical health and what needs to be done to reduce the impact, Dr. Kumar informed:
1. Pandemic have a severe effect on children’s mental and physical health since they are confined to home for more than a year.
2. Children tend to express psychological distress/ sadness by acting out in a different way. Some may become silent while others may express anger and hyperactivity.
Remedy:
1. Caregivers and parents need to be patient with children and understand their emotions.
2. Look for signs of stress in young children, which could be excessive worry or sadness, unhealthy eating or sleeping habits, and difficulty with attention and concentration.
3. Families also need to support children to cope with stress and also allay their anxiety.
Can future waves affect children more severely?
“Covid 19 is a new virus and has the potential to mutate. Whether future waves will affect children more or with increased severity are speculations. People has been speculating that future waves may affect children more as most of the adults will be vaccinated in the next few months while we do not have any approved vaccine for children at this point in time.
Adults in the house should follow COVID-Appropriate Behavior, and limit their social engagements to reduce the chances of infection as they may carry and transmit the infection to others. Besides, all the adults should take vaccines, which will also protect the children to a great extent.” Dr. Kumar informed.
“Now the vaccine is available for pregnant women and lactating mothers. This will give a certain degree of protection to the growing foetus and new-born against the deadly infection.” Dr. Praveen Kumar further added.
How has the second wave of Covid 19 affected children?
Dr. Praveen further informed that the second wave of Covid 19 has affected children equally.
“Covid 19 is a new virus and it affects all age groups because people do not have natural immunity against the virus.
Approximately, 12 percent of the infected Covid was contributed by patients less than 20 years of age.
During the second wave, number of infected children were more as compared to the first wave. However, the mortality rate in children is lower as compared to adults.”
Whether future waves will affect children more or with increased severity are all speculations- Dr. Praveen Kumar, Director, Department of Pediatrics, Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi
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