Covid symptoms in kids 5 years old9/11/2023 When Shu is choosing a surgical mask, she looks for one with an ASTM level 3 certification that is three- or four-ply, which tends to offer the best protection. The data doesn’t come directly from preschools, but Rutherford said there’s “really good” evidence for the effectiveness of masks in elementary schools, and there’s no reason to think preschools would be different.īlumberg said surgical masks provide 60%–70% protection, and he prefers those over cloth masks, which are less standardized. The evidence for masking in preschool “is strong,” Rutherford said, as long as the child is over 2 years old, since there can be a suffocation risk for younger children. How strong is the evidence that kids in preschool or at any age should be wearing masks? “If you don’t catch it on the right day where there’s enough virus to trigger that test to turn positive, it’s going to be a false negative.”Ī positive result on a rapid antigen test is much more reliable in general (meaning if the result is positive, your child almost certainly has COVID if they also have symptoms), although following up with a PCR test to confirm is recommended. You may need to retest after a negative result, particularly if a child has respiratory symptoms. That said, false negatives are common in rapid COVID tests early in an infection. Rapid tests should work even when used in babies, experts told us. Rutherford said there doesn’t appear to be any difference in how they perform for children versus adults. COVID can look like any other respiratory illness.” How accurate are rapid tests for young children under the age of 5? “The vast majority of viruses I’m seeing are COVID.” “We are seeing so much COVID compared to other cold viruses, even higher than flu in my area,” she said. However, Shu recommends that given the current state of the pandemic, it’s a good idea to err on the side of caution and test children. “If you don’t think there is anything out of the ordinary with your child, then you don’t have to test because of symptoms such as a runny nose,” he said. He doesn’t think children need to be tested for every runny nose unless they have an exposure or symptoms of “more severe upper respiratory infections.”īlumberg agreed and said when it comes to testing kids, it's more important to focus on new symptoms a child might have a runny nose due to allergies or something else. Testing every kid for COVID every day is “just not practical,” said George Rutherford, a professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco. Do I need to get them tested every time they’re stuffed up? My kid always has a runny nose, especially in winter. In fact, hospitalizations are at the highest point since the start of the pandemic, according to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. Unfortunately, hospitalizations are on the rise for children, including babies and toddlers too young to be vaccinated. In general, kids tend to have a less severe illness than adults. Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Children’s Hospital. “The baby may be crying and you can’t pinpoint a reason for it,” she said.Ĭhildren also get a loss of taste and smell, just like adults, but they may have more trouble articulating that than an adult would, said Dr. Sometimes the only symptoms in babies are fussiness and increased crying because COVID can make them achy and uncomfortable. Jennifer Shu, an Atlanta-based pediatrician. “For many of the young kids I have been seeing, they present with croup,” said Dr. The latest development is that kids with COVID can often have croup, which causes a distinctive cough, hoarseness, and labored breathing. Here’s what they had to say: What are the COVID symptoms in children?Ĭhildren generally have symptoms just like adults, including a cough, fever, a runny nose, and sore throat. If you’re sick of asking people in the group chat or on the playground (and getting very strong and likely incorrect opinions), we asked some real experts for the answers to common questions. The result is often pandemic-related confusion: Are cloth masks enough? When is it safe for kids to return to school based on symptoms and testing? Is COVID really as bad as or worse than familiar childhood ailments like the flu and RSV? And, most importantly, do parents really need to test a child for COVID every time they get a sniffle? In all seriousness, as Omicron surges, the new guidance for children’s vaccines, boosters, masking, and school safety are moving so quickly that it’s hard for parents and caregivers to keep up. As we head into year three of the COVID-19 pandemic, the updates and recommendations for how to stay safe from COVID, particularly for children, seem to be evolving as fast as a new variant in an unvaccinated population.
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