Children
Whilst our practice policy is to see unwell children, the advice from Public Health Wales is that children with a new continuous cough and/or a temperature of 37.8°C or greater may have Covid-19 and should not be seen in surgery to minimise the risk of spreading Coronavirus if they have it.
The advice is the same as for adults; self-isolate for at least 7 days and phone 111 if the symptoms worsen.
Children seem to have less severe symptoms from Coronavirus than adults. We do not know why this is. However, even if they only have mild symptoms, they may unknowingly pass the virus onto other more vulnerable people which is why the self-isolation advice applies to them.
Having an unwell child can be an anxious time, however, a clinician will be happy to talk to you through the phone to offer further advice.
Some of the things you can do as a parent are:
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Have a thermometer to take a temperature
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Give paracetamol regularly (as per the instructions; do not give more than the maximum recommended dose in 24 hours). The paracetamol helps your child to feel less unwell. As the paracetamol wears off, you may notice your child starting to feel unwell again and their temperature goes up. As long as when you give the paracetamol the baby or child is better in themselves this means they are not seriously ill.
Signs of a child or baby being seriously ill are (taken from the When Should I Worry leaflet):
Additionally:
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Breathing very quickly or very slowly
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Ribs being sucked in or abdomen sucked in when breathing
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Stridor (high-pitched, wheezing sound in the throat on breathing)
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Wheeziness
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Not having had a wet nappy or passed urine for 8 hours
(doesn’t need to heavy but must be wet) -
Regularly drinking less than 2/3 of their normal daily fluid intake
(this would be drinking less than about 65mls for every 100mls
they would normally be drinking)
There is more advice in this “When should I worry” booklet for parents
which the Royal College of GPs recommends:
