- April 18, 2024
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Parents may be avoiding taking their children to the doctor or hospital due to fears of COVID-19, but that can be dangerous, according to Dr. Michael Keating, chief medical officer at AdventHealth For Children.
“One of the more dangerous things that are going on right now is that children are not going for their routine health care,” Keating said during the June 11 AdventHealth Morning Briefing on Facebook Live.
Well-care visits should be kept up, on schedule, even if they need to be telehealth appointments, he said, and parents should make sure to keep their children up to date on vaccinations.
“Because of parental fear about going to the hospital, a lot of families have waited on problems that they should have gone to the problem earlier to see,” he added. “The hospitals are extremely safe places to go. Your doctor’s office is an extremely safe place to go.”
Parents also should be aware of the toll that COVID-19 can take on the mental health of themselves and of their children, Keating said.
“People have lost their jobs, they’re having trouble … paying their rent,” he said. He suggested that parents assess how their own stress levels may be impacting their children.
Moreover, children are not in school and are missing socialization, as well as, in some cases, their best meal of the day. Different eating and sleeping habits can also take a toll.
“You need to be engaged as much as possible,” Keating advised.
He suggested that it may be safe to have a child sleep over at another child’s house, if both families are taking precautions, but he cautioned against joining sports teams at this time.
