HELP! What to Do if My Child is Sick during this Pandemic?

Mommies, I hope you and your family are in a good condition especially during this global pandemic. I understand that everyone is restless and paranoid. Especially to a mother, you must be worried about your children’s health condition. I bet you have a bunch of questions such as, “What if my child suddenly fall sick? Is it okay to bring him to the clinic? Isn’t it risky and dangerous?” and many more.

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Read on to find out more information on what you can do if your child is sick during COVID-19 pandemic.

My child has a fever and some cough. Could it be COVID-19?

1. First thing first, as a parent, you should stay calm. Do not be panic. By staying calm, both of you can think better and more rational.
2. Next, talk to a health provider. You can:
   1. Call your doctor. If you have a family doctor, give him a call and explain to him about your child’s condition. One thing for sure is, he must have known your child’s health history. The doctor will ask further to check whether your child has the symptoms of COVID-19 or has contact with someone who is positive COVID-19. You just have to be honest when answering all of his questions.
   2. Make sure to keep your child at home. By staying at home, the child will not be exposed to the germs from outside, and not spreading his illness to other people.
3. If possible, make sure your child uses a different bathroom from others. But if it is not possible, you have to make sure to disinfect the bathroom with an antibacterial liquid.
4. Make a rule for every person in the household to wash their hands frequently. Wash at least 20 seconds with soap or use hand sanitizer.
5. Please sanitize all the things that are use frequently by everyone in the house such as doorknob, remote control, toys, chairs, tables, switch and others.
6. For your sick child, make sure he get plenty of rest and stay hydrated with warm water.
7. Last but not least, if your child is showing symptoms of COVID-19 such as fever, trouble of breathing, bad cough and others, you may call Ministry of Health’s National Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC) at the hotline below to ask for help.

Should I bring my child for COVID-19 tests?

Again, do not be panic. It is understandable that once your child is showing symptoms, you would want to bring him to the emergency. But it is important to NOT run straight to the ER.

As mentioned above, you can give a call to a doctor if you child has:

• Fever
• Cough
• Fast in breathing or breathing difficulty.
• Sign of dehydration such as not peeing for 8-12 hours.
• Your child is being less active than usual.

The doctor will let you know whether you can still care for your child at home or if he needs to be rushed immediately to the ER.

However, you HAVE to call 911 or rush to the ER if your child is having difficulty to breathe, it out of breath, or turns blue.

Should my child (and I) wear facemask?

YES, if you or your child is unhealthy and showing signs of illnesses such as flu, cough, and fever. If you are healthy, but you are taking care of your sick child, you have to wear facemask as well in order to avoid you getting infection from him.

NO if you are healthy. Do not bulk buy facemask even though you are healthy. Remember that the frontliners need more mask than you do.

Is there any cure for COVID-19?

Unfortunately, up until today, there is no medicine or vaccine for this virus. Still, scientists all over the world are trying to their best to find the correct cure for this disease.

While they are doing that, as a parent, please keep your family clean and healthy by doing these:

1. Wash the hands frequently.
2. Sneeze or cough into the elbow.
3. Avoid contact with a lot of people, especially those who are sick.
4. STAY AT HOME!

How do Doctors conduct the test for COVID-19?

Nose swab and throat swab are two of the main COVID-19 tests. The doctor will use two swabs (one for the nose and one for the throat), to get a mucus sample from both areas.

Then, the sample will be delivered to the lab to get your result. This is how the nose swab is done.

Well, personally, I don’t think I want to go through that. So my advise for everyone, let us do our part by just staying at home shall we?

While you are at home, here are the things that you can do to make sure your child is still learning (and have fun) even though he cannot be at the school during time like this.

• Stay in touch with your child’s school/teacher.
  

Currently, many schools are offering online learning. Review the assignments from the school and set up a conducive room or table for your children to study.

Parents may assist them in how to use the devices, reading instructions, and asking questions. You may as well inform the school or the teacher if you are having technology or connectivity issues. The teachers are willing to help as everyone has different living conditions.

• Create a schedule and study routine, but remain flexible.

Make sure the children have consistent bedtimes everyday, excluding weekends. In a day, allocate 2-3 hours learning time with 5-10 minutes break. And then prepare a healthy meal or snacks while your children is study. You can even get them to do some simple exercises during the 5-10 minutes break in order to loosen up their stiff muscles.

• Create a fun and interesting activities with the children!
  

This is the time where everyone can spend more quality time with the entire family. If you have young kids or infants, try various hands-on activities such as a puzzle, board games, painting, and others. You can even go for some traditional activities such as congkak, teng teng, batu seremban and gasing!

To make it even more interesting (and memorable),write done the activities in a journal or scrapbook with your child. This can enhance their creativity as well.

• A handwritten letter.

Aside from that, get everyone in the household to write down a hand written letter for each family members. Anything will do. This activity can help to practice everyone’s handwriting, vocabularies, and grammatical skills. In away, those letters can enhance the bond between your family.

Let us stay calm at home and seize this opportunity to create more memorable moments with our family. Stay at home and stay safe!