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(Meredith) — Doctors are warning parents that it is critical this fall to make sure your child is up to date with their vaccinations, including a flu shot.
Because of the pandemic, it has been a while since some children have seen the doctor.
For many healthy adults that may be OK – but for children, falling behind on routine vaccinations could make them vulnerable any number of illnesses. Add COVID-19 to the mix, and you have a potentially dangerous situation not only for your child, but other children as well.
Dr. Irène Mathieu, a pediatrician at the University of Virginia, stressed the importance of making sure children are properly vaccinated right now.
“We need almost everyone to be vaccinated to prevent certain diseases from reoccurring, such as measles. So, the concern that we have now is that in addition to COVID, we may have the emergence of other deadly diseases that were previously controlled through vaccination [since many kids haven’t gone to the doctor during the pandemic],” Mathieu said. “It’s really scary because we don’t know how these diseases will interact with COVID either, or how they will overwhelm the healthcare system and particularly going into the flu season which already puts a huge strain on the healthcare system every winter.”
Mathieu stressed that getting a flu shot is extra important this year because we don’t know how the body reacts to having both the flu and COVID-19 at the same time. Getting your flu shot can help protect that from happening.
“We really don’t know what happens if you come down with flu and COVID at the same time and if COVID overwhelms the immune system if you add the flu on top of that. It could make this an even deadlier combination,” Mathieu said.
And if you are avoiding a flu shot because you are convinced it will cause you to catch the flu, doctors say that’s just not the case.
“I want people to understand that the flu shot is made with dead flu viruses, so it physically cannot cause the flu,” Mathieu said. “But what it does do, and I hear people say when I ask them more about it, is it does cause a low-grade fever, it can cause some muscle aches and some chills, and you can feel pretty crummy for a day or two after the flu shot. That’s just the body’s immune system reacting the way we actually want it to, making those good antibodies, those soldiers to fight the flu if we actually come into contact with it.”
Outside of vaccinations, Mathieu says the most common mistake she sees parents making is one of the easiest to fix – wearing a mask.
“I think the biggest thing that I see are parents not wearing their masks or not wearing them appropriately,” Mathieu said. “I’ll see parents that have the mask covering their mouth but not their nose, and that’s a problem because it not only exposes them to COVID, which they could then transmit to their children, but it’s also improper modeling of mask wearing to their child. And so if the child doesn’t think that it is a priority, they are not going to wear the mask either.”
Another tip for parents – check with your doctor about the best time to bring your child into the doctor’s office or clinic. Many doctors are scheduling babies and toddlers in the mornings so they aren’t exposed to older children who may be ill.