Dr. Nihar Parekh | Covid and Kids, Symptoms, Must do's & Breastfeeding

0:00 until now we were as parents of course very very anxious but the anxiety was restricted to keeping our kids busy and taking care of ourselves because we thought that our kids were safe now the tables have turned and we know that our kids are at a far higher risk or probably as much of a risk as us and therefore it becomes an even more anxious moment for us as parents and that's exactly what we're going to

0:28 discuss with dr nihar parek today was very um been very very generous and taken out time of his busy schedule to be with us today and share all the anxieties of all of us as parents and chat with us today about kovid and kids about breastfeeding moms and what should their protocol be and of course more importantly how do we really take care of what's ahead of us and of course address all the anxieties and questions

0:55 that we as parents have hello doctor hi how are you you seem to extremely in demand and your video seems to have crossed like a a lot of views what made you really get out there and say i need to talk about back started all like a month ago a month ago when uh we kind of realized that we were sitting seeing a lot of kids with fever but all their patterns were very similar all the

1:21 patterns were very similar in the form of having fever for two to three days a very similar on clinical examination of speculated small blood spots on the throat uh non-specific symptoms of vomiting and non-specific symptoms of stomachache and cramps and rashes and because of the panic a lot of parents said you know doc we'll just test and we just some we recommend it because we wanted to make sure that it was encoded and we want to make sure we

1:48 understand the pattern of what's going on so last month in the first five days we were averaging 10 20 25 kids a day turning positive so i'm like look there what the hell is happening here you know there's some problem we need to figure out what the cause is and we need to study this disease because till now the disease hadn't been studied in kids till now we didn't know for sure what's going to happen because

2:12 it was the first time the kids were actually getting infected and turning tested the whole myth and pride of kids only being carriers was actually kind of turning tables and now we were the kids were at the receiving end of this particular disease so the goal was to find out and then every day every day complaints complaints high grade fever high grade fever high grade fever and to the extent in 15 days we asked the parents not to test because we

2:39 realized that the kids we diagnosed 15 days ago were hail and hearty in five to seven days so the whole concept of testing isolating and treating was the same but because of the isolating factor being very different in kids we started thinking look there is a lot of panic we need to set out some set protocols that we need to tell the parents to reduce the panic the goal has always been to reduce the panic now i

3:08 i want to take this opportunity here you know to get on a very important statement uh i i kind of made that video and you know i'm very glad that a lot of people saw it i'm very glad that a lot of people kind of understood it and it reduced their panics the panic because we got feedback that you know what we are happy now we know what to expect and what not to expect from that on i've

3:32 been trying to talk to as many platforms as i can the goal of talking to so many parents and through your lovely platform the reach is so high you know i'm never been in instagram until i put this video i put some one odd picture with my wife like a year ago and then one covered video like you know when it started but then i you know i said let me take this opportunity try it out and

3:56 then i saw the power of social media especially platforms like yours which the reach is so phenomenal that then and then on i decided i'm going to go and kind of hopefully be able to speak to so many mothers in the next 10 days only to request one thing yes to reduce the panic obviously second is to understand that this next seven to ten days or fourteen days and you know what it got reiterated last night when without hakra

4:26 spoke that we are going to have a sort of lockdown for the next 14 days now i want to convey that same thing that he's not spoken about children nobody speaks about children nobody speaks about what to do what's not to do otherwise there are no hospital beds for adults what what happens if kids require hospitalization i'm going to use this platform today that he spoke about exactly what was in my head called break the chain but i want to add break the

4:51 chain in kids too i want to add that platform or break the chain in kids too absolutely and i i must add this anecdote about um you know using a platform as powerful as this and it's one of the reasons why i started kickstarter so i would go my pediatrician is doctor about second i would go to him each time and go with a long list of questions and he actually came up with so many questions why didn't you just

5:14 convert to a platform so i don't need to correct correct correct correct correct exactly i mean he's really the brainchild behind this and i keep hanging in for it because this really really will help break a lot of myths um my next question to you is that it's contracting the virus as an india phenom or do you think it's a global phenomenon i mean have you seen or studied the thing is there are two reasons for this to happen the two

5:40 reasons a we did get lags we did kind of let loose in the month of uh december jan when things were better the kids were too cooked up inside parents were fried cases are less and we've not heard of anything in kids you know let's at least let the kids go down and play it cleats you know kind of let's kind of little loosen out on the rules that we have mask on all times the kids nothing

6:05 happens let them go down let them go down so that's how it started and that's how it started three months ago in the united kingdom three months ago in brazil in south i think south america south africa sorry so these things kids started getting very very very infected so they started getting the disease they started turning positive two reasons one laxity and second which our government is still working on and i think we will not admit to it but i'm pretty sure the

6:31 virus has mutated so the new mutated virus has two different strains and these strains are much more aggressive than what it was before these strains are causing younger adults to get the infection these strains are causing the infection spread to be quicker these mutations are causing the severity of the disease becoming more and lastly these mutated strains are causing infection in kids this was seen

7:02 in uk southern south africa brazil and now it's here last one month so laxity of parents not to blame them and query mutation of the viral strain also doctor if you can walk us through the typical symptoms that you are seeing and correct when does one press the alarm bell and say okay this could be different i'm going to start the other way down okay do not ever press the alarm bell when it comes to kate let me

7:28 reassure you as of now at no point no matter how sick your child is you do not need to press the panic button that is a guarantee that i'm giving you as of now uh second what symptoms to look at okay let's start with making simple protocols that if your kid is above one and a half if your child is above one and a half to two years of age and he or she gets fever isolate period put the mask on take it

7:52 as covered as of now if give fever medicines for two days what you normally do confident parents confident mothers you know favor why not just i'm not asking you to change that i'm only asking you to mask out that's all very difficult to isolate children kids under two years cannot wear a mask above two years request them try as much as possible so your kid gets fever mask up try and keep your grandparents or caretakers who are above 55 and 60 away

8:23 from the kids they can hold on to their affection for a few days no hugging no kissing maybe separate room if possible because they are the ones who stand to lose the maximum so that stays away second one day of fever medication secondly talk to your pediatrician he or she will tell you you know what give it another day let's see there are no associated symptoms the fever is kind of being under control with your medications

8:46 if the fever doesn't go in 48 hours see your pediatrician the pediatrician is going to assess clinically you cannot assess because this is a multi-systemic disease it affects every organ it can present with anything 60 of the kids present with fever the other 40 percent can present with anything from head to toe rashes red eyes lots of smell lots of taste earring difficulty in swallowing swelling up of fingers rashes on the body stomach ache cramps vomiting nausea

9:16 loss of appetite severe headaches severe body ache it presents with anything and everything so very difficult to kind of sit at home and try and figure out if this can be covered so it's very simple it has fever your child has fever mask up try and isolate follow the norms step up your hygiene protocol step up your sanitation protocols talk to your doctor doctor says keep giving fever meds 48 hours go see your doctor now the doctor the

9:42 pediatrician because of the last one months experience is going to be very very confident in telling you on clinical examination itself look this looks like code okay let's be patient you know they have we have a ways in which we examine the throat looking at the overall demeanor of the child the patterns of fever the severities of fever and query history of travel or exposure but that's also become very funny now because whichever parent i say that there is a

10:11 possibility of the first reaction is doc we've not stepped out in 10 days we've not stepped out in a month and i don't blame them the funny part is and i just read an article right now before this interview that isolation does not prevent or help in the second wave because now now it's a pandemic i wouldn't go as far as to call it airborne but it's impossible to figure out the source and the contact tracing would

10:40 used to be in the first wave now second wave it's just everywhere so whether you've stepped out whether you've not stepped out you're not there you're not you know this is hard right because like i started with my introduction that until it was with me as a parent i was okay now whenever who um comes to somebody that i love more than me it's so much harder um it is hard yeah i must also ask you because we've been

11:11 asked this question repeatedly and new york times article on this vaccinated moms who breastfeeding moms have been vaccinated um can they feed yes they can they should get vaccinated and they can feed it's called passive transmission of immunity in fact it's better for their child who's being fed because you're giving antibodies to your child the iggs the igas they all go through the breast milk so please take your shot and keep feeding in fact we go to the other level

11:38 and say that even if the mother is positive and is not that badly symptomatic wear a double mask and feel please feel it was my which was actually my next question that as a mother nursing my child and i am positive is it okay to feel and you're saying that's fine yes yes yes there are there are ways in which you decide so this is what we do uh i'm going to try and uh tell you uh a

12:01 hypothetical situation let's start with the mother and father being positive which was a more common phenomena in the first wave and the second the child being okay so we used to say that whenever a parent is infected or both the parents are infected decide before this as of now in case the mother or father gets infected who's going to be the primary caretaker of the child who's going to take responsibility now if it's the child is less than two

12:26 years obviously it's going to be the mother uh you know we are not favorites of kids less than two years of age as dance so the mother is going to take responsibility she's going to wear masks and be around with the child sanitation hygiene if the child is more than three years of age the father can step up in case the mother is infected if both are infected the kid is above three years of age ask the parent of the lesser symptom

12:50 to take care of the parent of the child whichever parent has the lesser symptoms can take care of the child right so that's the proto but at no cost will the grandparents ever take responsibility of the child now tables have turned in the second wave the kids are turning positive so now what no one's positive the kids positive everyone's shaken up how did the kid get positive yeah he went down 10 year old going down hugging and

13:14 kissing his friend met after a long time running around playing with mask down absolutely normal i mean that's what you want kids to play like so now they're turning positive parents are wondering now what again even if the child is positive the parent one parent takes the responsibility like i said initially the grandparents back out one parent decide it's not a risk but yes it's comparatively risky and i will their mask and take care of the little

13:43 one till he or she doesn't recover i know you said wear a mask and take care but do you feel you know kids at least 10 years you can possibly isolate them but the three-year-old if the parents have any co-morbidities because they don't have so the parent with lesser co-morbidities lesser at risk you should step up and do because you cannot isolate the child we don't recommend isolation hence there is a big question mark whether you should

14:09 test the child because what happens in a city if the child comes positive right there are organizations municipalities involved rightly so we have no clue what to do if the child is infected they will put a uh sort of a paper outside saying that there's a case in this house but they can't take the child to an isolation ward they can't insist the child gets isolated in a room because it's not possible so we haven't the

14:30 municipality again have not set rules i'm i don't even think they are aware i see it flashing in the news but i don't think they're aware that kids are falling sick as well so they so it is protocols which the pediatrician has to convey again entirely we do encourage testing but now because of no set protocols from municipality we encourage not to test as of now but take a risk of it and do what we just discussed if the kid

14:58 has clever in case the grandparents are vaccinated can they take responsibility of the child let's start with this first vaccine 15 10 immunity as good as nothing second vaccine if taken after four weeks four to six weeks takes another three weeks to reach 75 percent which is what kobe shield and covax include so if yes if all those factors are matching then they can again if they were my grandparents and i had a child

15:29 we've seen real bad situations in elderly so i would still not advocate if possible right no i think that's absolutely um absolutely valid because i mean at the end of the day we're the parents right so i think and we are at a far immunity lesser risk yes yes what about kids are there lesser risk this time all right so i'll tell you one thing it takes a significant disease in any adult and by significant i mean

15:59 five to seven days of fever a little bit of suffering maybe a little chest involvement whether hospitalized or no is secondary it takes that much of a disease to develop antibodies against the disease so if you say that okay i tested my kid three maybe three months ago he had a one day fever it came positive but then he was okay that is not a significant enough disease to develop immunity in your child so i would

16:26 you know be strong go out and say that look no no protection so far right about isolation and anxiety related symptoms right like because up for for a really really long time have you seen uh any bit of anxiety or social behavioral issues in kids leading to you know symptoms of which which you feel could be conflicted or i've seen both the sides we get the mothers with the kids so first i have to listen to the mother of how frustrated

16:57 she is for 15 20 years and then then i have to listen about a child kids under five years old actually they bump around in the house they spend time they have their ipads they have their tvs they have their online thingies and they're done with the days about five to seven is when the constant negativity of kovid news death rates relatives being infected don't do this don't do that the virus is spreading i can't go to work

17:23 it percolates kind of grows and a lot of inherent phobias we have seen inherent kind of paranoias in kids about seven and eight years who still don't want to step down won't touch me won't do this we'll sanitize we're roaming around with sanitizers everywhere so we're seeing that now what we do is this condition has been unprecedented nobody has ever planned or kind of figured that this could reach this particular point so whenever it hit us

17:54 we were also hit hard so we ourselves were scared and that same paranoia and fear is now unfortunately has been passed on to our children mainly about seven to eight years of age what you need to do is don't scare them we've seen patients we've seen kids come in and say you know i'm having this and they they're turning into kind of hypochondriacs now kind of relating every symptom they have or what their parents have spoken about or this is

18:17 also possible that is also possible so stop the fear don't talk about kogud all the time in front of your children and structure the day so well that from the time they wake up till the time they sleep they don't have time they don't have time to think and talk yes i'm saying you spend quality time but structure they dare well so that their mind doesn't have time to kind of cook and grow fears and phobias and

18:44 where their day starts and where the day ends they don't realize easier said than done but then from the experience of teenage children that we are having who are in tremendous amount of phobias plus the insecurities of education and exams no exams and sitting at home doing classes which is not the same it's not helping so two just two pointers don't talk about covert all the time if you're scared don't express it in front of your children too much so that

19:12 it scares them because they think about it and cook it for a longer period of time and then it explodes at a later date and three have a well-planned structured day for your child kids less than two or three should the parents step out for vaccination regular vaccination or they can post do not hesitate to go to your pediatrician's office if the child is sick or for regular vaccinations regular vaccinations are the key to preventing complexities of the

19:36 disease even if he gets covered he's the kobe is not going to bother children but the immunity drops the other diseases which are preventable diseases by the regular vaccines yeah we'll make it worse please follow the schedule as much as possible right um dr another very important question when you mentioned about teenage children you know there is a huge uh black hole for parents whose kids are between 10 and 16 because the period kind of moved off

20:04 them and you're done kids less than 16 and yeah they don't know what to do like who do they consult so any any go go to your pediatrician your pediatrician will be more than your pediatrician will be more than happy to take your child under 16 and will keep constantly reminding you that till your daughter or son gets married i will be there so don't worry as long as you are invited right and of course um my second last

20:34 question i want to ask last but the second last question you know supplementing foods right of course the regular diets and all of that is great and we're all trying to do all of that happy my question is right supplementation and are we over supplementing yes so i'll tell you what i mean the commonest use terminology for this is how do i build my child's immunity right immunity is the most spoken about word right now abuse and yes yes

21:05 so let's start by saying primarily the best way to avoid the disease is don't step up let's break the chain i'm going to reiterate it i'm going to drain it into the parents brains that please for the next seven ten days no tennis no football no going down in the compound only two places either you go to your doctor or you take your car if allowed you take your child out for a drive once in a while and that's pretty much it in

21:27 a closed environment for the next place i beg and plead for the next seven ten days just hold on because kids it's really it's not a joke anymore kids are really getting it as of now they're recovering well recovering very well and i keep mentioning as of now because i don't know what's going to happen a month down the road so again stay indoors for the next seven ten days number two a well-rounded diet to build immunity what the kid needs is

21:54 the right amount of carbs proteins junk up but there's healthy junk so let them no problem make your pav bhajis make your pizzas make your stuff whatever you make switch to healthier options in the content so that it's a well-rounded diet and number three do your vitamins the only three main vitamins which are known to help and kind of i wouldn't say prevent because there's nothing that prevents the virus from entering the body but yes your child if it's well stocked up on

22:21 these certain levels in the blood of vitamin c d and zinc it can reduce the manifestations of the disease it can reduce the symptomatology of the disease the severity of the symptoms and the length of the disease all three can reduce vitamin d vitamin c and zinc so do your so do your booster courses of vitamin ds because you need them anywhere kids are not getting sunlight so they're all dropping i can say around very confidently the 75 to 80 percent if

22:52 you test their levels they're going to be less than 10 which is less than the normal required range for normal functioning of immunity system so do you boost the doses of sachets your pediatrician will tell you what are the dosage because don't overdose there are situations and conditions called hyper vitamin d hypervitaminosis c which can do more harm than good vitamin c again above 10 years is the regular adult dose of one gram per day between

23:18 i would say 3 and 10 is 500 mg's which are much higher than their normal rdas but they're known to prevent when you do these you know do it for a while and stop doing foreign's been a month a year and more right i know parents are we over supplement yes yes a lot of parents are hello yeah a lot of parents are a lot of parents are so what we do is tell them okay do two months take a break for a

23:44 month do two months take a break for a month if you know you've traveled do it again you know you want to build up the immunity if you know that you've been kind of exposed or there's been people around cases increasing again start again stop so keep it but keep talking to your doctor because what happens is you know people have started talking to neighbors and treating kids on their own even they've started azythromycin it's become the new

24:05 wonder drug start ac start as you start as here nobody even knows what as he is and when is it given don't become doctors don't use google as the primary point of reference don't use your neighbors and friends chats as your primary points start it starts that start this talk to your doctor they're always there to help you so it's not urgent so don't call them they are over but you can always leave a text and they will reply back and look you

24:28 know start this and take it for a month or two and let's go easy but again vitamin d vitamin c and zinc dr last bit um i know we've spoken everything about the kids um but i know you're a parent as well how are you addressing the anxious parent and how are you addressing your anxiety as a parent as well so you know my anxiety in the last one and a half has been coming home and meeting my kids because

24:57 when i see kids every day even though we are all using protective gear there's a little scare as a father's heart that you know should i hug my children should i wait should i first go for a shower even if what if something's left behind yeah and then to have that guilt if something goes wrong is absolutely miserable so that anxiety as a parent but then again knowing the fact that today the pediatrician for a child is your first

25:29 point of contact is more like a family member yeah it's more with that immense responsibility you can't back off at this stage we can't shut clinics and just turn off our phones at night and say look you know what enough for the day not now not for the next few months this is where we need to step up our game we need to be there for our worried parents we need to guide them through i need to

25:53 use platforms like yours and just tell them look calm down we are there for you nothing's going to happen to your children we are there speak to us but don't come late in the day when you've already spoken to your cousin and relative and self-treated for four days that you can do for yourself but not for your children please don't do that please don't so my teenage kids are extremely supportive my wife is extremely supportive she is very proud at this moment that we

26:18 are able to help in such a situation and they are contributing indirectly so i'm very proud of them as well but it's very difficult when it comes to teenage kids at home to continuously one of them is just entered college and there's no college and she didn't have a 10th grade exam and she's initially it sounded like a dream come true and now she's just going crazy at home so it's not easy but this is the

26:41 time when i tell every parent of a teenager or any child about six years of age you can actually come befriend them befriend them to a level forget being a parent right now sit down talk to them keep talking to keep listening to them because they will communicate the minute they say something you shut them down and say look look no no all this you can't do that no wear them out i know you can't go out i know your friends want to come

27:04 over we will plan but where the risk explain them they're too smart what we understood at the age of 15 their understanding at the age of nine and ten they will understand everything please befriend your child you have an additional member in the house to play with have a blast turn into a child yourself play games you've never played before get your carom boards out get your monopolies out and have a blast with your children trust me they are amazing to be with and

27:30 you will suddenly feel that you know you don't need your friends anymore absolutely and and i completely reckon with you on that because my kids have i think uh all through covet helped in multiple ways uh you know they become my little uh team at kidstockpress right right that's phenomenal they've learned to shoot edit create lots of fun stuff everything and they teach us the next time you need a hand on instagram you can just call any of us at

27:56 kickstarter i'm so new to this but i'm just you know fabergasted by the impact of this media it's very new you know and every time my wife asks me that why are you saying the same thing again and again i'm like no every time they're going to be a new batch of mothers some of them may be there they may be hearing each other two advantages if they've heard me before they're hearing it over and over again

28:18 it drills in drills in drills in so it's called the impact of multiple kind of exposures and the new parents so if those parents spread the word so i really want to break the chain in kids too so i want to work on that i want to help out and thanks to people like you have this opportunity to make it happen perfect thank you so much doctor and like i said next next video out if you

28:38 need a hand with it sure 100 and repeat thank you so much [Music]