SUSSEX COUNTY, Del.- Chief Of Infectious Disease at Nemours Children's Hospital in Florida Dr. Kenneth Alexander says children have been hit hard by COVID-19 recently.
"Our children's hospitals, our ICUs, our clinics are seeing more children now with COVID than we have ever seen," Dr. Alexander said.
He says long-COVID is a concept that can develop in children after having been infected.
It can be one of three different things: direct injury because of infection like deconditioning or stroke, long-term neurocognitive effects like a brain disease, or mental illnesses like depression or anxiety. One of the common signs to look for is inflammation.
"Sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein are laboratory markers for inflammation," Dr. Alexander said. "We can do a blood count and if your patient or son or daughter has pulmonary symptoms, cough or wheeze, we may do a chest x-ray."
Pediatric Psychologist Dr. Zachary Radcliff says that COVID and especially Omicron are impacting kids' mental health affecting things like motivation and sleep schedule.
"Maybe sleeping for you know eight to ten hours multiple times in a day," Dr. Radcliff said. "This might also be kind of a reversal of night and day."
This also can include changes in appetite, self-care, or not performing in school as well as they used to. It is not just doctors seeing this.
Sussex Academy Head of School Eric Anderson says being back in school full time has proved challenging for students' habits and emotional learning.
"Some of them missed some very crucial years," Anderson said. "For example, we have kids in elementary school and for our second graders it's the first time they've had a normal school year. Third graders, it's the first time since kindergarten. So there's just those social norms that they learn at those ages that are such important formative years that they missed out on."
Anderson says this year is about rebuilding resiliency and endurance.
Many of the parents on the call Thursday night were asking about vaccines.
Doctor Alexander says that it is best for children to get vaccinated even after having COVID-19. He says natural immunity varies among children whereas vaccinated immunity can be tested to find out the amount of antibodies it produces and how long they protect people.