Till last year covid had mild or no effect on kids. They were considered as the carriers of the virus and rarely showed any symptoms. But the case is different in the second wave and the virus is now equally infectious for both children and adults. Children, including newborns, generally develop mild coronavirus symptoms and recover faster as compared to adults. Only in rare cases, kids develop an acute infection but the risk of long covid symptoms remains the same.
What is long COVID?
Mild or moderate Covid lasts about 15 days for most people. At the time of recovery, the symptoms go away slowly. But some people might experience longer health problems for more than 15 days. Long COVID is defined as signs and symptoms that develop during or following coronavirus infection and continue for more than 12 weeks after the period of infection.
Researchers found data of long Covid on the COVID Symptom and identified two main groups. The first one being respiratory, such as a cough and feeling breathless, but also includes fatigue and headaches. The second group of symptoms affects many parts of the body, including the heart, brain and the gut.
Long Covid in Kids:
Kids usually develop mild COVID symptoms like fever, cough, breathlessness, fatigue, sore throat, diarrhoea, loss of smell and loss of taste or remain asymptomatic. But there is little evidence that some kids may develop long COVID, even if they do not show any symptoms after contracting the virus.
Other than this, they may also experience brain fog, muscle aches, pain, gastrointestinal problems, nausea, dizziness, seizures, hallucinations and testicular pain.
Causes of Long Covid:
The real reason why kids might experience symptoms of COVID weeks after the infection is not known yet. More research is being carried to understand the exact cause of long COVID symptoms in kids.
So look after your child’s symptoms.
