KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Winter weather often means we’re indoors and in close quarters which can make it easier to spread germs.
A. Gabriel Schifman, D.O., a pediatric emergency medicine specialist from Overland Park Regional Medical Center, offered some advice before holiday get-togethers with potentially sick relatives.
“Usually they say three feet is the contagion zone so if you’ve got a 2-year-old kid or toddler who is then coming home and kissing on the infant, it is best to keep them separate,” he said. “Different rooms or at least three feet away then.”
From sledding mishaps to respiratory infections, Schifman says his emergency room has been busy.
“The season is very early so even though winter is not here yet, we are feeling it now and I think we’re going to have a very long season of colds and viruses,” he said.
He is also seeing a lot of cases of RSV, a type of common cold that can hit the youngest of us the hardest and can send infants to the hospital. Schifman listed symptoms that should alert parents to bring their child in.
“With RSV, especially the younger ones, they may have difficulty breathing. So if any kid is looking like they’re struggling to breathe, if their respiratory rate is over sixty breaths per minute and you can tell that if they’re belly is going u p faster than the second hand ticking on their watch, that is too fast. If they have any color change to blue or purple to their face, if they look distressed, those are definitely concerns that they have to be seen emergently,” he said.
When you find your child with a higher than usual temperature, Schifman said the duration of that temperature can be more important than the number on the thermometer.
“It’s how long the fever goes that’s more concerning. Most viruses last five to seven days,” he said.
If a fever is lasting more than five days, he recommends seeking medical treatment.
And then its what happens outside in the ice and snow that can spark a trip to the hospital.
“Be cautious of the ground underneath you, wearing protective shoes, boots with good tread, salting the drives, that helps prevent those slips and falls,” said Schifman. He added that parents should look for anything out of the ordinary to decide if an injury is serious enough to need medical treatment..
“If they think something is not normal, if something looks more severe than what they’re comfortable with, if they’re concerned, they should come,” he said.
“If there is, in terms of head injuries, any loss of consciousness, not acting appropriately so they have an altered mental state, or they’re having persistent vomiting, all those are concerns for head injury and those should be seen,” he said.
