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Anyone else have a toddler with post-covid side effects?


Jann in TX
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DH and I are raising our grandson (GS).  He is 2 yrs old and has a speech delay (basically says only a handful of words but mostly mama and dada and NO (repeatedly!).  He can sign some.  Both DH and his Dad were not talkers until after 3.

He tested positive for COVID the first week of January.  He was miserable and ended up going to ER for IV fluids.  Post-COVID he has had a cough every night (that wakes him)-- and occasionally in daytime.  He has not slept through the night since COVID.  He was a good napper-- now IF he naps it is very short.

Over the past two weeks additional symptoms have come up:

His 'COVID' rash has returned-- it comes and goes day and night and is very itchy.

When he wakes up at night or after a nap he is combative-- I guess you could say 'confused'-- nothing seems to sooth him.  He is getting no more than 3 hours of sleep at a time (insomnia?)...so maybe 6 hrs combined at night and maybe a 30 minute nap-- maybe!  He should be exhausted-- we are!

His insurance changed and he currently does not have a primary care Dr-- he has an appointment for a new one in APRIL-- the soonest we could find!  This week we took him to a Pediatric Emergency Dr.  She stopped short of diagnosing him with MIS-C but put him on breathing treatments and a steroid.  His blood ox. has been steady at around 96.  She said he probably has 'reactive airway' (his mom had that as a baby due to RSV so we have experience there)...

This morning he keeps pointing to his knees saying 'owwie'... his knees are a bit chubby so I can't tell if they are swollen.  My mind keeps thinking that this is yet another issue from COVID...hopefully not.

Has anyone BTDT? 

 

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4 minutes ago, Jann in TX said:

This morning he keeps pointing to his knees saying 'owwie'... his knees are a bit chubby so I can't tell if they are swollen. 

You can have it checked out make sure he didn't get hurt of anything, just in case. If you don't want to risk taking him in for nothing make sure he is walking normally. My son's joints hurt when he goes through growth spurts. There is a lot of growth spurts that happen in this age group, both brain and body, and some kids display discomfort due to it.

The sleeping issues would also be normal for kids his age. When my kids go through brain spurts (their brain grows and they acquire new thinking skills - cognitive leaps/brain leap), all sorts of crankiness occurs. For one kid her sleep always regresses for my other kid if anything he sleeps more. Combative when just awake, are you absolutely sure he's actually awake? My son would actually not be awake sometimes, so I would go in and hold him firmly and repeat "I'm here. Did you have a bad dream? I'm right here, everything is OK. You can go back to sleep." You can also tell him where he is, that he was just sleeping, give him information/words that may indicate what might be happening. To reduce exhaustion some couples will define times when each person is going to be "in-charge" of waking and comforting him, so each of you can enjoy less disruptive sleep sometimes.    

I'm not saying it's not COVID or something else related, but just giving you perhaps some normal benign reasons for his behavior. (The rash would be concerning.) 

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18 minutes ago, Jann in TX said:

She stopped short of diagnosing him with MIS-C

This was my thought, so I'm glad she's at least considering that possibility, but also glad she doesn't think that's what he has. Do you know what caused her to rule it out? I don't have any personal experience with it, and have only read up on symptoms because I have a young one below vaccination age and wanted to know what to be aware of. I hope it all resolves very soon.

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43 minutes ago, KSera said:

This was my thought, so I'm glad she's at least considering that possibility, but also glad she doesn't think that's what he has. Do you know what caused her to rule it out? I don't have any personal experience with it, and have only read up on symptoms because I have a young one below vaccination age and wanted to know what to be aware of. I hope it all resolves very soon.

She stopped short of MIS-C because he is not 'bad enough' to be hospitalized and she was hoping he would respond to oral steroids (what hospital would try first anyways).  I'm with the Dr-- I'm concerned but not panicking.  There is just not enough information out there about this stuff!

 

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2 hours ago, KSera said:

This was my thought, so I'm glad she's at least considering that possibility, but also glad she doesn't think that's what he has. Do you know what caused her to rule it out? I don't have any personal experience with it, and have only read up on symptoms because I have a young one below vaccination age and wanted to know what to be aware of. I hope it all resolves very soon.

Case definition from CDC.  Kids with MIS-C are generally very ill.

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Oh no, poor little guy! And poor you!

I have often wondered if the people like Oster who claim that long covid is less of an issue in young kids are just neglecting the fact that kids may not be verbalizing their pain/brain fog/fatigue ...  .the way we are. I remember the days when I would be wondering what crying or an "owiee" meant. I hope we won't realize that there are many subtle and not so subtle long term post-covid issues our young generation will have to deal with in the years to come.

Does your grandson have good comprehension skills? Can you make him follow you do some movements with his legs and knees and tell you owiee if it hurts? I would think it's probably related to his other post-covid symptoms like the rash, but don't know how serious it would be 😞 It really is terrible that it takes months to get an appointment with a new pediatrician/primary care provider in this country!!

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19 minutes ago, Mom_to3 said:

I have often wondered if the people like Oster who claim that long covid is less of an issue in young kids are just neglecting the fact that kids may not be verbalizing their pain/brain fog/fatigue

I think the problem is that Oster is an economist and has no business presenting herself as a Covid expert (but I also agree that what you say is likely also true). 

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