Covid-positive mother can feed baby with precaution: Pediatrician

Jammu: Dr Sachit Sharma, Senior Resident Pediatric Doctor at Shri Maharaja Gulab Singh(SMGS) Hospital Wednesday said that Covid-positive mother can feed her milk to baby, by taking certain precautions.
Dr Sachit said that if a lactating mother is Covid-positive, she can feed her milk to child. ‘She should wear a mask and collect the milk in a bowl. The same milk can be fed to the child with a spoon, by another healthy member of the family’, he advised. He also advised that such a mother should keep distance between her bed and the baby’s cot.
However, he warned that the Covid infection may cause Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) which is usually fatal but curable with timely intervention.
Dr Sachit requested parents to teach hand-wash and wearing mask to all children above the age of 2. He also suggested that the parents need to refrain from entertaining guests and relatives during the pandemic.
‘If a child displays symptoms of Covid, immediately consult a doctor, through phone or eSanjeevani telemedicine facility. Get the child tested for Covid and treated accordingly’, advised Dr Sachit.
Dr Pallavi Sharma, Lecturer SMGS Hospital Jammu said that multiple members among families are being tested Covid positive. ‘Due to carelessness and nonchalance towards Covid appropriate behaviour, many such patients are infecting young children in their families’, she said with concern. ‘It is disheartening to see some families ignoring Covid symptoms in their young ones. In kids, the symptoms usually appear as fever, redness of eyes and loose stools’.
Dr Pallavi requested parents and other adult family members to keep close eye on children and immediately get them tested for Covid, if they show any symptoms. ‘Fever, redness of eyes and passage of loose stools are among the major symptoms being observed in kids’, she says.
‘Families must adopt Covid appropriate behaviour whole-heartedly so that the young generation is saved. It is usually the adults who venture out of the house and it is them who could bring home the infection’, informs Dr Pallavi. She also warned that the suspected third wave of Covid is expected to attack the young age group and said, ‘since they are the ones not-vaccinated, they could be an easy prey to the pandemic’.
She further requested parents to inculcate the habit of frequent hand wash and wearing of mask in their children. ‘We have to teach our kids Covid appropriate behaviour and ensure that it becomes their habit. The fight against Covid has to be a united effort of all age groups and sections of the society’, she concluded.