Questions about the Covid-19 vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11

“My mommy and my papi mentioned that it’s going to assist maintain me, my mates, my neighbors, my abuela all wholesome,” Rosita tells CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the sixth city corridor co-hosted by CNN and Sesame Road’s Huge Hen and mates.

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“Your mother and father are completely proper,” Gupta tells Rosita. “Covid vaccines are actually out there for youngsters 5 years and older and the extra individuals who get them, the higher we’re going to have the ability to assist cease the unfold of Covid and maintain everybody wholesome.”

Will it damage?

Ouch. “By far the No. 1 factor that I hear is, ‘I do not need this to harm. How unhealthy is it going to harm?'” pediatrician and youngster growth knowledgeable Dr. David Hill told CNN last month.

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“I by no means deceive youngsters. I by no means inform them it is not going to harm in any respect otherwise you’re not going to really feel it, as a result of it is simply not true,” mentioned Hill, who’s a co-host on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ flagship podcast, “Pediatrics on Name.”

Mother and father are sure to listen to this query earlier than they get into the automobile to go get the vaccine, and Hill has some prepared recommendation:

“You need to be trustworthy. You need to say, ‘You recognize what, it will damage just a bit bit, however it’s not going to harm as unhealthy as another issues that occur to you on a regular basis — like falling down while you’re operating or stubbing your toe.'”

Can you retain it from hurting?

Being informed it’s going to damage — even only a bit — may nonetheless be alarming for some youngsters, particularly those that are hesitant about needles. There are issues mother and father (and well being care practitioners) can just do earlier than and through the shot that may assist, Hill mentioned.

Give the kid a way of management. Speak with the kid about what they’ll do, reminiscent of deciding the place they wish to obtain the shot.

“You wish to play baseball and also you’re right-handed, proper? Perhaps you need to have the shot in your left arm as a substitute of your proper,” Hill mentioned.

Kelly Foy and Pat McLarney, who’re each youngster life training specialists at Connecticut Youngsters’s Medical Heart, told CNN in a prior interview that youthful kids may profit from advance role-playing, by administering vaccines to stuffed animals or dolls earlier than their shot. Older kids may write an inventory of questions for the nurse and physician, they mentioned.

Use distraction and calming strategies. Hill suggests speaking to kids upfront about how they’ll use respiratory and distraction strategies to cut back their deal with the shot.

He suggests asking your youngster: “‘Have you learnt that should you take a breath and blow out actually slowly issues damage much less? In addition they damage much less should you’re singing or should you’re holding my hand.’

“When you can reassure kids that sure, you are going to have management, and sure, it will damage somewhat, however we’re going that will help you maintain it from hurting as a lot as you assume, these issues might be very useful,” Hill mentioned.

A toddler may additionally maintain some ice to their arm to numb it simply earlier than the shot, Foy and McLarney prompt. (Purchase an on the spot cold-pack to make use of or verify together with your pediatrician upfront to see if they’ll refrigerate one.)

Pop-it toys, fidget spinners, bubble wrap, squeeze balls, even vibrating toys can be nice distractions, they mentioned. Older kids might profit from making a playlist of songs to take heed to, taking part in a online game, or cuing up a distracting video to observe.

Play a enjoyable exercise to do after. Youngsters get enthusiastic about household outings, visits to their favourite locations and play dates, consultants say. So plan one thing enjoyable they’ll look ahead to.

Optimistic attitudes are key

Getting vaccinated is a optimistic factor, and fogeys ought to emphasize the advantages, consultants stress, reminiscent of extra play dates with mates and seeing family or household mates who’ve been off limits on account of age or immune standing.

Being upbeat about all the benefits of the vacciine will help your child, experts say.

“Get collectively, masks off, give grandparents or whoever a hug … you get everybody vaccinated and that is precisely the situation that may kind of play out,” Gupta informed CNN anchor John Berman on CNN’s New Day this week.

“The information has been actually compelling. We knew how good the vaccines have been from the preliminary information: They scale back the probability of an infection 11.5 instances and scale back the probability of getting severely unwell 20 instances. They don’t seem to be good. They’re actually, actually good,” Gupta mentioned.

So far as youngsters are involved, this is only one extra shot identical to all of the others they get, Hill confused.

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“How they react goes to be very largely — if not fully — depending on how the adults of their lives body the expertise,” he mentioned.

“If we’re expressing concern, skepticism or fear, they’re completely going to choose up on that. If we’re expressing confidence and aid, they are going to decide up on that as effectively. And kids are all the time listening, even after we assume they are not,” he added.

Mixing Covid-19 and flu vaccine

Many mother and father need to know if they’ll get their youngster immunized from the flu on the similar time they’re receiving the Covid-19 vaccine.

“The reply is sure,” Gupta informed Berman. Actually, he mentioned, pediatricians usually encourage getting a number of vaccines on the identical day.

“It is simpler that means — you do not have to maintain bringing the kid again,” Gupta mentioned. “They will have a sore arm for a few days, however get each pictures. It might be a worst flu season this 12 months.”

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If given on the similar time, the vaccines can be given in a unique injection website — for instance, within the different arm, or in two totally different locations on the leg, CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen told CNN this week.

Wen confused that even wholesome kids have to get the Covid-19 vaccine as quickly as doable.

“About one-third of the youngsters who’ve been hospitalized from Covid-19 are these with no underlying well being circumstances. Wholesome kids can develop into very sick from coronavirus,” she mentioned.

Unintended effects

Talking of sore arms, what different uncomfortable side effects ought to mother and father search for from the Covid-19 vaccine?

The vaccine trials performed on hundreds of children age 5 to 11 present very related uncomfortable side effects to these in adults, but were often milder, mentioned Wen, who’s the writer of a brand new e book, “Lifelines: A Physician’s Journey within the Struggle for Public Well being,” and the mom of two younger youngsters.

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“The most typical uncomfortable side effects are soreness on the injection website, fatigue and headache,” Wen mentioned. “Some kids can expertise fever and chills. All of those uncomfortable side effects subside inside a few days. Actually, the dangers of those uncomfortable side effects have been decrease within the youthful youngsters than in adults — most likely due to the decrease dose.”

The licensed dosage for ages 5 to 11 is 10 micrograms, or one-third the 30 microgram dose given to adults and children age 12 and older.

“Some mother and father could also be fearful about long-term uncomfortable side effects,” Wen added. “There isn’t any scientific cause to assume that this is able to occur. Unintended effects from different immunizations happen throughout the first two or three weeks following the pictures, not months afterward.”

One security concern has been the chance of myocarditis, an irritation of the guts muscle, and pericarditis, the irritation across the coronary heart, which has appeared sometimes in youthful adults who obtained the vaccine.

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The scientific trials on ages 5 to 11 have been cautious to trace any responses that could be warning indicators and noticed no circumstances of myocarditis within the kids’s trial, mentioned Dr. Emanuel “Chip” Walter Jr., chief medical officer of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute and professor of pediatrics on the Duke College of Drugs in Durham, North Carolina, who led one of many trials.

“If a toddler complained of any ache, chest ache, or shortness of breath, households have been instantly known as and kids have been evaluated. So it was examined fairly carefully within the trial, and there have been no circumstances,” Walter told CNN in late October.

Can kids with meals allergy symptoms get vaccinated?

There is not any cause to keep away from the Covid-19 vaccine in case your youngster has a typical meals allergy, Wen confused.

“The Covid-19 vaccines don’t include egg merchandise, as another vaccines do. In case your youngster has a meals allergy or had a response to a different vaccine previously, that’s not a cause to chorus from the Covid-19 vaccine,” she mentioned.

Nevertheless, do verify together with your physician in case your youngster has had a previous response to a vaccine or injectable remedy for one more illness, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised.

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“Your physician will make it easier to resolve whether it is secure so that you can get vaccinated,” the CDC wrote.

Total, the one cause to not get this vaccine, in keeping with the CDC, is that if the kid has a extreme allergic response to one in all its parts — PEG or polysorbate.

“PEG is an ingredient within the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna), and polysorbate is an ingredient within the J&J/Janssen vaccine,” the CDC states.

When is my youngster totally vaccinated?

Similar to with adults, a toddler is taken into account totally vaccinated two weeks after the second injection. At this level, there isn’t a means for youngsters to be totally vaccinated by Thanksgiving or Hanukkah, consultants say. Due to this fact all precautions, together with masking and social distancing from high-risk members of the family, ought to be adopted.

So long as the primary shot is run by November 19, a toddler can have full safety for Christmas, Kwanzaa and end-of-year gatherings.

CNN’s Madeline Holcombe, Katie Hurley and Faye Chiu contributed to this story.

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