Transcription:
Safety Tips for Returning to School

Melanie: Welcome to It's Your Health Radio with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. I'm Melanie Cole. If you're a parent like I am, you know that this coming school year has a little bit of a different lean to it. There's a little bit of a different anxiety, of fear that both we and our children are experiencing. Some kids are going to school online. Some are returning to in-person. And after this whole last year that we've had, we're not quite sure what to expect with this hybrid or with the Delta variant, which is running rampant in some parts of the country.

Joining me today is Dr. Morris Yen. He currently serves as the Chief of Pediatrics at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. Dr. Yen, it's a pleasure to have you join us. You're such a great guest as always. So schools in the Santa Clarita Valley are returning to in-person instruction as they are here in Chicago as well. Tell us a little bit before we get into the school stuff about the Delta variant, where we're seeing it, just what we know about it as of now.

Dr. Morris Yen: So a few things, the Delta variant, it's a mutation of the COVID virus. It's found to be more infectious, so it's more likely to transmit even among kids. There's a myth that it's deadlier, but it's not. It's just more contagious. The good news is that kids for the most part still aren't getting as sick as adults, which is great news. That being said, kids can still catch the virus and they are catching the COVID Delta variant more often. But again, serious complications are much, much less than in adults. But, overall, kids are still doing well and hopefully schools will be able to start in person and on time this year. So I think that's great news.

Melanie: It is. And so last year, there was the stress obviously of the unknown, the scariness, and kids were doing Zoom. They were online. So that wasn't for parents. It might've been a little more frustrating and a little more work for some of us, but it wasn't as scary, right? Now, the in-person stuff starts. And we hear about mask mandates and non-mask mandates and kids that are unvaccinated. What are our children going through right now and our parents that's unprecedented and nothing that any of us have experienced before? Dr. Yen, what have parents been talking to you about?

Dr. Morris Yen: Yeah. So I think there's just an underlying anxiety mainly with the parents, just about the unknown, like is it safe to return to school? What's going to happen if my child catches COVID at school? So there are basic fears like that. And the first thing I would say is that it's okay to be anxious. A lot of kids haven't gone to school for over a year. So, the parents are going to be nervous. The kids are going to have a little bit of nervousness. But the schools have had over a year to prepare. We have safety measures in place to keep kids safe, to keep the teachers safe and keep the staff safe.

In California, masks right now indoors are required. Hopefully, you know, as the Delta variant starts to improve, hopefully that will go away eventually. And then I would add that, like it's still important to wash your hands and to understand that when you go to school, that you still don't want to share drinks, you don't want to share food and you don't want to share school supplies. I mean, just basics like that, I think are a good idea.

Schools are going to look a little different this year. When you go in, there might be screen barriers. You may have desks that are a little bit more separated. And it's best to understand that these are all safety measures to keep everyone safe and it may be a little bit different, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's bad. So I think it's still all a positive that kids can return to school and hopefully this surge will get better.

Melanie: Well, I certainly hope so as well. So what can parents do right now? We're trying to watch the CDC, we're trying to listen to our experts and we're obviously speaking to our pediatricians. What can we do to lessen our anxiety, so it doesn't spill over into our kids?

Dr. Morris Yen: So I think the best thing to do is to communicate with your kids first. Let them know that they haven't been at school for a little while and it's okay to be a little nervous. But the teachers are there. The other students are going to be there, so it's going to be fun to socialize again and see other people face to face.

It's important for parents to let them know that things are going to be a little bit different. People are going to be wearing masks again. And that will be a little bit different. But you know, there's still going to be a lot of fun things to do. You're still going to be able to play outside and play sports and do some of the things that we've been missing in the past year.

And as far as like the main anxieties parents have about like catching the Delta variant, I would say that these precautions are there to protect kids from first catching the variant, but also transmitting the COVID virus as well. So, again, I would try to take a positive spin on it, try to communicate with the kids. And then if you have like anything that really is bothering you, I would recommend calling and talking to your pediatrician. I think that they're a great resource. Pediatricians love to talk to parents. And it's much better to get your answers from a pediatrician, than get it from like a social networking site.

Melanie: You mean like a Facebook meme, right?

Dr. Morris Yen: Yeah, like a Facebook meme.

Melanie: We shouldn't be getting our medical advice from a Facebook meme.

Dr. Morris Yen: I agree with that completely. I think, you know, it's much better to get your medical information and get your anxiety relief from a pediatrician than from a Facebook meme.

Melanie: No kidding, right? So now, what red flags, Dr. Yen, should we recognize if our kids are nervous? I mean, I know that I'm nervous, but I know my daughter is nervous. She's going off to college and she is nervous about the variant as vaccinated as she is, but living in a dorm, that whole thing. What do you want us to know about our kids and their anxieties and any red flags that would signal a call to the pediatrician call to the PDX?

Dr. Morris Yen: Yeah. So I think the main thing is you want to look for any changes in behavior in your kids. So like if they're not sleeping well, if they're not eating well, if they're not able to enjoy their normal daily activities, even basic things like watching a favorite television show or, you know, playing on their phone. If you notice that those things are kind of off, then you want to kind of let your pediatrician know that they're having some basic changes in their daily activities and they're not quite themselves. So those are the main things you want to look for.

Obviously, you want to look for any big emotional changes too. So if they seem to be breaking down more, you know, having more crying spells, getting angrier more easily, that also is a red flag as well. And we see that in adults as well with kids. So it's not unusual to expect kids not to have those behaviors because adults have them as well.

Melanie: And if kids are struggling or parents as well, where can we turn to help? I'd like you to really give us the take home message and the most important bits of information you want parents and kids that are struggling with anxiety about the Delta variant and COVID and returning to school and all of the normal things that we have about the anxiety of returning to school and now layering on this pandemic with it. So give us your best advice, Dr. Yen. Help us get through the next few weeks here.

Dr. Morris Yen: Yeah. So I think the first thing you want to do is you want to sit down with your child in a quiet place and talk to them about their fears and even express your own fears. And I actually think the best thing to do is write them down, like write down what you're afraid of, what's making you anxious, what's making you nervous. And then it's important together to go out and get those answers, so talk to your pediatrician, go over all your written questions. And I think it's really important to write them down and write down every single worry and question that you have. And then before school starts, to go over everything and made sure that you're comfortable with the answers and make sure that you're comfortable with your basic anxieties.

And some of your questions or your concerns may seem kind of frivolous and you think aren't that important, but to you they're important, so I think it's still important to write them down and to ask your pediatrician. But I do think that it's important to have a talk with your child and then do it individually and to do it in a quiet place and be open and honest about it.

Melanie: I agree. I mean, it certainly is really all about the communication and we all know our children. So whether they're in elementary school, right? If they're little guys and masks have to be discussed and really COVID safety tips, right? Dr. Yen, we have to sit down even with our seven and eight-year-olds and discuss why this is so important, right?

Dr. Morris Yen: That's so right. And the same thing, like even you're young child, you're elementary school children, you want to sit down with them and you want to go over, like you want to talk about the basics of COVID that this is a disease right now that's going around and it can make some people really sick.

So we're trying to do our best to protect ourselves, but also to protect the people around us. So when we go to school, we want to protect the teachers. We want to protect the staff. And we want to go to school and have a great experience, but we want to have a safe experience. And I think you're going to be surprised, children know a lot and they have great questions and it's important to go over all their questions as well.

Melanie: I agree. Thank you so much, Dr. Yen, for coming on and putting us at ease about back to school and the safety measures in place and really how can we communicate with our kids. Thanks again. And to learn more about COVID-19 vaccines, please visit henrymayo.com and click on the COVID-19 vaccine info link at the top of the page.

That concludes this episode of It's Your Health Radio with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. For more health tips and great information just like this, follow us on your social channels. And parents, if you're anxious like I've been feeling, please share this show with your friends and family, because Dr. Yen reassured me and I'm going to do exactly what he said to do, and he will reassure you too, so share this show. I'm Melanie Cole. Thanks for listening.