Take your child for healthcare visits during COVID-19

Due to recent events, our lives are different and routines are interrupted; however, I would highly encourage families to maintain their child’s immunization schedule. We usually call this procedure taking our infant for a checkup and their “baby shots.” Infants and children could be at risk for several communicable diseases if parents do not visit their healthcare provider and continue the series of recommended childhood immunizations. Your pediatric office is continuing to provide well child appointments for routine vaccines to keep your baby healthy. In fact, this week, April 25 through May 2, is National Infant Immunization Week.

Families certainly may be concerned about how to balance guarding their family against the spread of COVID-19 while still protecting their baby against preventable illnesses such as measles, mumps and chicken pox. Your doctor’s office is taking extra precautions, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, to provide a safe and clean environment for you to bring your children for their shots. It is likely you will wait in your car until your turn to enter the facility. Many offices choose to see well children in the morning and sick children with colds, ear infections and sore throats in the afternoon. Other offices have always had separate “sick” and ‘well” waiting room areas to prevent the potential spread of infection. Before parents get an appointment, most offices screen all children by phone for signs of COVID-19. Many pediatric offices are checking everyone who enters the office — whether child, parent, or caregiver — for fever, as suggested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics.