The latest Children's hospital Admission Figures show alarming numbers of children being admitted per day in England.
One family share their story. "they asked if we’d been to Italy (we hadn’t) and sent us home"
Parents from the Long Covid Kids support group hope that sharing their stories will enable other parents to make informed decisions.
Children can get Coronavirus.
Children can be asymptomatic and infectious.
Children can get mild or severe initial symptoms of Coronavirus.
Children can get Long Covid and be left with disabling symptoms.
"Our, now, 6 year old Son, Thomas, fell ill in February this year.
We took him to A&E on 28th February where they assessed him, asked if we’d been to Italy (we hadn’t) and sent us home.
This is when everything began.
Very high fevers 40+.
Achey legs, arms, neck and back.
Enlarged glands.
His fever has been flaring up every 2-3 weeks since February but his aches are most days.
He was admitted to hospital in July by blue light ambulance for 5 days where they ran every test possible and everything came back normal apart from his inflammation markers (CRP) being high and he was showing that he had the Covid antibody, so he’s had the virus.
We had a 9 page discharge report of all the tests!
He was then referred to a paediatric consultant shortly after at North Manchester Hospital who was baffled by him.
He was then referred to The Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, to a rheumatologist who just 8 weeks ago diagnosed him with Familial Mediterranean Fever and prescribed Colchicine.
After our follow up appointment last week, we met with the rheumatologist and two paediatric immunologists, he’s now formally been given the “likely” diagnosis of Long Covid.
Thomas is the first child they’ve seen with symptoms lasting so long and the first child they’ve given this diagnosis to.
Even with aches, in between flare ups of his fever, he’s bouncing around like any normal 6 year old as I think he’s just learning to live with it and then almost like clockwork 2-3 weeks later, his fever hits and he’s poorly for 1-2 days.
He’s still attending school and the school have been informed of everything incase he spikes a fever and they panic about infection."
If your child experiences any symptom of unwell, it COULD be Covid-19, and your child should be tested. Please see our frequently asked questions page for more info.
LongCovidKids.org is a parent and patient-led campaign & support group for parents of children with Long Covid. Our story started with a short film on long-lasting symptoms of Covid in children & we are working on The Long Covid Kids Study with PeopleWith