New Delhi: Gastric issues, headaches, brain fogging, shortness of breath – these are some of the complaints doctors at private hospitals are reporting among children who have battled COVID.
Apart from complaints of MISC (multisystem inflammatory syndrome) in children, experts are also seeing children, who had mild COVID, coming to them with delayed recovery, reported livemint quoting PTI.
Dr Rahul Nagpal, Director, Pediatrics, Fortis Hospital Vasant Kunj told PTI, “Fortunately, children did not have very severe Covid. We got a handful of patients who had congenital heart disease, some kidney disorders, severe asthma or obesity who required hospitalization.”
“Post-Covid we are seeing multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. It happens in 1 to 2% of cases, but that is also a huge number. With proper drugs and identification, it can be cured. Then there are lots of patients with diarrhoea, fatigue, body ache, digestive issues,” he said.
The senior doctor told the news agency that some adolescents are coming with headaches, which might be the start of migraine in them. But it needs to be studied more. Since it has happened after COVID, it is felt that it is because of the infection, but it needs to be investigated. Dr Shuchin Bajaj, founder-director, Ujala Cygnus Group of Hospitals, said that children are facing the issue of brain fogging and are unable to remember what they studied, PTI reported.
“They do not have much energy left, are stressed, anxious. Parents might confuse brain fogging with children trying to make excuses to not study or attend online classes but these are real symptoms,” he was quoted as saying.
Bajaj also said that in children who had severe COVID, symptoms like shortness of breath, developing severe heart rate even while going to the toilet, severe headaches were found. These symptoms were found to be persisting for three to four months,” he added.
Dr Nameet Jerath, Senior Consultant, Pediatric Intensive Care, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi, said most children have had mild COVID, but stressed that even those who were asymptomatic are having prolonged low-grade fevers, weakness, headache even after recovery.
Psychiogical issues
Children are also facing psychological issues because of no social interaction, staying at home due to fear of Covid. I have seen children scared to come to hospitals because they have seen Covid in their families or have lost their grandparents to the virus. They are unduly concerned or are facing a nervous breakdown,” Dr Shyam Kukreja, Director and Head of Department of Pediatrics and Infectious Disease Specialist, Max Hospital was quoted as saying.
