Until a certain age is reached, such a precaution can harm rather than protect the baby from the coronavirus.
30 May 2020
It all started with the recommendations of Japanese pediatricians: the specialists of the Land of the Rising Sun are alarmed that parents are putting medical masks on small children. According to foreign experts, children under two years of age are categorically prohibited from wearing any masks at all: neither cloth, nor medical, nor homemade, nor respirators. There should be nothing on the face. And all because such a measure makes it difficult for the baby to breathe and can lead to suffocation.
“Children under two years of age have narrow airways,” say Japanese pediatricians. “Therefore, masks can make it difficult for the baby to breathe. We do not recommend wearing masks for children of this age group. “
Difficulty breathing also increases the load on the child’s heart. Masks also increase the likelihood that a child will get heatstroke.
In addition, experts clarified that children are rarely infected with coronavirus when comparing statistics for other age groups. Moreover, they pick up the infection not where masks could save them – in kindergarten, for example, but from other family members.
Therefore, the best way to protect a child under two years old, according to experts, is to protect yourself, wash your hands thoroughly (and teach your child to do this) and avoid crowded places. Better yet, observe self-isolation measures.
Russian pediatricians agree with foreign colleagues on everything except age. The Ministry of Health does not recommend wearing masks for children less than three years old.
“The mask can interfere with normal breathing, make it difficult. The child may not understand that he began to suffocate, and the parents may not notice it in time, – RIA Novosti quotes Daria Akoeva, head of the press service of the National Medical Research Center of Children’s Health of the Ministry of Health of Russia. “This is due to the physiological characteristics of the respiratory system of children of this age, they still do not know how to regulate breathing, like adults.”