How at risk are asthmatic children of covid?

[toddlerasthma]

Hey everyone! My 2.5 year old son has chronic asthma and we’ve been in isolation in Canada for 3.5 months. We’re considering opening up our bubble (be with more people) but most people we know don’t follow the recommendations for covid safety. I’m wondering how ‘at risk’ should we consider our asthmatic child? He’s been hospitalized most months of his life and can’t handle the common colds ends up on ventilators. (ps I’m part of this forum as it’s the best asthma resource I’ve found so far). Thanks!

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador]

Hi

It’s a difficult one to answer. I think (May be wrong but from why I’ve read 😅) they’re starting to suggest that whilst asthmatics may be more likely to end up with serious complications (intubation etc) if they catch COVID, we aren’t actually that much more likely to catch it than other non-asthmatics. In England atm shielding officially ends at the end of July as the infection rate will have hopefully lowered enough that we’ll be unlikely to meet people with COVID, so less likely to catch it and get the complications if that makes sense 😅. I’m not sure what the advice in Canada is, but assuming you’re in a similar/better situation (cause the UK aren’t exactly placing well on the international scale of things 😅🙈), safety wise if your government is starting to relax restrictions then you can assume the risk level as a whole is reducing.

If you’re thinking of opening your bubble to involve more friends/family, maybe just having a word about why it’s so important to be following the guidelines around your son? I know that the people I have met up with, since the UK shielding rules relaxed slightly, are a lot more cautious around me than they are around non-shielding friends as they are aware how much my asthma impacts me WITHOUT COVID getting involved 😅

I hope this helps, but whatever you decide to do you have to feel happy about it. Shielding is a very personal decision and coming out of shielding is also going to be stressful, so whatever you decide to do (expand bubble or not) it is ok.

Here’s a link to the guidance and advice in the UK, and there are links about children coming out of shielding there too if it’s any use for you;

asthma.org.uk/coronavirus/

Good luck and hope you and yours stay as safe and well as possible

[toddlerasthma in reply to EmmaF91]

Thanks so much this is all so helpful! It’s nice just hearing from others who wrestle with asthma because the empathy is there. I’m finding such a lack of information for asthmatics here in Canada so any resources in general are helpful for sure. Appreciate your feedback!