Home guidance

It can be OK to continue treatment in the home if your child seems to be responding well to symptomatic care.

“In general, if your child is still going about their normal lives, they are likely OK to treat at home,” he explained.

Medical care 

If your child is not responding to supportive care at home, it is a good idea to contact your healthcare provider. The baseline of which Monahan recommends you should take your child in to see their pediatrician, regardless of virus they could be infected with, include:

• They are not eating or drinking well enough to stay hydrated.
• They are having difficulty breathing or breathing fast.
• They are not urinating, making tears or are showing other signs of dehydration.
• They have had a fever for longer than three days or develop a new fever after being fever-free for a few days.
• Their cough or congestion is not improving.
• They are unusually sleepy, weak or fatigued.
• They develop an unusual rash.

“We understand that sometimes it can be hard to determine if your child is having difficulty breathing because of a stuffy nose or something more serious in the lungs, which is why it is important to call your healthcare provider for more advice or have them seen,” Monahan said. “Pay attention to symptoms and trust your gut.”

Difference in symptoms

COVID-19, the cold, influenza and RSV/croup — what are all of these respiratory illnesses and how are they different from one another? To add another layer of difficulty to it all, Monahan said these illnesses can affect children in different ways, making it harder to pinpoint exact symptoms to worry about.

For example, one child could have COVID-19 and experience very minimal symptoms that mimic a cold, such as a runny nose and a cough. Another child with the same virus could experience more severe symptoms, such as shortness of breath and loss of taste or smell.

“It can be tricky,” Monahan said. “Even here in Craig, we’re definitely experiencing an uptick in COVID-19 and the flu will be around, too, which is why getting a flu vaccine is so important.”

Here are general symptoms for each type of virus, according to information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Mayo Clinic:

Cold/Flu

It can be difficult to tell exact differences between cold and flu, but the flu tends to be more severe and symptoms come on stronger.

• Fever — gradual for cold, abrupt for flu
• Aches — rare for cold, common for flu
• Chills — uncommon for cold, fairly common for flu
• Fatigue, weakness — usual for both cold and flu
• Sneezing — common for cold, sometimes occurs for flu
• Chest discomfort, cough — mild to moderate for cold, common for flu
• Stuffy nose — common for cold, sometimes occurs for flu
• Sore throat — common for cold, sometimes occurs for flu
• Headache — rare for colds, but common for flu

RSV (respiratory syncytial virus)/Croup

Symptoms of RSV and croup include:

• Low, barking cough (think of a seal bark) — common in croup
• Severe cough — common in RSV
• Runny nose — common in RSV, croup
• Fever — common in RSV, croup
• Wheezing or heavy/rapid breathing — common in RSV, croup
• Hoarse voice — common in croup
• Decrease in appetite — common in RSV
• Sneezing — common in RSV

All of these respiratory illnesses start with cold symptoms and may change as the illness progresses.

COVID-19

Common symptoms of COVID-19 are similar to those of the cold and flu; however, different patients experience different symptoms, which makes this virus so difficult to understand. Symptoms may appear within 2 to 14 days and can evolve, too, meaning minor symptoms can quickly worsen to become more severe.

• Fever or chills
• Cough
• Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
• Fatigue
• Muscle or body aches
• Headache
• New loss of taste or smell
• Sore throat
• Congestion or runny nose
• Nausea or vomiting
• Diarrhea

Studies thus far have shown some children can be asymptomatic — meaning they will be infected but show no symptoms — or experience mild symptoms. It’s rare, but some children might develop multisystem inflammatory syndrome several weeks after being infected with the coronavirus.

Please remember that although COVID-19 hasn’t had a major impact on youth in regard to hospitalizations and deaths, the worry is more geared toward them unknowingly spreading the virus to those who are more vulnerable, such as their parents or grandparents. Children with risk factors such as obesity, diabetes and other immunodeficiencies puts them at higher risk for complications from the virus — the same goes for the flu.

“Unfortunately, there isn’t one symptom that’s going to distinguish COVID-19 from influenza from croup,” Monahan concluded. “My hope is if people are wearing masks, social distancing and implementing other practices to limit the spread the best they can, we can limit the risk for all of these illnesses in general.”