Analysis: How the pandemic has affected children and their nurses nursingtimes.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nursingtimes.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
BBC News
By Paul Kerley
image copyrightGetty Images
For children under the age of five, Covid restrictions have been in place for a big chunk of their lives. For the very youngest, daily life has never been Covid-free.
What should parents and carers of young children be concerned about? Five experts offer advice and support.
Should I worry my child hasn t been able to socialise?
For most families with a
new baby, there s no need to worry, Alison Morton, of the Institute of Health Visiting, says. In those first few months, parents are babies most favourite things, she says. Sitting on your lap, taking turns, mimicking - they re very happy with just that.
BBC News
image copyrightJupiter Images / Heide Benser
They are not likely to get seriously ill with Covid and there have been very few deaths. But children are still the victims of the virus - and our response to it - in many other ways.
From increasing rates of mental health problems to concerns about rising levels of abuse and neglect and the potential harm being done to the development of babies, the pandemic is threatening to have a devastating legacy on the nation s young. Closing schools closes lives
The closure of schools is, of course, damaging to children s education. But schools are not just a place for learning. They are places where kids socialise, develop emotionally and, for some, a refuge from troubled family life.
Stretched health visitors in England have been left at “breaking point” in the year of Covid-19 amid soaring rates of domestic abuse, poverty and neglect among families, a new survey reveals.
The Institute of Health Visiting said it was now clear that more families had been tipped into vulnerability as a result of lockdown measures introduced in response to the pandemic. We cannot knowingly overlook their needs again, as we live with the virus for the foreseeable future
Alison Morton
However, the charity warned that the needs of children and young people had been largely ignored or overlooked in the early stages of the crisis, with health visitors diverted to other roles.
Babies and young children have been “forgotten and failed” in the nation’s pandemic response, health visiting leaders have said.
The Institute of Health Visiting’s annual survey, published on Monday, found that almost two-thirds (61%) of health visitors in England reported an increase in cases of child neglect.
It also found that four-out-of-five health visitors reported a rise in domestic violence and abuse, and perinatal mental illness.
The institute said the findings laid bare the “damage” that the pandemic has had on families, with the youngest and most vulnerable suffering the most.
Alison Morton, deputy executive director, said that while the coronavirus vaccine brought a “glimmer of a light at the end of the tunnel”, babies and young children cannot wait.