Should children and babies wear face masks amid the pandemic? Here’s what experts say
Health experts in the United States recommend people wear face masks when out during the coronavirus pandemic, but that advice is different for young children and babies.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently changed their guidelines on the use of face masks, now encouraging mostly everyone to wear one when out in public to help slow the spread of COVID-19. Masks don’t necessarily protect the wearer, but they do prevent an asymptomatic person from spreading the virus to others.
But should young children and babies wear one? Here’s what experts say.
The CDC says face covering should not be placed on children under the age of 2 or anyone who isn’t able to remove them by themselves.
Children this young have smaller airways, making breathing through a mask harder for them, health experts told the Huffington Post. Additionally, they’re unable to take the mask off themselves, which would cause them to suffocate if they are having trouble breathing.
“In addition, if a mask has small parts or things that can come off, it can become a choking hazard,” Dr. Brianna Enriquez, medical director of emergency management with Seattle Children’s Hospital, told HuffPost.
The CDC does recommend that children over the age of 2 wear a mask.
In general, the CDC says face masks should fit snugly, be secured with ties or ear loops, have multiple layers of fabric, allow for easy breathing and should be able to be washed and dried without being damaged.
But the use of masks is not an alternative to social distancing or other everyday precautions, the CDC emphasizes, and parents should have children do the same things adults do to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
This includes washing their hands often, avoiding sick people and cleaning surfaces daily.
Children should not have play dates with kids from other households and, when playing outside, should still stay at least 6 feet away from anyone they don’t live with, according to the CDC.
It can be difficult to get children who are old enough to wear a mask to keep it on.
“Speaking from experience here, it’s really hard to keep a mask on kids,” Dr. Ashanti Woods, a pediatrician at Baltimore’s Mercy Medical Center, told WhatToExpect.com.
But allowing kids to help design their own mask, wearing matching ones or giving them incentive to wear it can be helpful, doctors tell What To Expect.
