Video Transcript

Carissa - Hi. I'm Carissa. Over the next few weeks, we're going to be having a whole range of conversations with our staff to give you a behind the scenes look at how we're helping care for our communities. Today, we're joined by Dr. Liam Flynn, who, as well as being our director of public health and community medicine, is also a father of two young children, which is perfect for today's conversation Liam because we're talking all things sickness and kids.

Firstly, can you tell us how easily do children pick up viruses?

Dr Liam Flynn - So easily. Oh, it's ridiculous. A lot of parents complain that their kids are more sick than they're well particularly at this time of year. But that's totally normal, albeit a bit frustrating sometimes.

Carissa - Absolutely. And often when our kids do start to show symptoms, it can be really hard to know what to do with them, whether to take them to a GP, stay at home, take them to the hospital, even. What's your best advice?

Dr Liam Flynn - Oh, absolutely. It can be very difficult to tell. And so I guess my advice is listen to your gut. If you're not sure, if you're not happy with how your your child is, then seek advice, whether that be through 13 Health or through an appointment with your GP or of course in an emergency. Absolutely. Bring them into the hospital. But no, I don't have superpowers. I don't know what particular bug my children have and they get unwell. And it's very natural to be worried about children. But that's okay to seek advice in that situation.

Carissa - Because with so many viruses going around at the moment like RSV, influenza, COVID, we know that our parents aren't doctors, so it's best to seek professional help.

Dr Liam Flynn - Yeah, I guess a few things to say about kids and when they're unwell. One is that kids tend to go down quite quickly, but they tend to bounce back quite quickly as well. We as adults don't get sick nearly as often, and that's because when we were kids, we got sick as often as our kids are getting now.

Our immune systems are amazing. And when they encounter a virus, the bacteria for the first time, they react. They generate antibodies and defenses. And those symptoms that we typically develop and that our kids develop are the immune system fighting off the bug. So that's the fever. That's the muscle aches, that's the snotty noses and the coughs that we get.

That's the immune system, recognizing that there is something foreign and fighting it off. And so each time our children encounter a different virus, whether it's RSV or flu or COVID, the similar kind of symptoms will be generated because that's the immune system fighting it off. Now, most of the time, kids will be fine, but sometimes they won't. And of course, every child is different.

And so I'm not giving specific medical advice here. And of course I can't. But if you're worried, seek help. Most of the time keeping their fluids up and a bit of paracetamol will go a long way towards keeping them well. But if you're concerned, do what you need to do to allay that concern

Carissa - Absolutely. And is there anything that we can do to help avoid our children getting sick? It's probably every parent's dream. But are there any steps they can take as a proactive measure?

Dr Liam Flynn - So I guess in the in the community we're talking about wearing masks and social distancing, and that's great, and we absolutely should do that. Asking a three year old to wear a mask is not going to be as successful. So it's it's one of those things of growing up is that we know that kids explore their environment. They like to put things in their mouths.

They like to put their fingers everywhere and then in their mouth, washing hands can be a bit of a battle sometimes, but it's part of the joys of childhood, is learning new skills and learning new habits. And so teaching children to wash their hands after going to the toilet and before eating, or when they're obviously dirty and helping them to develop good habits that will last a lifetime to minimize the chance of them getting sick.

Of course, children are going to socialize with other children and they're going to get all up close and personal and share things and and share their germs. And so if your children are unwell, if I've got a fruity call from a snotty nose, then really we would ask that you try and minimize their time in the community and socializing with other kids we know germs are going to spread.

But it's upon all of us really to try and take those at their most infectious out of the out of circulation for a little while, for a couple of days until the symptoms go away to minimize that spread as much as we can.

Carissa - Great. Well, thank you very much for your time today. And if you have any topics, ideas or questions that you would like answered, be sure to let us know on our feedback form and we'll see you soon.