COVID-19 Q&A: From Pregnancy to Playdates!

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought on lots of uncertainty for hopeful and expectant parents. Should families wait to try to conceive? Does COVID-19 affect male fertility? Are there increased risks for pregnant women? What can public health officials do to help Black, Latinx and indigenous mothers and those in communities disproportionately affected by the pandemic? Katie enlists guests Dr. Rashmi Rao (Obstetrics & Gynecology Specialist) and Dr. Danielle Taylor (Pediatrics Specialist) to get listeners the most up-to-date information on coronavirus as it relates to pregnancy and our little ones. 

Crib Notes:

https://priority.ucsf.edu/ - PRIORITY: Pregnancy Coronavirus Outcomes Registry

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Katie's Crib, a production of My Heart Radio
and Shondaland Audio. Hi, guys, thank you so much for
listening to Katie's Crib. I have a big episode for
you guys today. We are in the middle of a
global pandemic. Actually I just said middle, and I don't

(00:21):
even know if we're in the middle. We don't know
if we're in the middle close to the end, at
the beginning, we don't know. A lot of things are
out of our control. We are here, we are quarantining,
we are facing COVID nineteen. And since the start of
the shutdown, I have been getting so many texts and
emails from friends and friends of friends about how to

(00:42):
mom during this time, how to keep our kids safe.
And I was like, you, guys, Katie's Crib, we got
to get you some answers. So I'm really excited about
today's episode and bringing you guys some up to date information.
And I have to say that, as you know, information
is changing daily on this disease, so what we have

(01:02):
right now is up to date, but also could be changing.
I have two awesome doctors on today's episode. The first
is Dr Rushmi Raw. She is absolutely wonderful, and she
came on to discuss pregnancy and COVID. She is the
high risk doctor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

(01:23):
at U c l A Health. I also have on
my New York City pediatrician, Dr Danielle Taylor to come
on and talk to us about COVID and our tiny humans. So,
without further ado, let's welcome Dr Rushmi Raw. Let's get
right into it and get some of these I have
a great list of text and emails from personal friends, family,

(01:44):
and from a ton of our awesome Katie's crib listeners.
So pandemic or not, people are trying to conceive during
this time, like that is happening? Um, we have one
listener at Danielle and Collins writes, if I'm wanting to
have another child, should I wait for some sort of
resolution to the pandemic or vaccine? Seems like an awful

(02:05):
time to bring another child into the world, but we
want to expand our family. Have you been having clients
asked this question? What's your consensus on this? So, yeah, Katie,
thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. Um.
So these are really great questions. UM and absolutely right.
This is a question I get asked almost daily. You know,

(02:25):
what I tell patients is, from a medical standpoint, I'm
not advising against pregnancy. I'm not telling them to hold
off on pregnancy. UM. At this time, there really isn't
much data to support and increased risk to a woman
or her future child, so much so that getting pregnant
is considered a contradication. UM. From a personal standpoint, I
think that there's a lot of things to consider. There's

(02:47):
financial stressors right now, there's a lot of community stressors
right now, and I think that those are definitely important
things to consider. But I think those are personal and
not so much from a medical standpoint. Yeah, that's great
to know. We have another listener by the name of
Rebecca who wrote in that she was really wanting to
have a baby, but because things saying it's a personal choice,

(03:08):
Like if you can look at your pregnancy as maybe
not being able to have the village you imagined having,
it takes a village, right, Like maybe your parents can't
fly in, maybe you you can't go to the baby
classes you wanted to go to, Maybe you can't take
a tour of the hospital in advance. To put your
anxiety at ease. So it's really it's a personal question
of how you deal with anxiety, finances all of these things. Right. Absolutely,

(03:34):
you bring up a really good point there, and we
are actually seeing a lot of an increased in terms
of anxiety and even PTSD type symptoms. UM, anxiety is
worse than by isolation. And essentially we're asking a lot
of our women to be isolated. We're asking a lot
of people to be isolated. It absolutely takes a village
from both a professional and personal standpoint, I agree with that.

(03:56):
And we are in a time right now where it's
hard to have a village when we're asking everyone to
stay kind of quarantine. So these are these are really
important things to consider and think about how you would
handle that if you were to get pregnant in the future. UM.
And so I think that these are really reasonable things
to consider, and those are the things that I would
tell my patients. Just think about before you make the decision. Great,

(04:19):
can COVID nineteen be sexually transmitted? So, as of right now,
COVID nineteen is not considered to be a sexually transmitted virus.
COVID nineteen is a respiratory virus UM. It's mainly transmitted
by respiratory droplets and secretions. UM. So as of right now,

(04:39):
that is not something that we have any medical data for. UM.
This is huge. I have a lot of friends asking this,
does COVID nineteen effect male fertility? Do we know? Very
good question. We don't. Short answers, we don't know. There
has been COVID nineteen found in sperm in some case reports. UM.
But what that means mackerel landing. So what that means

(05:02):
in terms of whether that causes issues with future pregnancies
or um. Again, we have no data that that can
be transmitted UM. If you guys remember Zeca from back
in the day that was also found to be instpirmed,
but that really didn't mean a whole lot of issues
in terms of transmission or in terms of men giving
it to women. But we did at that point advise

(05:25):
against um, you know, men and women having sex at
that time, but that was a very different virus for
equividing team where we just don't have any data right now.
Can it affect female fertility? Again, no data? UM. You know,
if we think about and this is I should have
actually just opened up with this, which is that this
is such a new virus. We're really five to six

(05:45):
months into this UM and no, nobody can really be
an expert at this point because data takes lots of
time and takes lots of reports and numbers in order
for us to make conclusions that really I would feel
comfortable saying, yes, this is absolutely what we know and
what we don't know UM. And with COVID nineteen being

(06:05):
on the United in the United States for five to
six months, we don't have data on women who or
men who have been trying to get pregnant for a
prolonged period of time and starting to see issues with
fertility UM and so based off of just the time
the limited time period, I would say we just don't
know yet. M hm okay, I have Nikki rights, Hi.

(06:28):
I love your show, Thanks Nikki, and have listened to
it way before I knew I was trying for a baby.
I am currently thirteen weeks pregnant and I am a
teacher in NYC school district. Is it high risk for
pregnant women to work in schools even with social distance protocols?
Should the schools allow teachers to work from home? I
heard they are hearing now that pregnant women are considered

(06:48):
higher risk. Is this true? Why or why not? Yeah, Nikki,
you've got a lot of questions. I hear you, girl,
We all do. So. Yeah, there's a lot to unpack
in that in that question. And um, so let me
try and break that down. So are pregnant women considered
higher risk? So, in general, pregnant women are considered to

(07:08):
be an immunocompromised population, meaning that they tend to get
UM infections at a higher rate than people who have
a competent immune system. So prior stars and Mirrors and
even the influence of IRUs definitely affected pregnant women UM
at more severe rates. What we are seeing right now
is that that's not necessarily true with CoV two, which

(07:30):
is COVID nineteen. However, the CDC did just put out
a publication back in the end of June, so just recently.
UM their data show that pregnant women did have an
increased risk of hospitalization and an increased risk of ic
YOU admission and an increased risk of mechanical ventilation, but
not an increased risk of death. With that being said,

(07:51):
there is a caveat that the CDC data that we
did get had a very low percent of the people
who responded or they were notified, um who we had
a answer on whether or not they were pregnant. We
don't know if our denominator was accurate. So with that
being that, I think it's hard to make conclusions based
off of that particular study, and they mentioned that in
their report as well. So I think that what we

(08:15):
know for sure is that pregnant women can get sick,
whether they are going to be at increased risk for
having severe disease or have an increased risk of fatality
or death. I think that still remains to be seen,
and we're not necessarily seeing even from my practice, and
you know from what we're seeing out there, that that's
happening in large numbers. So yes, I what I tell

(08:36):
my God, thank God for that exactly. So what I'm
telling my patients is, you know, pregnant women can get sick.
I don't want you to get sick. So if you know,
we can be at work. I mean everyone needs to work,
Everyone needs to be functional and try and be in
the society and make this whole you know, stressful time
work for us. But with that being said, it has

(08:56):
to be within reason and it has to be safe.
So you have to have the protective here, you have
to be socially distanced, you have to have availability to
wash your hands and stay safe. If we feel like
that's not the case, then I would say the option
to work from home should be allowed for pregnant women. Awesome,
that's great. Um, oh, this is huge. I've been reading

(09:18):
a lot about this. Next question, communities of color are
being hit disproportionately hard by COVID in examining the cases
of pregnant women. What is the data showing thus far
and can like what can public health officials do to
combat this? This upsets me more than any I'm like,
beside myself, this is such an important question. So I

(09:40):
completely agree that the data so far does support that
women of color, specifically Hispanic and Black women are being
disproportionately affected by COVID. Nineteen prior to COVID, we actually
we're seeing that, and I'm sure that's something that's on it,
you know, everyone's radar as well. But maternal mortality was
a lot higher in the black population and women of

(10:01):
color as well, So this isn't something that's new to us.
And now that we've got COVID, we're seeing the same
thing that women of color, Hispanic and Black women are
just proportionately affected. We do have data for this. Similarly,
in that CDC report that I mentioned, what it showed
was that out of all the women who had COVID,
nineteen percent were Hispanic women, were Black women, were white women.

(10:24):
But when you contrast that with the rates of births
into Gusen nineteen Hispanic women only made Black women only
made fifteen percent. So they're disproportionately being affected. So that
data is real. Are we are seeing that and even
from my own personal experience, we are seeing that Hispanic
women I practice in California. Hispanic women are disproportionately affected here.

(10:46):
So this is an incredibly important topic and something that
I want to stress that we all from a medical standpoint,
need to be paying attention to. Um What can we
do about this? I think medical and public health communities
first need to examine their own employe that bias and
work on re examining how you can resolve this, because
if you don't recognize what's happening, it's going to be

(11:06):
impossible to fix it. So that's number one. I think
number two you have to be transparent with data. You
have to examine your own data. You have to see
what's really happening and be able to tackle what where
the need is UM. And then you know what you
do once you have the data is you have to
commit to future research and treatment addressing and eliminating that disparity. UM.
To give you an example, you know, it's it's things

(11:28):
like Priority, which I'm going to talk about, which is
an organization that is looking at research and pregnancy and COVID.
They may announce that they're working on a reproductive Health
Equity and Birth Justice core looking at exactly this is unbelievable.
I want to do I mean, this is a side
note and you I want to do a whole episode
about this. I just think this is insane and I
want to hear more in depth about the work Priority

(11:51):
is doing. Absolutely, it's so important. It is so time.
Yeah no, no, I totally agree with you. And so essentially,
you know, we're looking at trying to increase our recruitment efforts,
particularly in the Black, Indigenous and people of color. UM.
If you don't have these people involved in your research, UM,

(12:11):
and you have to actually reach out to these communities
to have them be the ones who tell us what
is important. We can't just be doing research what we
think is important. We have to reach out to all
of these communities and have them involved and then make
special efforts to try and address these situations. So I'm
so glad you brought it up. It is so incredibly important. Wow.

(12:32):
Um okay. At Nikki Friedlin writes what could happen to
a pregnant mom if she gets COVID? Have any newborns
had COVID and what are the symptoms? Okay, I know
a little bit about this answer, but I probably don't
know the up to date stuff you know. Okay, So, yes,
pregnant women can get COVID, and there have been case

(12:53):
reports of newborns who have COVID as well. Um, it
is it follows very similar to the general population in
that of pregnant women who will get COVID will have
mild or asymptomatic symptoms or disease. Um may have severe
issues with COVID, and five percent may be critical. Um,
and that's about the percentages And that's not exactly that's

(13:15):
about the percentages we're seeing in pregnancy as well. So,
like I mentioned, pregnant women can get COVID. So I
tell all of my patients to to follow all of
the CDC recommendations and stay home and stay safe. Newborns
can get COVID. We have seen that happen, whether it's
happening because it's being vertically transmitted, meaning going from mom
to baby, or if it's happening after the baby is

(13:36):
born in the immediate exposures that they get once the
baby is born. That piece of it is not completely
ironed out yet, although we are getting data as you mentioned,
day by day. Um. So you know, most of the newborns,
most of children who get it have very very mild symptoms. Um.
But in a in a newborn it would be and
I'm not the experts, I would defer to the pediatricians
on this one, but on in newborns it's usually fever

(13:59):
um sometimes as it can be what was actually reported
out in the France study with some neurologic symptoms. Yes,
there was a study that came out in France that
it was transferred through the placenta from a COVID positive
mom too. I don't know how many, but a baby
or some babies, but a few, okay, one great one

(14:19):
baby dies I have a doctor on this show. She
knows UM and the baby, I guess for like two weeks.
I'm putting this in Katie speak, you guys, but the
baby for two weeks had some respiratory issue and some
inflammatory brain stuff, which is horrifying and terrifying. But after
two weeks, the baby they seem to be okay correct

(14:41):
so far, but like, we don't know if there's long
term effects, but at the moment, the baby seems to
have made it full circle, not going would thank God
didn't die or something, you know like that. This one.
I get asked a lot for people who are trying
to conceive or are very early has COVID proven We
probably don't know you, But has has COVID caused miscarriage?

(15:05):
That is also a question that I get on the daily. Um,
I think, but we're seeing right now the data that's
that's currently being quoted. Again, this is just preliminary stuff
and things are evolving every single day. But what we're
seeing right now is miscarriage rate is on the order
of about two so not incredibly high growth restriction, which
is you know, when you get COVID or any infection,

(15:25):
you often have issues with babies growing well. That rate
is about ten percent, which is on the order of
what we've seen in a general population, but the preterm
birth rate is higher. Um And again this is data
we have from women who are super sick with COVID,
people who end up in the I c U. But
we are seeing a ventilators on eventilator exactly. But we
are seeing that the pre term birth rates can be

(15:46):
on the order oh god, okay, so if okay, So
what we're seeing is if you have a really bad
case of COVID, we're delivering babies really early, really early,
really to actually means less than thirty seven weeks. That's
considered preturn. But yes, in my experience and what I've
seen so far in the literature, it is that if

(16:08):
a woman ends up being super sick to the point
where she is in the I see you and on eventilator,
we do seem to be delivering those women sooner. I've

(16:31):
only heard these dramatic, mythical stories of women delivering with COVID,
and like, I refuse to actually google because I'm horrified
and i don't want to know, but I'm going to
find out now. Guys, You're welcome, but like women, what
happens when they deliver with COVID. I've heard these stories
of like women being put out and the baby coming

(16:51):
out through cesarean and then they have to isolate from
each other for two weeks while a mommy's pumping and
comes to and then meets their baby at fourteen days
or whatever. Can you tell me about this? Is this
even true? Is this a movie I've made up in
my head because I'm a dramatic actress in Hollywood, Like,
tell me what happens if you deliver with COVID? So

(17:11):
I think it's not entirely incorrect, but I think of
COVID as what I had mentioned before, Right, eighty percent
of women who have COVID are either going to be
completely asymptomatic or have extremely mild disease. So for those people,
and you know, a lot of institutions are testing every
COVID or I'm sorry, I'm testing every pregnant woman who

(17:32):
shows up to labor and delivery for their delivery. So
a lot of the times we're picking up things that
people had zero idea that they had COVID, and we're like, hey,
you know, actually you are one of those asymptomatic people
who have COVID, So what happens to them, they are
not going to have this dramatic you know, of course
as you as you delivery. Yeah, so what what's going
to happen to them is that they're going to be

(17:53):
for the most part, kind of restricted in terms of delivery,
in the sense that they're not going to have a
ton of people in their room. They're going to be
restricted to the bare minimum, and everyone is going to
be wearing full protective fear for their delivery. They do
not need to wear a mask, although you know, we're
going to try to have them wear a mask as
much as they can, but obviously during the time of delivery,
when they're pushing, UM, it is not reasonable to be

(18:15):
wearing a mask. So we don't have our pregnant women's
who are COVID positive UM wearing a mask. Not necessarily. Um,
they are going to that just here or is that
everywhere in the country? Do we know? You know, I
think that people have gotten very creative in in barriers
and things like that. People can use, you know, little
shields that they try to have the pregnant women wear.

(18:37):
But masks, I think are are physically almost impossible to do.
I mean, it is, it's really hard to labor in.
And I know I pushed. Yeah, I was like, if
I had a mask on, I would have lost my
dang mind. Yeah, yeah, absolutely not. I think it's incredibly hard.
I think it's the best of intentions. You could try
and have a woman wear a mask, but it's not
going to stay on while she's pushing UM. But you know,

(18:59):
I think she woman can expect a restricted kind of
visitor scenario UM providers who are wearing full protective gear.
It may feel a little bit scientific, but it is
really just to protect everybody involved in that. Once the
baby is born, the neonatal team will probably assess the baby,
but the baby isn't gonna get whisked away. The baby

(19:20):
is going to now, especially there's new data to say that,
you know, we probably think the baby should stay with
the mom, but mom should, you know, have as much
kind of the same kind of hygiene that we would
recommend for somebody who has COVID, so lots of hand
washing masks when she's around the baby, um, you know,
changing clothes if she's been wearing the clothes for a

(19:42):
long time, when she's going to breastfeed. Um. There have
been you know, therefore this there were some talks about
completely isolating mom and baby. That is not reasonable, and
now we're seeing data that that's actually probably not necessary. Um.
Now that's for a woman who's asymptomatic, we're doing well.
For somebody who's sick in the i c U on
a ventil later, um, it probably would be something like

(20:04):
you you would like you mentioned, you know, they would
probably get delivered via csarian section. Not necessarily because they
absolutely had to. But in a lot of the times
when moms aren't having good oxygen, the babies aren't getting
good oxygen, and their heart rates starts to do things
that make us worry, and so we want to get
them out of that situation in a situation where we
can give them, um, better oxygen, better nutrition, and so

(20:25):
those tend to be cecerean deliveries. UM. But it's not
like it's not an. Absolutely doesn't mean that just because
you have COVID and you're in the I c you're
gonna end up with a C section. Um, But they
probably don't know their delivery because they're intubated, and you know,
they haven't they're not awake and like a mom who
is you know, healthy and doing well. So those would
be a little bit more dramatic, I suppose where moms

(20:47):
would probably get delivered and and meet their babies sometime
down the line. My goodness. But you know, all I
hear is like, as much as that's the shittiest thing ever,
I can't even fathom it. All I hear on the
other side is like, yeah, but they all survived, do
you know what I mean? Like, I'm just like when

(21:09):
I hear these things, I'm like, okay, but like even
if it's the worst working days of your life, like
you're still walking out of hospital with your baby, like,
and it makes me like, like take a breath. Um.
I mean I think it makes all of us cringe too.
I mean, we our hearts go out to all of
these people who you know, whether it's pregnant or not,
who are in the guy see you alone because visitors

(21:31):
are restricted. It is heartbreaking. And you know, I think
that we all are trying to look at the end goal,
which is trying to get everybody home, trying to get
everybody alive, and although things like separation and not being
awake when your baby is born sound absolutely terrible. I'm
so thankful that you mentioned that we are at least
trying to get them to be alive and go home

(21:53):
with their children at some point. So that's I think
the anal Yeah, like that's got to be the I mean,
I'm I can only say that looking from outside of
the experience. Obviously I can't even imagine going through it.
But I just uh that, Yeah, I'm just relieved that
these horror stories are like not ending in terrible um
outcomes at Mrs b h O writes, I'm scared of

(22:16):
not being able to have my husband speaking of restricted
things in the delivery room with me if quarantine requirements
become strict again. She's due September twenty one. Tell me
about that ship show that when Yeah, yeah, yeah, I
mean that's a reasonable concern, right, I mean, I think
that it's exceedingly hard for a woman to be expected

(22:36):
to deliver by herself, especially when she's not sick. Um.
With that being said, I think it's very institution dependent,
it's very hospital dependent. And we all heard of what
happened in New York, and I think that you know,
for what was going on at that time, they felt
as I was the right decision, and by no means
do I question that, But I do think it's exceedingly

(22:57):
hard for a woman to deliver a loan when she's
not sick. So with that being said, I think most
places now are are at least allowing a partner in
the room significant other for the delivery and for the
postpartum time period. UM. Where I'm working, they definitely allow
a partner in the room for the whole entire stay,
which is through labor and delivery and postpartum as well. UM,

(23:20):
it's gotten better with the more testing that we have,
the better we feel about testing all the women who
come through and knowing that if they're negative, their partners
are likely negative. And it's not just about you know
their particular situation, right. If you imagine a partner comes
in and then walks out in the hallway and goes
in touch with something, and it comes back in the room,
and the next partner goes out in touch or something,

(23:41):
it's it's we're trying to keep everybody safe, and it's
not a small order, and so that's why we try
the best we can. But I would say that that's
a reasonable concern and if things start getting crazy and
whatever location at you know, she is in, I would
have her just reach out to her physician, reach out
to her hospital early and find out what the situation is. Right.

(24:02):
Speaking of this, when this was all going down in
New York, I had a few friends deliver. Especially it
was my heart goes out to a lot of women
who were first time, you know, first time ever going
through this without their loved one with them um and
how stressful that is. And I also can only say
that we just understand the disease more. I mean, if

(24:23):
I do, then obviously all the doctors dukes, That's where
I'm getting my information. But so there are ways to
get that one person in there for the whole time
and keep everyone separated. It's so funny. I keep having
flashbacks when my son was born and we were like
walking down the hallways with other people who had given
birth and meeting their babies, you know what I mean.
It was just so like communal almost. I yeah, I remember,

(24:47):
I was just talking about this the other day. I
remember when there was a whole families in the waiting
room cheering after the baby was. My entire family was
there one minute after I had Albie and we had
our loan time for a couple of hours. Then as
soon as we moved, my whole family came. They brought
to go. I always regret what I picked. I ate salmon, like,
what a dumb thing to I mean, I love my
duelist so much, but she was like, you need to

(25:08):
replenish your body. I should have had a burger and fries.
That was so dumb. I should have had what I wanted. Um,
but I've I had some friends make the choice to
have birth at home during this time. What are I mean?
I know that I think that statistically speaking, a home
birth death rate is higher than a hospital one. Is

(25:30):
that correct? Have you had patients that have been like,
I'm not doing this, I'm doing this at home. Um,
there's a new wave of this. What's your opinion on that? Yeah,
you're spot on, Katie. Yeah, you know it is. It
is increased risk to deliver at home just in general. Right,
there's a very particular candidate who would be considered an
appropriate home birth candidate. Somebody who is considered low risk

(25:53):
doesn't have any risk factors. Um, you know, maternal mortality
is a real thing, and so we don't and so
is new and it mortality. So we really don't want
people thinking that home births are the way to go.
But I understand where people were coming from. You know,
it's it sounded and it looked crazy. Um. The only
thing that I in my opinion about this is it's

(26:14):
it's definitely safer to deliver in a hospital than at home,
especially if you are a higher risk patient. And sometimes
you don't know if you're higher risk, if you haven't
had prenatal care, if you haven't been kind of following up,
and a lot of people have been scared to go
to OBI appointments, have been scared to be you know,
followed up in a hospital setting or in a clinic setting.
So I would just caution people if they think about

(26:36):
deliverering at home, to really make sure that they are
an appropriate candidate, to make sure they have an appropriate
certified midwife who would be available to them, and that
appropriate certified midwife has a hospital that's backing them up
and has a physician who's backing them up, because in
the event of an emergency UM within a couple of minutes,
things can go very wrong. And so you know, it's

(26:56):
really for me, it's very it's it's scared for me
to think about all those people who have made those choices.
From the most part, I'm sure most of them do.
Find But if you know we can prevent one mom
from dying or one baby from dying by having them
in a hospital, especially a hospital that has spent a
lot of time and energy to make sure the infection
prevention protocols are safe, then I would be in support

(27:19):
of that. M hm, can you take us through, um
what routine OBI appointments look like? Now, I think you
just touched on that a little bit, so it came
to my head. But um ore, OBI appointments just far less.
Are women having to have their temperature taken before they
walk in? Like I'm sure the waiting rooms are emptier,

(27:40):
like everyone's got a mask on. Is that is that
sort of the new wave of how we're doing things? Yeah, Katie,
and you you barely need me, you know, you know
all the others. Well, I think when you're a host
of a mommy podcast, I text about this stuff a lot.
I have a lot of phone calls. But that's what
I'm hearing. Yeah, I'm guessing that people just go to

(28:03):
the doctor less. And is that okay, So we try
to eliminate all the non critical visits for whatever that means.
You know, if you don't necessarily need to come in
and see a physician, we try to do things over
the phone or over telehealth. But we're still looking at you.
But you know, we're not necessarily having you come in. UM.
With that being said, we we still think it's exceedingly

(28:25):
important to keep your obi appointments. UM. There's a reason
that we see people as much as we do, and
there's things that we're kind of looking out for. Um,
And sometimes you just need to come in to get
a blood pressure check and make sure that the baby
looks okay. And so for all of those reasons, I
would say, you know, just just go with the guidance
of what your physician or your institution is saying to
to make sure we don't miss anything that's important. UM.

(28:48):
But yeah, you're right, that's what it looks like. You've
got you know, and I can only speak from my place,
but you know, we've got screeners downstairs who make sure
they're screening everybody both through symptoms and through thermal scanners
or temperature checks. UM. Visitors are limited only for the
essential appointments, So waiting rooms are bare, and we do
that on purpose so that there's not a lot of
people in the waiting rooms. We want to socially distance everybody.

(29:10):
Um and everyone is a mass. So that's that's pretty
much fat on, That's exactly what's happening. Yes, I think
I feel like it would be scary at first. I
don't know. Man, women are so fucking resilient. I can't
even believe it. I thank god women are that we're
the people doing this, because I don't. I mean, I mean,

(29:30):
it's crazy. What do you think about opening pods when
women are pregnant? Like if there's a pregnant woman and
she's got a toddler and there's no school and like
she's losing her mind, Like, what do you think about
opening up to and you know, there's all these like
this is my quarantine or this is my bubble or
whatever that is. Like are you having your pregnant patients

(29:55):
completely isolate or you allowing them to open up to
their discretion? I think that it's totally unreasonable to completely isolate.
And as I mentioned before, I worry a lot about
complete isolation and what that does to you or anybody
for that matter. UM, but I do I do say,
you know, if you're going to have a quarantine or
a pod. While I think it's totally reasonable, I think

(30:18):
really making sure that the other members of that team
are doing kind of the same thing that you're doing
and take it as seriously as you are, and you know,
making it really open and um okay to say, hey,
you know, I have a sniffle e nose today, I
don't think I'm gonna come in and you know, not
making that be an issue down the line. I think
opening up those lines of communication and really um, having

(30:40):
everybody on the same page and be just as safe
um that that is reasonable, and really limiting it to
as much as possible. And then just following kind of
the general guidelines, which is always where a mask if
you can, if you're outside, things are safer than whether
you're inside and closed doors, UM, still staying a little
bit distance from each other, frequent hand washing, and then

(31:02):
the most important thing is if there's any signs of anything,
whether it's a sniffle, a nose or a sort of
throat or I just haven't smelled very much in the
last couple of days, even that you know, um really saying,
just so I start every day, I take a sip
of my tea and I take a whiff and a swallow,
and I'm like, yep, taste and smell. We still got it, okay.
Like all my friends who got COVID, which I have

(31:24):
a lot, that was a huge symptom for most of them. Um,
what about women who have multiple children and are pregnant
and they need to send their child to daycare because
they have to work or they have to get their
kid to some I know a lot of public schools
are not opening in the fall, but they need some
sort of childcare. Is that safe? What are you recommending

(31:46):
to your pregnant patients about schools or daycares if it's
at how possible to avoid while we're in a surge,
I think that that's probably the way to go. But
with that being said, you gotta do what you gotta do.
So if your kids have to go because you've got
to go to work, then that's what you do. And
you just try to have them go to a place
that's taking it as seriously as you are, who are

(32:07):
following all of the guidelines. And then frequent handwashing, you know,
frequent frequent handwashing, which is really hard for kids, um
and for adults frankly, but you know, really kind of
making that just become the every day, all the time. Um,
that's the way to go. We need to do a
whole episode on how to make handwashing fun for toddlers

(32:27):
because my toddlers disgusting and he hates washing. I mean,
we wash his hands so much more than we used to,
and it is a struggle every Yeah, it's the worst.
I need soap, I need dinosaurs swimming in there, I
need I need like all that. Okay, please tell me,

(32:48):
Please tell me that the that the not washing down
of delivery boxes and take out for a pregnant woman
that almost killed me in the first few weeks of quarantine. Like,
are we recommend pregnant women don't have to do this anymore?
Should they still be doing it? I think that, you know,
wiping down boxes are probably not necessary. But what I

(33:08):
do think is, you know, when you get anything from
the outside, if it's fruit or something that's going to
go directly into your mouth, wash that. But if it's
going to be something that you take out of a container,
you don't have to wash the container. Take things out
of the container, then wash your hands really well before
you eat it. That's what I would say. Um, and
you can throw the container away, But wiping down the

(33:28):
container and then taking it out and then what I mean,
you just still just need to wash your hands before
you eat your food. So I think, you know, just
making sure that you limit as much contact with the
container and everything in the house, but then just wash it.
Taking everything out of the containers and then throwing the
containers away and washing your hands is probably more than enough.
When do you think we're gonna have a vaccine everybody?

(33:52):
I would dream of a six month vaccine, but I
think more realistically we're looking at twelve to eighteen months. Yeah,
that's what I hear. Buckle up, people. The information on
coronavirus and its impacts on pregnant women is rapidly changing.
We've discussed this a lot um and meaningful data. The
more that we collect, the better, and U c l

(34:13):
A Health recognized that early, thank you very much, and
launched a national registry which you touched on, called Priority
Study or Pregnancy Coronavirus Outcomes Registry. Can you give the listeners,
let's circle back. You touched on it. A little bit previously.
A quick synopsis of Priority, Who qualifies to participate, what

(34:34):
sort of data is being collected that they may be
missing from the c d C where they can register.
I mean this is so crucial, Like you, if you're
listening to this podcast and you're pregnant, like you can
really help other pregnant women through this organization. Yes, yeah,
thank you so much for bringing this up. So I
am so proud of my colleagues who have really kind

(34:55):
of blaze the way in in getting this going in
collaboration with uc SF. So Priority is basically a nationwide study.
It's across the whole nation. We're looking at pregnant and
recently pregnant women who either have had COVID or under
investigation for having COVID, and the goal is really to
better understand how pregnancy and postpartum, how women are really

(35:17):
affected by COVID and their symptoms and what the impact
is on pregnancy and delivery. There's three approaches to it,
So one is that we are kind of doing questionnaires
and its patient reported outcomes. Another aspect of it is
that we are asking access to medical records for some
proportion of the people. And then third we're looking at
actual biospecimens, so like plus CENTA and you know, trying

(35:38):
to answer some real science to try to figure out
UM what goes on UM. And again, like I mentioned,
we're trying to make a real big effort in including
all racial and ethnic backgrounds and really trying to take
away the disparity issue. And truthfully, anybody can be enrolled.
You just have to be over thirteen years old UM,

(35:59):
and it's any one who's either been pregnant or had
been pregnant within the last six weeks. And we really
welcome everybody to please to please, please please reach out
to us. And you can UM reach out at Priority
dot you, CSS dot edu. That's the website and it's
a very very easy website. You can just go in
and then roll through the website and someone will reach out.

(36:19):
And one more time, you said, it's Priority dot U, C,
S F dot E D. We're going to link to
this and when I post this UM episode, I'll put
a link to I mean, we really can't know anything
until we study women who are going through this right now,
so your experience is crucial to helping pregnant women in

(36:42):
the future. Do you have any last piece of advice
or things you want to say, Dr Rushmi Raw, this
has been so eye opening and completely horrifying in some ways,
but then also very relieving in other ways. UM. So yeah,
I've taken some nice deep breaths. Are my friends out there? Um?

(37:02):
Is there any last piece of word of advice? Yeah?
I think you know number one. Thank you so much
for having me. I think having um these informational and
educational sessions are are key. UM. And just my last
advices and message really is that there's a lot of
people out there who are just really um interested and
committed to taking care of women and taking care of

(37:24):
pregnant women and children. And UM, I would say that
we're just gonna work really hard until this is over.
And if there's anything that we can do for you guys,
or if there's any way you anything you need from us,
just please don't hesitate to reach out. That's so nice
and wonderful. See, even if you guys feel alone, you're
not alone. Thank you, Dr rush me Ral. Thank you

(37:45):
for all of your advice and intelligence and and bringing
the information to the Katie's Crib listeners. You guys, thank
you for listening. And up next we have Dr Daniel Taylor,
who's a pediatrician from New York City who's going to
give us a lot lot of information on COVID and kiddos.
So thank you so much, thank you. Next, we have

(38:18):
Dr Daniel Taylor here to answer all of our questions
about kids and COVID. You guys, I am so thrilled
to have Dr Danielle Taylor on and just selfishly speaking,
she is my pediatrician and now she's the person I
text when I need to be talked off a COVID ledge.

(38:39):
But also it's thank I mean, I try, I try,
but um, you guys. Katie's crib community also knows her
because Dr Daniel Taylor was featured on one of the
episodes last season where we talked about developmental milestones of
a one year old and it was an episode with
Nicolette Um, Robinson right yep and Jamie Yes, Jamie yes, um,

(39:05):
So thank you for taking the time of course. Um.
Also to give you guys a visual, she's wearing her
very cool teenage Sons gaming headset. It's all I had. Well,
I'm in my closet, so you know. So have you
actually personally seen any pediatric COVID cases. Um, it's a

(39:28):
little bit of a loaded question. Um. When COVID first
came to New York, it was you know, we were
the epicenter in the United States. We didn't have a
lot of testing, We didn't have a lot of a
lot of things. So we saw what we were calling
presumed COVID. So we have a lot because we're at
a university medical center, we had a lot of physicians

(39:49):
who could get tested and then their children would have
fevers and they would have COVID and I would we
would have seen them or children looking back, who it
wasn't the flu lasted a really long time. It wasn't
anything we could figure out, and then they just kind
of recovered. Um. So now when we're testing kids, were
typically testing them if they're really sick or going to

(40:11):
the hospital. So we have had patience in my practice
that have tested positive for sure. And for children, is
it the same as adults? Is it a nose swab?
Because I've had it that test twice and that is
hard to My toddler would lose his dang mind with
that saying up his yes, it's not fun. So for
little er kids, we try to do it quickly. It

(40:31):
works better if you do it slower UM and kind
of try to avoid the midline a little bit. But
with little kids, they just they want to get out,
so you do it. You it's like a shot, you
go and you go out. UM. But yeah, it's not
it's not a fun test. And what do parents have
to look for symptom wise? I mean everywhere on the
internet we can see the baseline symptoms for adults, you know, fever, cough,

(40:53):
shortness of breath, those are the serious ones. Is it
the same for toddlers and young little kids? It is?
But what we're finding is, UM, a lot of them
are are asymptomatic or or not having a lot of symptoms. UM.
In most cases children's are not as sick as adults are.
In most cases UM and usually it's about two to

(41:13):
fourteen days after an exposure where they'll come down and
symptoms fever. I always say the top three symptoms or fever, fever,
and fever. So we're really looking for fever. And what
does constitute a fever for you? Like a hundred we
say call it a hundred. It's really a hundred point four,
which comes from thirty eight degrees celsius um, but it's
really a hundred point four rectal temperature. But you know,

(41:36):
if you're you know, when your kids warm um and
then you just kind of keep monitoring them and then
cough and shortness of breath are signs that we look for. UM.
Kids have more g I symptoms now that we're finding um,
abdominal in belly paine um diarrhea more than adults. We're
seeing some of that too. Not that you need to
freak out when your kid has diarrhea, but it's just

(41:58):
you know, we've seen some called some skin manifestations the
dermatologists are telling us about, you know, covid toes or whatever,
different rashes that we're seeing. So once again in linked
to this secondary inflammatory disease which I want to get to.
It can be the abdominal symptoms certainly are seen in there,
but it can also be presenting symptom of we've seen
nothing else. We're just not sure about a lot of it.

(42:21):
So when you say covid toes, is that just super
red like it just looks like they look like it
looks like frost bite from what they've they've described to me,
But it's not. It's like or it can be little
dots like on the tip of the toes. I've seen pictures. See.
I had a friend who's toddler two years old tested
positive for COVID and the only thing she had, like

(42:42):
you said, fever, fever fever. She had twelve hours of
A hundred and two and they took her in and um,
they honestly thought it was like a U t I
because they were potty training her and she was holding
a lot and or they thought it was everything else.
And the doctor was like, should we test for COVID?
And honestly everyone was like, I mean should we? We've
been completely quarantined, haven't seen anybody. And they did run

(43:04):
the test and she did have it, but that, thank god,
was all she had. We hear stories like that a lot.
So I was talking to a mom today with a rash.
Could it be COVID? Sure, but if once again, if
your child's okay, comfortable, you're not rushing to the hospital
if it's COVID, okay, But let's you know, let's let's

(43:25):
just leave her and see what happens and see if
she gets sicker, because we don't want to we also
don't want to alarm everybody and how I went rushing
the hospital. Right. We don't want to be putting our children.
I know. I've never been on such high alert for
my kid falling. Like he's such a toddler. He's such
a beast right now and a monster physically, and I'm
just like, now is not the time to crack your head.

(43:45):
I don't want to go to the hospital. I don't
want to go to the hospital. I don't want to
go to the hospital. My daughter got stitches in the
middle of March or the end of March, and I
was I was beside myself. No, not about stitches, because
kids get stitches, but you know, know, just to be
around the hospital when you when it's scary, when there's
things that are contagious there right now. But the pediatric hospitals,

(44:08):
to be honest with you, are pretty tame because kids
are not getting as severe symptoms. They're actually not and
they're taking all the precautions now, more than you know
late February early March when we knew nothing. I think
we're taking a lot more precautions now. So if your
child does have to go to the hospital, go right, right,

(44:28):
right right. That's why aren't kids getting it like adults.
Such a good question and when that I have no
answer to. UM, they don't know, they don't know. There's
a lot of theories. I'm not sure I even want
to talk theories. We don't even need it, but we
don't know. We don't know. UM, can you explain this

(44:49):
secondary inflammatory disease that it sounds like the majority of
toddler and children COVID cases, thank god, have been manageable,
the majority of them. But then there's this awful thing
that you know more about because I read a lot
about it in cases in New York of kids weeks
after they had had COVID symptoms, they get some sort

(45:11):
of secondary inflammatory disease. What does that look like? So
I just want to say, and you set it beautifully,
it's so rare. It's really really very rare. UM. And
the case reports came out kind of weeks after UM
and they kind of pieced it together as to associated
with COVID and UM it is, you know, three to

(45:32):
six weeks after either a positive swab the horrible swab
we talked about, or antibodies or an exposure to covid UM.
And what we're seeing very rare is the same thing, um, fever,
abdominal pain, um. But these are kids that get much
much sicker and probably need to go, you know, to
the hospital. Rash, red eyes, mucous membrane involvement, some neurocognitive

(45:58):
like confused headache, lethargy, confusion, UM, some respiratory symptoms, and
the g I symptoms. Was the thing that was surprising
is sometimes he's you know, fever, but fever for four days.
I mean I saw some kids with diarrhea. I call
the air. They said, no, we need really really need fever.
We need them to have a fever, fever, fever fever.
You know it's I didn't know until I was a

(46:18):
mom myself, but I was one of those moms, um
that went to the pediatrician like you a lot, text
you a lot. Like it took me a while to
get my mommy muscle strong to know the difference between
he's having an off day and something's actually going on.

(46:39):
And I really have to like implore all you moms listening,
you've got it. Like I know when my kid feels
hot and has a fever. I know when he's acting
not himself. I know when he's just not interested in
dinner that night, or is actually like not eating and
not acting like himself and his lethargic. It's happened only
a few times in his two an half years, but

(47:00):
it was clear that he was not himself. It's the
question I always ask, what does your guts say? Because
I can't. You're with them, you know your child. I'm
on the phone or on telehealth or maybe even in
the office, but you know your child. What does your
guts say is going on? And it's not a frivolous
or a throwaway, it's it's really I want to it's
really they really know your kid, like when they're not
when you're doing something with them that they love to

(47:22):
do and they have no interest, right, they're just like
they can't even get you know. It's like, okay, we're
in a mode here that things need to be looked at. Um,
how can it affect newborns? Is there again not much
info on there's not a lot of information on it.
I mean, um, so because you're getting admitted to the
hospital when you're pregnant and having a baby, they test you.

(47:44):
And actually it was a shocking number when we were
at the peak, A shocking number of asymptomatic moms, pregnant
women who were testing positive that had no idea. Some
of them had some symptoms and some didn't. UM. But
then we subsequently test the fathers and the babies and
really we haven't seeing a lot of transmission. There are
isolated cases, very few once again of transmission, but they're

(48:06):
not sure what it means if it happens, but we
are testing the babies in it for now. The newborns
seam okay. Once again, such a small sample size. This
is also new um and just not a lot of cases.
Should all kids be in masks at all times? No,
if you're if your home and you're with your family,

(48:28):
that's your kind of bubble. Of course, you don't need
to be in a mask. UM. The recommendations is are
over two years old outside in the environment, you should
be in a mask. So if you're if you're outside
or if you're you know, close to other people, UM,
you should be in a mask over if you're over two.
And this is a listener's question that I'm gonna jump to.

(48:51):
But this mask wearing and toddlers, is it doing damage
to their psyche? Is the I mean or do we not?
I mean look is it. It's just more important to
keep them not sick. Mental health is I think is
going to be the huge kind of lingering thing, and
not because of mask wearing. I think it's because of
you know, I think I think we're gonna have to
make sure our kids are okay, make sure they're mentally okay,

(49:13):
make sure they're comfortable, and make sure they feel good. Um.
I don't think the mask is going to do it.
It's very funny. I have patience. I now know that
babies can see you smile even when you have a
mask on. They look at your eyes. I can smile
at a baby with them and I wear like full
on and they can they smile back. They look at
your eyes. It's amazing and incredible and something I actually
didn't know. Oh wow, that's comfortable, and they still smile.

(49:36):
They don't seem to be you're either they're trying to
grab it off your face, which which happens to or
there you know, and they can see you smile. So
I don't think that's the issue. I don't think we're
doing damage their psyche. And of course you can explain,
you know, this is something we do. We're not trying
to spread, just like washing your hands using they love
pure l. So I think if you love to yourls
love purel. So if the whole thing is, how do

(49:58):
I convince him not to suck his after I've pure it?
Like because I'm purelling in the car, you know, if
we've you know, we have my pot open to just
my brother and if we like, go there or I
don't know, like whatever we're doing. We're purelling all the
day time. And then you you soap in water. Yeah,
and then get him, get him a substitution, something else

(50:18):
you can suck on. Yeah, yep, yes, see listen to this.
This is why she is um the best in your opinion?
When will we have a vaccine for kids? Oh? Another
another question? I love. It's funny. A couple of days ago,
I would have said two years, eighteen months to two years,
but it looks like they're fast tracking some things. But um,

(50:40):
kids are going to be last, right, which, in all fairness,
they're not getting as sick. So kids are going to
be last because when we have vaccines, they have to
be you know, tried it, and usually it's a the
adult population first before they can so, so kids will
be the last ones but eighteen months, twelve to eighteen months,
it's not going to be tomorrow. No, So we have

(51:03):
to really Yeah, the mom's out there who are really
like leaning on it's going to be over soon. It's
going to be over soon. Should really figure out mental
health ways to let that idea go. Yeah, I mean
it once again though, it's it's not touching your face.
It's wearing a mask, it's not touching your face, is
washing your hands, it's just being diligent and being kind
to your neighbor, not coughing and sneezing on your friends.

(51:25):
I mean, there's a lot of basic obviously like yeah, yeah, yeah,
are you worried? This is this is what I talked
about with a lot of my friends. When we the
kids do go back to school, are we completely freaked
about the regular stuff? Like I feel like in my household,
knock on wood, no one has gotten a cold, pink eye, diarrhea,

(51:48):
all the usual things that we would have in cycles
all the time last year because my kid was on
play dates, or he was in a toddler and me
class and you know, or I had three friends and
their kids over and this one got pink eye in
their class and now we all have it, like, because
there's been such a stop to all of the other

(52:11):
toddler Petrie dish in school situations, what the hell is
that going to look like when we're back. I'm scared.
I mean those things are seasonal anyway, So I don't
think one or two years not getting a cold or
not getting pink eye. You know, if you don't get
pink eye this year, you'll get it in two years.
I don't think it's gonna and you would have anyway
because none of that can you know, you don't get

(52:33):
immunity for more than about a year for that stuff. Um,
So I don't think a year of kids not getting
and we're seeing believe it or not, even people that
are healthy, we're still seeing Coxsackie. We're still seeing rosiola,
which we don't really. People are shocked. They're like, we've
we've got nowhere, We've seen nowhere. How are they still
getting this? That is a mystery. Um, either they're not

(52:54):
as safe as they believe to be, or it's something
latent that just comes out that's just they or you
know when it is. I think kids are going to
get sick, whether you you know you have a sibling
and you get sick when you're six months old, or
you don't see anybody till you're in kindergarten and you
get sick when you're in kindergarten. I think one year
of not having the Petri dishes. Okay, Okay, see guys, ha,

(53:19):
I just took a really nice collective breath because I'm
just so like, whenever my kid does go back to school,
we are going to be sick for two years. Like
I'm like, I mean, the flues and the colds and
the caves and the sore throats and the strep throats
and all that garbage. But I guess it'll just pick
up and be normal. Like it'll be really good hands
oh that's true, feel really good at covering their silver lining.

(53:43):
They'll be good handwashers, will be good at covering their
mouths um, and they'll they'll be a little bit like
stand back, you know, they'll be a little bit probably
better at it. That's very true. Um. A lot of
listeners have school and daycare questions that I'm going to
get you right now. And thank you all you awesome
listeners for getting back to us and being part of

(54:04):
the Katie's crib community and asking these awesome questions. So, um,
Shelly asks, I have three year old twins. One twin
has chronic asthma. The twins are supposed to start preschool
in September. My son's allergists said the social benefits of
preschool outweigh the risks of him getting COVID and impacting
his asthma. Thoughts, Um, I think it depends on where

(54:25):
you live. So you have to look at the numbers.
You know, right now New York is really low, other
places are really high. I think what they've laid out
for when they're going to start stuff, and what percent
of people need to be negative or represent need to
be positive, and how quickly that goes up. You know,
you've got twins, so I feel like the socialization isn't
kind of already there because you've got two of them.
But that's true if your allergist is saying it. So

(54:47):
I don't know the severity of the asthma or anything
like that, but um, I think you listen to your doctors,
look at ask your preschool what they're doing. If they're like, wow,
just come back in, then maybe you look again. And
if they have a if they have an actual plan.
They're looking at filters, They're looking you know, filters in
the areation. If they're going to be outside a lot
of the time, if they're going to have like a

(55:08):
what they're calling cohorts or bubbles of kids that they
keep together, they have to have a plan. I think,
I think you just want to know. I've been feeling
that a lot with my group, with my mom friends,
and that a lot of people who because I Albi
hasn't started preschool yet, and I looked at a bunch
and so you guys know like in l A and
not everyone has this, but a lot of the preschools

(55:29):
are moving completely outdoors, no indoor classes for a while,
and then they're splitting the playyards so that kids are
sort of split into like four to six kids pods
um that they will stick with the whole time. And
then and then a bunch of the preschools have like
put in running rivers in the front of soap and water,
like like kids are washing their hands every thirty minutes,

(55:52):
or what's their plan for potty breaks? You know, like
who's cleaning the bathroom in between each person? Like these
are the questions I've slowly learned through friends to ask like, um,
how are they cleaning the inside? With what you have
to trust? You're gonna have to trust your kids, bestie also,
because those are the people that are going to be
putting you at risk or not putting at risk. I

(56:13):
think you have to have you can have conversations with
you know, we're in the same pod. We gotta we
gotta do this, we gotta do the right thing, And
I think that's an important conversation to have as well.
It's a lot like safe sex. It's so insane, like
because we've only opened our pod to one other family. Um,
they live around the corner. The mother is eight and
a half months pregnant, which is really scary because she

(56:35):
we all want to keep her protected and her daughter
is six weeks younger than my son. And we're the
parents are very very good friends, and we it took
weeks of deliberation where we felt like, hey, these are
the rules. I'm going to tell you if I've seen
anybody else, and then you can decide if you want
to take a fourteen daybreak from plate dates. It's a
trust thing, but it's literally like who how many partners

(56:59):
have you had? How to use protection. It's like insane,
It's like, oh my gosh. Absolutely, Hi Katie, this is
from Renee. I live in a dense area of Boston.
I'm a mom of four little ones. Wow, bravo to you,
ages six to five months. When my daughter's school opens
in the fall and she goes to first grade, what
are some ways I can keep the babies at home

(57:20):
healthy from the school germs. So you brings home. All
three older kids share one room in our twelve square
foot department. Oh and then I just have to add
this part. She wrote, You're my favorite actress. Thank you
for being there for me during long lonely post part
of days in the form of scandal and through this podcast.
So much love, Renee. Yeah, I love you, Renee. That
it's so nice of you sending so much love to you.
That's wonderful. Okay, I forgot the question. No, I'm kidding.

(57:44):
So she has an older kid that she wants to
go back to school, and then she has little ones.
Oh God, what do you do there? Um? You know,
So it's it's what I do. So I go to work.
I go to work every day. Um, I've been wearing scrubs.
I love them. Um, I changed when I get home.
I watched my The first thing I do when I
get to work is wash my hands. The first thing
I do when I get home is wash my hands

(58:05):
and take a shower. Um, So I think it's I mean,
I think when she comes home, you can you can
have home clothes or you know, hang out pajamas if
you really want to be safe. Since they're so so close,
make sure she washes her hands. Um, you can give
her shaff you, but make make sure you do it
once over on her. I'm assuming she's the oldest or
the eldest, so not touching her face, not coughing, she

(58:25):
shouldn't have to wear a mask in her own house.
I don't. I think that's reasonable. But I think if
she comes home and washes her hands and washes her face,
and we talked about not coughing, and and then as
soon as you see an inkling of you know, maybe
a fever something, then you can call your pediatrician. Maybe
put her a little bit to the side. Yeah, from
the other kids, So let me ask about that sort

(58:48):
of leads us into visitors and at natural ce Levine,
she asks, I will deliver second baby in October. The
first child turns through in November. How do I manage
parents and in laws that want help with both kids
but won't have been in our COVID bubble beforehand. One
set is local, one set will travel across the country.
Do we enforce a fourteen day quarantine everyone gets tested? Help?

(59:09):
This is a huge hot topic question for everyone I
know pregnant at the moment and really needing assistance and
help in their home with either family that lives close
by or a night nurse, or like, how do people
deal with family immediate family and getting them in their
bubbles for when the baby comes. So I'll answer the

(59:32):
easy question first, which is people that live in your
hometown and local people. You certainly I think it's reasonable
to ask to quarantine for fourteen days. Um. Yeah, people
that are flying across the country, I think it's a
little more difficult. It's you know, they're going to be flying,
they're going to be on a plane, they're gonna be
in the universe. So I think, you know, asking them

(59:53):
to get tests when they get local, um, but having
them safe or reasonable enough time. So that's that's a
thing to do. But I think it's doable and the
risk reward of having your family close and being able
to help is important as well when you're a new mom.
And do you think people who are flying should get
tested and quarantine for fourteen days? If that's even a reality?

(01:00:16):
I mean, who who can take off? You know? Good
Lord like that? I mean that would be perfection, But
I think it's probably going to be one or the other. Yeah. Um.
In reality from Panama, she says, thank you for opening
up this space my pleasure. Um. This is from Alejandra
and she says, I'm a teacher. I'm a mommy of
three little ones, nine, five and six months old. Like

(01:00:38):
any mom, my biggest concern is if I get sick,
who cares for my little ones? Especially a baby who's
still nursing? Which brings me to my question. If you
test positive for coronavirus and have to self isolate, can
you continue nursing? Does testing positive mean you need to
be away from your children for two weeks while you
stop being positive? Many thanks for providing the space for
worried mommies like me. So the guidelines are to take precautions,

(01:01:01):
wear a mask, wash your hands, wash all your tubing,
and your breast pump stuff really well. Um, and they
haven't seen I mean, once again, the data is so
little for you know, a positive you know, but they
haven't seen a lot of transmission. Um. But take precautions
as you would if you were in you know, outside

(01:01:23):
or with someone who is who you thought might be positive.
So masks, handwashing, and and keeping separate when you're not,
you know, for for a little while until you're negative. Yeah,
maybe fourteen days of like staying away and only being
near the baby while breastfeeding exactly. Yeah, I wonder pumping, Yeah,
pumping or you like wear gloves and a mask, mask

(01:01:44):
and do mostly pumping and a few breastfeeds a day,
depending on how many feeds you're doing a day exact.
They're hoping they're antibodies that way too, because usually nursing
their anabo where they're hoping that that's transmissible, but studies
aren't conclusive yet. So gosh, Dr Daniel Taylor, you are
just everyone everyone feel her vibe. See it's so for me,

(01:02:08):
it's like to have a calm pediatriction is like a
perfect yin to my yang. Any partying bits of advice
or wisdom or just you want to talk me off
a ledge in front of everybody. Sure sure, UM, I,
just as a healthcare provider want to say, don't don't
miss your appointments, vaccinate on time. Don't feel like we're open.

(01:02:32):
We're we're you can call and ask what we're doing.
We're seeing babies in the morning, younger kids in the afternoon.
In six spots are just very little. We're separating everybody.
But keep your appointments and vaccinate because we don't want
this to end and then have a pandemic of something
else that's you know, kids could get vaccinated for. So
make sure you keep those appointments. UM call us talk

(01:02:54):
to us, UM call before find out what's an emergency.
Don't freak out on your own. Don't just run to
the emergency. Call us and trust us UM to answer questions. UM.
Follow the rules, wear masks, wash your hands, limit your
contacts UM because it's it's the easiest way to have

(01:03:15):
all of this. Be a little bit more behind us.
Be patient, Be patient with your doctors, Be patient with yourself.
Be patient with the new rules. Sometimes only one parent
can come in sometimes I mean be patient that we're
doing it too to protect everybody. And if if our
guidelines are different one day than they were the next.
Stay to be patient with that too, because it's all new.

(01:03:35):
This is really you're bringing up such great points I had.
I was pushing my Albie's two and a half year
check up and pushing it and pushing it, and then
I called and asked the doctor like a million questions,
like how are you keeping separate? And they only had
appointments for non sick kids in the morning, and they
were super spaced out. I didn't see anybody, and it

(01:03:55):
was so great and so well handled. And I'm sure, like,
how many doctors are doing that at like you said
you are. And then I think that the that pediatricians
in general like have just been so wonderful at moving
so many medical things to phone calls, questions and tele medicine.
Like so if you're having that gut sort of twinge

(01:04:17):
that something's not right, it's like I can send photos
like in this time, my son's tooth has turned gray
from a fall. He's had weird broken capillaries on his
face from a crying fit he had, And I'm just
like sending close up photos with my actor audition ring
light to my you know, to you oh, I sent

(01:04:38):
you pictures of his gray tooth, because but like I
just feel like we really have to call on our pediatricians,
like you're saying, ask a lot of questions, use the phone,
use FaceTime, email, pictures like whatever, so that you can
stay on top of any symptoms you see. Um, but
also keep caring for your kid, because they do other

(01:05:00):
stupid stuff that has nothing to do with COVID, A
lot of false a lot of trampoline stuff. Um, there's
there's actually a pitch the American Academy of Pediatrics AP
hashtag call your pediatrician. I mean, it's just call us.
We're here, we want we want to talk to you.
We want to talk to you after ledge. Thank you
so much for being on Katie's crib and for being
a voice of reason during this very epic, intense stressful

(01:05:24):
time for new moms, for moms of toddlers, for moms
with multiple kids, and at Katie's crib. This is the
info we have right now on COVID. Thanks for having me.
Thank you, Dr Daniel Taylor. Thank you guys so much
for listening. I hope that helped calm some of your nerves.
Stay calm, carry on, You got this subscribe, tell your friends,

(01:05:48):
follow us on all the socials at Katie's Crib, and also,
if you have any thoughts or ideas of things you'd
like to hear more about, you can email me at
Katie's Crib at Shonda land dot com. Thanks guys, till
next time, ka Katie's Crib is a production of iHeart

(01:06:09):
Radio and Shonda Land Audio. For more podcasts from I
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