Children age 6 and up can help at one of the monthly community packs where they’ll pack food for the hungry. In addition to helping with the local hunger problems, they exist to ignite a passion for volunteerism in our community. The Million Meal Movement provides millions of meals every year to feed Indiana’s hungry. Volunteering with Kids in Indianapolis Million Meal Movement Community Pack If you know of other organizations that allow families and youth to volunteer, please contact us so we can add the volunteer organization to our list. Volunteering with children also gives them hope that there’s a solution to the hardest problems. Volunteering and doing random acts of kindness with your children teach compassion, responsibility and an understanding of why it is important to help others. To schedule your vaccination, call 211 or visit ourshot.in.gov. Many sites also offer walk-in appointments.If you’re looking for a place to volunteer with kids, we have some great ideas for you! The Indy with Kids team has been participating in local family-friendly volunteer opportunities throughout Indiana and we can’t wait to share them with you. The previous year 200 children died of flu. Last year when everyone was wearing masks, only one child died of flu in the United States. Wearing masks will help prevent not only COVID but other respiratory diseases such as influenza, he added. In addition, people whether they’re vaccinated or not can wear masks, social distance in a crowd and if possible avoid large gatherings. How can we protect unvaccinated kids?Īdults and older siblings can get vaccinated themselves, Christenson said. Loss of taste and or smell are signs of COVID but RSV is most common in young children, who may not be able to communicate that symptom. Even with years of training, he said, it often can be difficult to distinguish the two conditions without testing for COVID.ĬOVID can produce a wide range of symptoms many of which mimic those of RSV, such as fever, coughing and difficulty breathing. In the emergency department, you never want to be first in line because if you are that means you are the sickest person there.” How can you tell RSV from COVID?
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“We’re doing the best we can to see the increased numbers of patients…. “We want to take care of all of the kids as we possibly can,” he said. With the increased numbers of patients, however, people can expect longer waits for their children to be seen if they do not require immediate care.ĭoctors will triage the most serious cases, so he asked parents to be patient.
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What should parents expect in emergency room?Įmergency rooms doctors are skilled at triaging sick children, Wagers said. If children are eating, breathing without difficulty and can keep their food down, the best place for them to be is at home with their parents, Christenson said. When should I bring my child to the emergency room? “If it’s just to have a test done or peace of mind, the emergency room is not the place to be this time of year,” he said. Parents are better off taking mildly ill children to be tested at a doctor’s office or urgent care site, Christenson said. Although the hospital strives to keep its patients isolated in the emergency room, if your child does not have a serious respiratory illness, he or she could be exposed to one while there. Unless your child is very sick, think twice before bringing him or her to Riley for a COVID test, the doctors say. Here’s what Christenson and Wagers want parents to know: Should I have my child tested for COVID in the emergency room? Statewide 1,654 people, most of them adults, are hospitalized for COVID, according to the state dashboard. Riley also has several pregnant women hospitalized with COVID, Wagers said. Seven are hospitalized with RSV, about twice as many as the hospital saw the previous week. More: As Indiana's COVID cases soar past 3,500, state health officials work to ramp up testingĬurrently 11 children are hospitalized at Riley with COVID, some who are quite sick. Add to that the usual complement of trauma and cancer patients and the hospital is unusually busy, Christenson said. Meanwhile, many children are coming down with respiratory syncytial virus, a cold-like ailment not typically seen at this time of year whose symptoms closely mirror those of COVID.