I want to know when it'll stop being required for flights. My 2yo will wear one in daycare or at the store (although it's optional) but absolutely refuses on a flight. Flight attendants have thankfully looked the other way, but it's going to get harder and harder to fudge that she's "23 months."

Anonymous wrote:I could see them going away, but having different quarantine requirements for exposures based on whether your kid was vaccinated or wearing a mask.

If you're that worried why not hire a nanny? With 2 other kids it would probably be more cost effective to have a nanny for the 2 year old that also watched the older kids in the afternoon than to pay for 2 lots of aftercare?

For what its worth, my kid is 2 and has been in part time preschool masked this year. She is speaking in full sentences and has a large vocabulary. From talking with the other parents in her class / age group no one is seeing a language delay in their kids either. (Small sample I know). I think if your kid is going to have a language delay its going to happen regardless of Covid. Its probably only a very small number of kids for whom Covid is making a significant difference with respect to language acquisition.

I think there is a difference between being in a masked environment, part time, for the past few months (I’m assuming September since you said they started this year) and nearly two years in a full time childcare environment, as it has been for some kids (e.g. essential worker kids who continued to go to childcare spring 2020).

Anecdotally, my kids both attended a Spanish immersion daycare until they were 3. My oldest had already moved on to preschool when the pandemic started, but my youngest was there for much of the pandemic. She never picked up Spanish like her older sibling did, I dont think she could understand what the teachers were saying.

I could see them going away, but having different quarantine requirements for exposures based on whether your kid was vaccinated or wearing a mask.

If you're that worried why not hire a nanny? With 2 other kids it would probably be more cost effective to have a nanny for the 2 year old that also watched the older kids in the afternoon than to pay for 2 lots of aftercare?

For what its worth, my kid is 2 and has been in part time preschool masked this year. She is speaking in full sentences and has a large vocabulary. From talking with the other parents in her class / age group no one is seeing a language delay in their kids either. (Small sample I know). I think if your kid is going to have a language delay its going to happen regardless of Covid. Its probably only a very small number of kids for whom Covid is making a significant difference with respect to language acquisition.

Anonymous wrote:Virginia doesn’t require them now.

MoCo will probably require them in the fall. My child’s speech therapist is booked solid and has a long waitlist from all the new speech issues caused by masking around kids this young, so you have good instincts.

Even in MoCo, there are a number of in-home daycares that never required them for the kids. I think that would be your best bet because I agree with others that there is no offramp in center environments.

They'll definitely still be in place in the DC area.

Covid vaccines for kids aren't likely to become available until early summer, even if the 3-dose trial goes well.

Once available, it will stay take a couple of months to get a child fully vaccinated with three doses.

Access to full vaccination has not been enough incentive to get rid of masks for 5-11 year old kids yet.

Public health officials will be hesitant to take away any precautions during low-spread periods of time like summer because of concern that a new variant could arise or we could see a winter resurgence of cases. They will basically keep precautions up until there is no risk of a rise in cases.

I'm very opposed to masks for young children, but also clear-eyed about the politics at play here. There is no benchmark or offramp for measures like this and in progressive cities, leaders are going to be extremely hesitant to drop them.

Anonymous wrote:There's no way to tell.

If you want a guarantee, you'll have to move to a state like florida. But in the meantime, do more talking and interacting with your kid and less TV/iPad that most toddlers get these days. Worth the effort!

So negative and unnecessary

Fall? If I had to bet, I'd bet no masks by fall, or at least optional. But it is really hard to predict - practically eons away in pandemic terms. 9 months ago vaccines were just getting to be widespread, and I probably would have made the same bet (and been wrong).

Here is why I think no masks, unless something surprising happens:
1) < 5 vaccines will be available, so those that really are waiting on those will have them. There is not another goal post.
2) COVID will be endemic and also effective antiviral treatment should have scaled up to a reasonable level
3) maybe the pan-COVID vaccines will have progressed???

If some new variant comes along that is severe (or more) as COVID Classic. and gets around our vaccines, my bet likely would be wrong. Or politicians could just choose to accept the excess death and hospital chaos, which seems like a plausible decision. Or they could have masking, but fall in line with WHO for kid masking. It is really hard to guess.

I’m fighting to unmask the kids ASAP. If you are a parent you need to SPEAK UP! Get on Twitter, send emails!

Anonymous wrote:There are some preschools in Virginia that aren’t requiring them for under 5s now. If that’s doable based on where you live, I’d research them now and secure a spot. You could also apply to a school near you in case policies change and just withdraw from your backup come fall.

Which ones? I'm looking for one.

Virginia doesn’t require them now.

MoCo will probably require them in the fall. My child’s speech therapist is booked solid and has a long waitlist from all the new speech issues caused by masking around kids this young, so you have good instincts.

Very likely in MoCo. The Health Dept is driven by fear.

There are some preschools in Virginia that aren’t requiring them for under 5s now. If that’s doable based on where you live, I’d research them now and secure a spot. You could also apply to a school near you in case policies change and just withdraw from your backup come fall.

Anonymous wrote:There's no way to tell.

If you want a guarantee, you'll have to move to a state like florida. But in the meantime, do more talking and interacting with your kid and less TV/iPad that most toddlers get these days. Worth the effort!

My child hasn't used an iPad or watched tv yet but thanks for the parenting advice. I have 3 older children and I know how to interact with babies/children. Im not sure why you assumed my child watches tv/uses an iPad from my post.

There's no way to tell.

If you want a guarantee, you'll have to move to a state like florida. But in the meantime, do more talking and interacting with your kid and less TV/iPad that most toddlers get these days. Worth the effort!

What do we think the odds of this are? My child will be 2 starting the new school year and for language development reasons I really don't want him in a mask at school. I honestly could not imagine this would still be a thing when Covid happened when I was still pregnant!