Anonymous wrote:I hope so. The mask-wearing has meant none of those pesky childhood viruses/ strep infections etc have come through the home this year!

same. 3 year old did fine these past 8 months with a mask at full-time pre-school. Imagine until kids are vaccinated, masks will be required in the fall.

I hope so. The mask-wearing has meant none of those pesky childhood viruses/ strep infections etc have come through the home this year!

Our 2yo DD wears a mask at daycare. I didn't stress too much about it beforehand. I think she wears it because she sees the other kids wearing theirs. I have to wonder how much the masks really do. I mean they take them off for breakfast, snack, lunch, nap, another snack and another one after that. Most children's masks on the market are for 3 and up, and most of the time Dad's nose isn't really covered. But whatever, she is safe and seems happy, her language continues to explode, and the daycare is just following the rules so no complaints from us.

The closest thing that I can find to a study of daycares is this:
https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/147/1/e2020031971

Even with only 12% of responding providers reporting that 2-5 year olds were required to wear masks, they still didn't find that providers were at increased risk of COVID compared to other adults in matched groups.

Obviously there are a lot of limitations to that study, and it doesn't directly answer the question about the efficacy of masks on 2-5 year olds, but it certainly doesn't support a conclusion that they help.

Parent of a 3.5 year old. I will say that kids acclimate to masks quicker than you think once they hit 3ish. When DD was 2.5, it was a challenge. But after she reached 3, it got progressively better and now she has no issue putting it on.

One of the issues with wearing it at school though is that she isn't very independent with it. If her mask comes off (which will happen sometimes with little kids and the way they play), she needs someone else to help put it on. Her PK is fine with this -- the kids are mostly outside and it's a very small cohort so they require masks but don't freak out if there is a child who struggle to wear it the full time. But I do worry about next year if she is in full day at DCPS, inside all day, where I know the rules will be stricter. We are working on her feeling more comfortable putting on her own mask when she needs to. It's tough. It's a coordination issue. She'll get better but I don't know where she will be in the fall.

This is a broader concern and I'm not sure anything can be done, but I also worry about the impact of full time mask wearing on kids in PK/K/1st regarding language acquisition. Not just the kids but the teachers, too. My DD is talkative and friendly and smiley at home. But when wearing a mask, she struggles to be understood. I worry that it's harder for her to communicate at school and that inhibits what she's supposed to be learning there. And then of course not being able to see facial expressions or watch her teacher's mouth form words -- it's one thing for a few months or even a year, but for multiple years? I feel like that could have a real longterm impact.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In VA, the mask mandate is for ages 5+. I definitely don't think 2 year olds will be required in the Fall. But I do think the 5+ range still will be.

I'm not sure about DC or other areas. My guess is whatever the mandate is now will still be the mandate this fall.

Good news - kids don't really care and adapt very fast.

Clearly you don't have a child with ASD. We've had 3 therapists working with ours for the last year. We've made progress- we're able to hold the mask up to his face for 20 seconds. He won't tolerate that any longer, and he definitely don't tolerate the straps, regardless of whether they go behind his hears or behind his head.

Not everything is about your special needs child. OP's child is not special needs therefore your comment is irrelevant.

The OP's post is about masks mandates for very young children. Those do have negative consequences, so whatever benefits they have should be balanced against those costs.

And have you ever really watched 2-5 year olds wearing masks? They really don't make masks that fit 3 year olds well, so they're almost always loose. They slide off regularly, or children remove them regularly. And kids are regularly touching them.

I'm sure masks help when they're used properly. But small kids aren't using them properly, which is bound to greatly reduce whatever benefits they provide.

Has anyone done any studies of covid cases in daycare centers with/without masks?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In VA, the mask mandate is for ages 5+. I definitely don't think 2 year olds will be required in the Fall. But I do think the 5+ range still will be.

I'm not sure about DC or other areas. My guess is whatever the mandate is now will still be the mandate this fall.

Good news - kids don't really care and adapt very fast.

Clearly you don't have a child with ASD. We've had 3 therapists working with ours for the last year. We've made progress- we're able to hold the mask up to his face for 20 seconds. He won't tolerate that any longer, and he definitely don't tolerate the straps, regardless of whether they go behind his hears or behind his head.

I'm sorry. That's hard and it must make you extremely anxious. A friend of mine went through similar for months and months and one day it just clicked and her child is double masking, but I know that's not every situation.

This is why until kids can be vaccinated we all have a responsibility to one anohter -- so that your child can be protected because he deserves to be.

Pp here. Honestly, a COVID infection is the least of my concerns with my son, except for the related consequences that would have on stopping his therapy for a few weeks. My child doesn't really need to be protected from COVID. COVID isn't a significant risk to *him.*

But, I do recognize that he would still be an infection risk to others if he were to ultimately get COVID. So I do want to do the right thing and not unnecessarily expose others. But I also want to do the right thing for my son, which is not to isolate him from society for an extended period of time that is critical to his development.

So I don't know what to do. No one seems very optimistic about masks- it's not like this is unique to masks. He won't wear hats or mittens either. I do think people need to remember that there a variety of risks in life besides COVID, and at a certain point (likely, when a majority of adults are vaccinated), the risks of COVID will not be particularly large in the context of overall risks. But I don't have a lot of confidence that will happen.

Alternatively, the FDA could open up the vaccine to all ages on an experiment basis as the pediatric trials continue. If that would help him be able to interact with others (without a mask) I would happily accept any risks there. But I don't really think FDA and CDC really care about kids- they still seem disproportionately focused on protecting the elderly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In VA, the mask mandate is for ages 5+. I definitely don't think 2 year olds will be required in the Fall. But I do think the 5+ range still will be.

I'm not sure about DC or other areas. My guess is whatever the mandate is now will still be the mandate this fall.

Good news - kids don't really care and adapt very fast.

Clearly you don't have a child with ASD. We've had 3 therapists working with ours for the last year. We've made progress- we're able to hold the mask up to his face for 20 seconds. He won't tolerate that any longer, and he definitely don't tolerate the straps, regardless of whether they go behind his hears or behind his head.

I'm sorry. That's hard and it must make you extremely anxious. A friend of mine went through similar for months and months and one day it just clicked and her child is double masking, but I know that's not every situation.

This is why until kids can be vaccinated we all have a responsibility to one anohter -- so that your child can be protected because he deserves to be.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In VA, the mask mandate is for ages 5+. I definitely don't think 2 year olds will be required in the Fall. But I do think the 5+ range still will be.

I'm not sure about DC or other areas. My guess is whatever the mandate is now will still be the mandate this fall.

Good news - kids don't really care and adapt very fast.

Clearly you don't have a child with ASD. We've had 3 therapists working with ours for the last year. We've made progress- we're able to hold the mask up to his face for 20 seconds. He won't tolerate that any longer, and he definitely don't tolerate the straps, regardless of whether they go behind his hears or behind his head.

Not everything is about your special needs child. OP's child is not special needs therefore your comment is irrelevant.

Anonymous wrote:I’m not anti mask by any means I’m just genuinely curious if you think masks will still be required at preschools since teachers and adults will mostly be vaccinated. I don’t know how my child will wear hers all day. Ugh.

Your child may surprise you. Mine did.

My four year old has been wearing a mask daily since July (when she was three). Trust me, even the most ornery and oppositional three year old will wear a mask more compliantly than most Boomers.

Most but not all kids will cope just fine with masking. Kids are surprisingly adaptable, especially young ones.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue isn't the adults, but the kids and kids can pass covid to each other and their unvaccinated families and other adults and kids in the community. I would hope so.

Then when does it end? We may never reach "herd immunity".

Once kids can get vaccinated.

We need to stop acting like it is a foregone conclusion that kids should or will be vaccinated. The latter part of the article below is interesting. People need to be educated about the actual risks of covid to kids and the necessity of vaccinating them. Some are using it as another reason to delay return to normal.

https://www.statnews.com/2021/02/03/kids-dont-need-covid-19-vaccines-to-return-to-school/

Anonymous wrote:In VA, the mask mandate is for ages 5+. I definitely don't think 2 year olds will be required in the Fall. But I do think the 5+ range still will be.

I'm not sure about DC or other areas. My guess is whatever the mandate is now will still be the mandate this fall.

Good news - kids don't really care and adapt very fast.

I wish MoCo would change to 5+, or even 3+, but I doubt they will. It's been a struggle with our 2yo, a year makes a big difference.

Anonymous wrote:In VA, the mask mandate is for ages 5+. I definitely don't think 2 year olds will be required in the Fall. But I do think the 5+ range still will be.

I'm not sure about DC or other areas. My guess is whatever the mandate is now will still be the mandate this fall.

Good news - kids don't really care and adapt very fast.

Clearly you don't have a child with ASD. We've had 3 therapists working with ours for the last year. We've made progress- we're able to hold the mask up to his face for 20 seconds. He won't tolerate that any longer, and he definitely don't tolerate the straps, regardless of whether they go behind his hears or behind his head.