pediatricians warn about the consequences of the crisis on children

As the summer holidays begin on Tuesday, the children will be able to take advantage of two months of long-awaited vacation. But after an atypical school year marked by the coronavirus epidemic, the wearing of masks, the suspension of many extracurricular and sports activities, or even distance courses for some, many specialists are worried about the impact of this crisis. on their health. This is the case of the National Union of French Pediatricians, which alerts the public authorities.

For these specialists in childhood, many indicators are in the red. During the health crisis, tens of thousands of recommended vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella or against the papillomavirus, for example, were not injected, due to lack of usual medical monitoring.

“A crisis exit consultation would be a good thing”

The health crisis has also created a lot of stress, even depression and hospitalizations in pediatrics. For Dr Brigitte Virey, who chairs the National Union of French Pediatricians, children currently need special medical attention.

“For a period, we had never had so much abdominal pain. When a child says he has a stomach ache, it’s his way of saying that there is something wrong”, she explains to Europe 1. For her, “a consultation to end the crisis would be a good thing, so that we can appreciate all the damage that this crisis may have done to young and old”.

Risk of dropping out of school or language delays

Pediatricians are calling for this consultation to end the crisis, because beyond health, wearing a mask has also sometimes led to language delays in young children, while distance school has been able to create learning difficulties. reading, or dropping out of school for older children.

So many difficulties already noted and documented after the SARS crisis in Asia in 2003, but which can sometimes go unnoticed without the eyes of a professional.