Do your little ones wear masks?

[Heartofstrings]

Just curious. We went to the test centre on Monday. My 3 year old was wearing a mask - as were me and my husband. They asked us to mask the 4 year old too. Naturally, he refused (possible asd, sensory issues).

Covid negative. Awesome. Local diy shop today. Again unmasked 4 year old and masked 3 year old. Should I be trying to force the 4 year old? I feel he should be wearing a mask

Where do you live? My two have worn them occasionally but not worn religiously. They are 6 and just 10 and not required in England. Hoping the country will be mask free by the time DS turns 11! He is autistic and sensory issues too! He can wear for very short bursts but he gets agitated and takes it off!

[quote ChaBishkoot]Taiwan: masks and quarantine
www.wired.co.uk/article/taiwan-coronavirus-covid-response

So they locked the island down but kept normal life going with masks, PPE and contact tracing.
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/09/21/asia/taiwan-model-coronavirus-hnk-intl/index.html

South Korea used masks, test/trace and very strong social distancing measures

bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-020-01791-8[/quote]
They closed the borders, they didn’t lock down. Important difference.

And South Korea didn’t lock down either.

They had other strategies, and not the same ones. East Asia is not a monolith and I’m tired of people acting like it is

I judge people who have tiny toddlers in them

Me too, their perception of risk is way off

Just wondering for the people saying oh there won't be any masks anywhere soon, have they not seen anything for years about Asia? It's not constant but it's like good manners if you have a cold to wear one in public so you don't infect anyone else and has been the way for years (since SARS/MERS). Why do you think it won't become a thing here? (Not saying just for kids just in general, why do you think they'll just be forgotten or done away with after this).

@RuggerHug

Just wondering for the people saying oh there won't be any masks anywhere soon, have they not seen anything for years about Asia? It's not constant but it's like good manners if you have a cold to wear one in public so you don't infect anyone else and has been the way for years (since SARS/MERS). Why do you think it won't become a thing here? (Not saying just for kids just in general, why do you think they'll just be forgotten or done away with after this).

Because nobody wants it.

@RuggerHug

Just wondering for the people saying oh there won't be any masks anywhere soon, have they not seen anything for years about Asia? It's not constant but it's like good manners if you have a cold to wear one in public so you don't infect anyone else and has been the way for years (since SARS/MERS). Why do you think it won't become a thing here? (Not saying just for kids just in general, why do you think they'll just be forgotten or done away with after this).

For sure, next flu season we’ll see them again. Even though flu rates in East Asia have not shown any reductions through mask wearing.

TrusttheGeneGenie But surely all of this has shown that there's no one opinion that suits everyone so it can't be that no one wants it? I realised how many times I used the word just in what I said before and it doesn't look right 🙈

@RuggerHug

TrusttheGeneGenie But surely all of this has shown that there's no one opinion that suits everyone so it can't be that no one wants it? I realised how many times I used the word just in what I said before and it doesn't look right 🙈

Okay I'll rephrase

Only a tiny minority want it

Most of us don't want to wear masks. After all there was nothing stopping us wearing masks ore pandemic but nobody did. Sure there will be a few people who want to continue but I don't think it'll be many.

The best thing people can do if they're sick is stay at home. Employers shouldn't force ill people into work, you should be allowed to work from home where possible and sick pay should be better. I think that would make several times as much difference as wearing a bit of cloth over your face when you're infectious would.

Completely agree that staying home would be the best option and it shouldn't be an issue to have sick leave!

@RuggerHug

Just wondering for the people saying oh there won't be any masks anywhere soon, have they not seen anything for years about Asia? It's not constant but it's like good manners if you have a cold to wear one in public so you don't infect anyone else and has been the way for years (since SARS/MERS). Why do you think it won't become a thing here? (Not saying just for kids just in general, why do you think they'll just be forgotten or done away with after this).

Travelling through China in the year of Swine flu, masks were still a rare sight. Sometimes seen on people spending prolonged periods in areas of particularly high air pollution such as working next to a busy road, but certainly nowhere near as commonplace as MN posters would tend to have you believe.

My children do not wear face coverings. I attempted it for a medical appointment for my sensory 9yo last summer which was a pretty pointless gesture with the amount of fiddling and fidgeting going on. We haven't had any other face to face appointments so there has been absolutely no need for anything else, and places like Gullivers that expect it can get stuffed, I'm free to vote with my feet (and bank card).

I am concerned about the cumulative effect of measures on children. Having had a child with speech delays and a life long difference in communication and social skills, it is so important for children to see faces for expression and how faces make sounds (which continues to mature into the school years), to hear clear and undistorted sounds, and to be clearly understood themselves. Add in all the other deprivations of social contact with peers, family and society and heavily compromised access to support from agencies such as HVs. It is very likely that communication issues are being exacerbated and many children's opportinities for early intervention being lost. Not everyone catches up naturally and development windows can be quite narrow.

@RuggerHug

Just wondering for the people saying oh there won't be any masks anywhere soon, have they not seen anything for years about Asia? It's not constant but it's like good manners if you have a cold to wear one in public so you don't infect anyone else and has been the way for years (since SARS/MERS). Why do you think it won't become a thing here? (Not saying just for kids just in general, why do you think they'll just be forgotten or done away with after this).

No. There is no way I am wearing a mask when law no longer states I have to. I know no one who would.

Life is hard enough at the moment without struggling to get a mask on a child who is exempt anyway. I would be more likely to take the 3yos mask off, you might get less questions that way. However, if you’ve been staying home, don’t let nursery panic you into taking them out unless you really want to. They will catch up in the end and schools are already planning for a September intake who’ve had a very unusual preschool experience.

BogRoll it really wasn’t a thing to wear a mask in China except on ‘bad air’ days. Maybe in Hong
Kong though?

It was absolutely always a thing in Japan for people to wear a mask when they were sick. Not as a preventative though. At least, not until now.

@RuggerHug

Just wondering for the people saying oh there won't be any masks anywhere soon, have they not seen anything for years about Asia? It's not constant but it's like good manners if you have a cold to wear one in public so you don't infect anyone else and has been the way for years (since SARS/MERS). Why do you think it won't become a thing here? (Not saying just for kids just in general, why do you think they'll just be forgotten or done away with after this).

The UK isn't Asia and I'd presume we have a different mindset than Asia.

Some people will take longer than others to return to the normal/default state, but I think five years from now mask wearing will be the exception rather than the norm.

You only need to look at the use of hand sanitiser as an example. It was a prized possession this time last year and a huge proportion of people used it - perhaps to excess - but the decease in usage today is because a) the evidence shows that surface transmission is unlikely, or b) people have slipped back into their default habits. My money is on the latter.

No. It’s a terrible thing to do.

DS(10) does not wear a mask as he is not required to. Very much hoping masks will be a thing of the past when he turns 11 but I won't be making him wear one then either.

I'm not going to attempt to defend or attack the scientific value of masks because I'm not a scientist but there's one piece of anecdotal evidence I find interesting, which is that in the UK, where young children don't have to wear masks in school, this was considered a problematic, high transmission area.

Where I am, all children six and over wear masks all day in school except for eating and drinking and we had hardly any cases of transmission in schools. These were considered one of the safest areas.