Children fainting after "recovering" from Covid?

[twolinesornone]

Hi all.

So DD10 tested positive Jan 17th. Admittedly, she was quite poorly for the first five days with a consistently high temperature, headache, body aches generally was sleeping a lot.

Thankfully she seemed to turn a corner, despite testing positive right up until her 10 day isolation period was over. She went back to school fine on the 28th.

Fast forward to yesterday and out of blue DD fainted. She was unconscious for approx 30 seconds and we were in children's A&E until 2am, whilst they ran various tests.

The conclusion was that this could be PoTs, which has been brought on as a complication of Covid. According to the doctor we spoke with, a lot of children had come through their doors having fainted after a recent Covid infection.

I'm going to follow up with the GP to rule out any other potential causes (anemia is on my radar), but having had a quick Google it seems that PoTS once you have it is a life long condition.

Has anyone else experienced this with their children? And if so, why am I only finding this out now?

Thanks in advance.

My son (also aged 10) had a kind of semi fainting episode on about day 11/12 I think, after doing trampolining. He lost all colour in his face and went very floppy and confused, but didn’t actually lose consciousness. He has been absolutely fine since. Hopefully it is a one off for your daughter too.

We've had several teens at my school have fainting episodes with no prior history since having covid.

Pots should be a diagnosis of exclusion. Have they checked other things like her heart over 24-48 hours / offered an mri / multiple blood pressure checks? Did they check her lungs / test for allergies? A child fainting for the first time is unusual and they need to tick off the more common causes first.

Thanks for posting this. Happened to my 9 year old also.

There's some evidence that Covid 19 inactivates vitamin B12 and that 'long Covid' is actually B12 deficiency, at least in many cases. And B12 deficiency can cause PoTS, especially in children and teenagers. It's worth getting their B12 tested, but even if it comes back 'normal', there's no harm in giving them a high dose B12 sublingual to see if that helps

We've had another 6 students have risk assessment done on them due to fainting incidents. Definitely seems to be a trend.

And if so, why am I only finding this out now?

That's the problem with misinformation/disinformation that says covid doesn't affect children.

I have certainly read about it. Definitely talked about among people worried about effects of covid/long covid among children.

If you try vitamin b12 get a methylated one as around 15% of the population have a genetic mutation which means they don’t methylate the standard version found in most supplements. Health 4 all do a kids methyl b’s supplement.

I used to faint when I was young and it started when I was about ten so could be coincidence. Mine was classic vasovagal nerve fainting (eg at sight of blood etc). Covid infection is though to affect the vagus nerve in long covid sufferers so you could try things to activate it like singing and humming.

My DD 17 started heaving fainting episodes after COVID. The COVID was never confirmed as it was pre easily available testing but she had all the classic symptoms and Public Health declared an outbreak in her school.
The neurologist said that he had seen multiple teenagers with similar symptoms. She had multiple tests, which rules out everything apart from B12 deficiency, for which she was refused treatment because she wasn’t 18.
By the way….we had to get all tests and consultations done privately because there was literally no hope of anyone taking it seriously on the NHS, although the school were alarmed enough to refuse her, even as sixth former, access to school in person. The GP even wrote in her medical notes that she couldn’t learn to drive. So we had no option but to seek private care.
Several paramedic visits to the house, after total collapses. Each time they could find no reason.
It’s been very frustrating and has knocked her confidence hugely, as it’s caused her a lot of anxiety.
Op…. if you’re concerned, be prepared to dig in and insist on investigations. Our neurologist was amazed that we’d not been seen as a priority on the NHS….

A few pupils at my school have fainted after having covid. Quite a few have complained they feel faint and dizzy but didn't actually faint.