It’s tricky for anyone to have to quarantine during the pandemic, but it’s infinitely more so if it’s with a baby or toddler. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines may seem straightforward enough for an adult, how do you isolate from a wee one who needs to be fed, changed, put to bed and cuddled?
It can be hard to know what to do (and how not to lose your mind doing it). But there are ways to quarantine with a baby or toddler safely and keep your sanity in the process.
How to quarantine or isolate for COVID-19
The CDC has different recommendations for isolation — for people who are sick or test positive for COVID-19 — and quarantine, for people who had close contact with someone who has COVID-19. Here are the general guidelines to follow in each situation.
Isolation
If members of your household test positive for COVID-19, the CDC recommends that they should:
- Stay home for at least five days, with day one being the first full day after symptoms began or the test was done
- Isolate from others in the home
- Wear a well-fitted mask when they have to be around others
- Avoid travel
The isolation period can end after five days if they are fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and their symptoms are getting better. But they still need to take precautions. These include:
- Wearing a mask for five more days any time they are around others, including inside your home
- Not traveling for five more days
- Avoiding people who are at high risk
After day 10, they can resume everyday life again.
Quarantine
As far as other family members without symptoms or a positive test, whether they need to quarantine or not depends on whether they’re up-to-date on all their COVID vaccinations.
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If family members are up to date on their vaccines, they don’t need to quarantine unless they develop symptoms, the CDC says. (You should still take precautions like wearing a mask around others for 10 days, though.)
You also should get tested at least five days after the last close contact, and if you do develop symptoms, isolate immediately and get tested.
It’s a bit trickier for unvaccinated family members, including anyone under 6 months. They need to stay home and quarantine for at least five days from their last exposure, and get tested around day five.
While the CDC technically says you can leave quarantine after day five if you wear a mask, that’s not an option for anyone under the age of 2. Therefore, you need to prepare for your little one to be home, out of day care, playdates and other activities, for at least 10 days. (Yes, we feel your pain.)
How to quarantine when a primary caregiver has COVID-19
Here’s how to make this tricky situation (somewhat) manageable:
Get help
That might be easier said than done. Ideally, the parent who has COVID-19 should isolate, while the other parent or another family member or caregiver picks up most of the slack.
But that might not be possible, especially if one or both of you has to work, says Micah Resnick, M.D., a board-certified pediatrician at Cincinnati Children's Hospital in Ohio and member of the What to Expect Medical Review Board.
It may also be tough to find an outside caregiver willing to work at your house, and you may be apprehensive about asking even regular go-to's like Grandma, Grandpa or a regular babysitter to pitch in.
Wear a high-quality mask
Depending on your situation, there may be some times when a COVID-19-positive parent has to interact with little ones.
Dr. Resnick recommends wearing a KN95 mask, if you have one. Otherwise, you can double-mask either with two surgical masks or a surgical mask underneath a cloth mask to get extra protection, he says.
Isolate within your house
To protect others within your home from COVID-19, the CDC recommends that you:
- Stay in a separate room from other household members. If you need to be around others, wear a high-quality mask.
- Use a separate bathroom, if you have one.
- Improve ventilation at home. Open multiple doors and windows so more fresh air can move inside. Even a window cracked open slightly can help.
- Use fans to move virus particles in the air from inside to outside. Try to place them as close as possible to open windows. You can also turn on air filtration and bathroom and stove exhaust fans.
- Don’t share personal household items, like cups, towels and utensils.
Have others do errands for you
Since you can’t exactly dash out to the grocery store, consider ordering online or asking a family member, friend or babysitter to do it for you.
To limit trips, stock up on dried, canned and frozen foods, and put easy-to-freeze dishes like casseroles, soups and muffins on the menu. You can also take any leftover meats and veggies and add them to soups, salads or sandwiches.
Keep your little one entertained
Both infants and toddlers do best with a set routine, says Dr. Resnick. He recommends that you draw up a schedule to keep all of you in tune with where the day will go. For example, 8 to 9 a.m. is coloring, 9 to 10 a.m. is puzzles and block building, 10 a.m. is snack, 10:30 to 11:30 is reading, etc.
It's okay to ease up on your usual TV time rules so you can get some work done. "This is the time to let screen time restrictions fade to the background," Dr. Resnick says.
How to quarantine when a baby or toddler has COVID-19
Unfortunately, it’s not like you can send your little one off to another room with an iPad and snacks for the next five days. The reality is that at least one parent will get exposed. Here’s how to stay as safe as possible.
Mask up
Your child may be too young for a mask, but you’re not. Any time you’re with your baby or toddler (which, let’s face it, will be most of the time) wear your KN95 or double mask, even if it’s just for a brief moment, Dr. Resnick says. This will help minimize your chances of exposure.
Don’t share
Unless your baby is wailing her heart out, resist the urge to snuggle up in bed with her unless it’s absolutely necessary. And keep all of her personal household items — cups, bedding, toys, towels, food, etc. — separate.
Keep your little one away from healthy siblings
This means separate meals, separate baths and separate playtimes. If possible, they should also sleep in different rooms. If not, move the beds as far away from each other as you can.
Stay home
Even though the CDC recently shortened the recommended isolation period for older kids and adults to five days, your baby will have to stay home for 10 days because she's too young to wear a mask. That means no day care, no grocery shopping, no playdates and no riding in the car to pick up older siblings from school or sports.
That doesn’t mean you have to keep her locked up inside, though. If you don’t have a yard, you can take her for a walk, but Dr. Resnick recommends you avoid crowds, stay at least 6 feet apart from others, and, if possible, put something like a rain cover over the stroller.
Ease your child’s symptoms safely
You can treat your baby or toddler’s symptoms pretty much the same way you’d treat any respiratory virus: with rest, plenty of fluids and infant Tylenol or Advil to relieve fever. Over-the-counter cold and flu medications aren’t recommended for very young children, but Dr. Resnick says you can give children over the age of 1 a teaspoon of honey once or twice a day. A cool-mist humidifier can also help.
While saline nose drops are okay, Dr. Resnick cautions against overdoing it. Use them if your child is so congested she's having trouble eating or drinking. "Otherwise, they may get upset if you’re constantly shoving a bottle up their nose," he says.
Call the pediatrician
Most babies and toddlers have mild cases of COVID-19 and can recover at home. But call your pediatrician right away if you notice that your little one:
- Has trouble breathing
- Can’t wake up or stay awake
- Has pale, gray or blue-colored skin or lips
- Has a fever of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher if under 3 months old, or more than 101.5 degrees F if 3 months or older
Soothe and narrate what’s happening
Tell your baby or toddler what’s happening in as reassuring a voice as possible, even if she's too little to get what’s going on. Explain that she needs to stay home so she don’t get her friends sick.
"Keep it simple," Dr. Resnick advises. "I tell my patients that they are health care superheroes, which they get very excited about."
And avoid telling toddlers that they have a bug: "They get confused and think it means they have an actual bug in their body," Dr. Resnick explains.
How to quarantine when another family member has COVID-19
It can be hard to keep siblings apart, especially if they're normally playmates. But there are things you can do:
Separate them as much as possible
The infected child should stay in a specific area of the house away from other siblings, sleeping in a separate bedroom and using a separate bathroom, if possible.
You might want to consider forming "parent pods," where one parent cares for the infected child and the other one cares for siblings who don’t have it.
Don’t share
While sharing is normally a good thing, make sure your kids don’t eat with the same dishes or utensils, play with the same toys or use the same towels or bedding.
Clean frequently
Every day, disinfect high-touch surfaces like doorknobs, bathroom fixtures, counters, tabletops and toilets with a household cleaning spray or wipes.
"It’s true that the virus is mostly airborne, but young children spit a lot, and you could end up with infectious respiratory droplets," Dr. Resnick says.
When to end quarantine or isolation for COVID-19
Again, fully vaccinated people don’t need to quarantine at all unless they show symptoms and/or test positive for COVID-19. Anyone in your household who is unvaccinated, such as an infant under 6 months, needs to quarantine for five days.
While you may be tempted to just give up on all precautions and roll the dice, that’s not necessarily the best idea.
"There’s always the small chance that one family member, especially unvaccinated younger ones, could get very sick," Dr. Resnick says. "You’ll also have to prolong the isolation period, and, if there’s a new variant lurking down the road, you run the risk of having gone through the experience of intentionally getting sick for no reason."
That said, go easy on yourself if you're having trouble following the CDC guidelines to the T. "Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good," Dr. Resnnick says. "You can only do what you can do."
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