Any advice from fellow parents bringing under-12 kids during Covid?

[PrincessChelle]

We have two kids under the age of 11 as well and our entire family wears KN95 masks both outdoors and indoors all the time, except for when eating and are only doing outdoor dining as well. We also sanitize after every ride, wipe down surfaces before we eat and make sure to wipe our hands again (using sanitizing wipes we bring from home) before eating. I also agree with the tips to create a buffer between the kids and others in line - we do parent-kid-kid-parent formation and try to leave some space between us and the people ahead of us. We're Magic Key holders now so if something looks too busy or crowded, we just skip it. Hope you have fun!

 

[Lillebelle]

GOOD NEWS- our pediatrician approved the plan!! I'm so happy!! Basically, he said that while he's not a fan of going to theme parks during Covid in general, he thinks that our plan (just a 1/2 day for the limited-attendance Halloween party) is totally reasonable and he's comfortable with it, and even said he likes that we are doing something special like this for our son before his baby sister arrives. So I'm just so relieved to have his seal of approval, and I will be following all the brilliant tips you awesome parents have given me above- thank you!!

Hooray! I hope you have an excellent time. It's a constant struggle to balance minimizing risk with wanting your kid to have more to their life than being at home or at school. We've gone twice since reopening with two small children (4 and 1) and all vaccinated adults and generally felt good about the safety measures and people's respecting of mask rules, personal space, etc. The only place that really felt sketch was the line for Jungle Cruise, but if you're going for OBB you wouldn't be going on that ride anyway. Have so much fun!

 

[MilitaryMouse]

Lots of great advice here, just thought I’d add one more resource. We use this nasal aerosol spray called FEND. Lots of good research if you guys want to look into, but it’s basically a sodium solution that you breath in to help protect your upper airways and prevent crud from reaching your lungs.

I haven’t gone to the parks yet but we’ve had to travel a lot during this pandemic (military orders), even during peaks. Flights, staying in hotels. FEND really helped (at least with peace of mind!) with my 1 YO who couldn’t wear a mask.
Just an additional layer of protection to look into

 

[WishUponAStar3]

Lots of great advice here, just thought I’d add one more resource. We use this nasal aerosol spray called FEND. Lots of good research if you guys want to look into, but it’s basically a sodium solution that you breath in to help protect your upper airways and prevent crud from reaching your lungs.

I haven’t gone to the parks yet but we’ve had to travel a lot during this pandemic (military orders), even during peaks. Flights, staying in hotels. FEND really helped (at least with peace of mind!) with my 1 YO who couldn’t wear a mask.
Just an additional layer of protection to look into

Oh wow, thank you for this!! I had never heard of FEND and will order it now!

 

[50sjayne]

Hi, all! So, I know there's a lot of diverging opinions on whether it's safe for unvaccinated under-12 kids to attend the parks and I don't mean to debate that here- but what I would be SO grateful for are any tips and insights from parents who have done it! I have a video appt with our pediatrician tomorrow to run our plan by him (bringing my 4-year-old to Oogie Boogie Bash next Thursday, starting with the mix-in at 3 PM) and thought it might be helpful to hear some real talk from parents who know what it's like at DLR these days and if you felt safe with your kids there? Also, if you have any safety or risk-mitigation tips? We are planning to keep our masks on outdoors as well as indoors (KN94 for my son, unless I can find a comfortable N95 that fits him!) and we're only doing outdoor dining. We also have a pool day planned at DLH the day after the party, but I booked us a cabana so that we wouldn't be too close to people, though we will take off our masks while swimming. (We have stayed at other resorts where we've done this and felt very safe, though who knows how crowded the DLH pool will be next Friday the 10th??)

Thank you SOO much in advance!! I would really love to still make this happen for my son if we can do it safely- Nightmare Before Christmas is his absolute favorite!

We are also doing the kids kn94 masks and bringing most of our food in. I also got sanitizers that fit well in the back pack pockets and we are wearing k95 maks and are vaccinated. We're bringing my 5 & 7 year old grand daughters that we have custody of. I'm hoping by then most of the cast members will be vaccinated as they were mandated July 30th and most of the kids will be in school. We are in Oregon and it is so bad here--I just think the trick will be to not get it Before the trip. Thank goodness they are not scheduled to be in school until the 12th.

 

[WishUponAStar3]

Sending you lots of luck for you and your grandkids to stay healthy before/during/after the trip!!

 

[MonocularVision]

Lots of great advice here, just thought I’d add one more resource. We use this nasal aerosol spray called FEND. Lots of good research if you guys want to look into, but it’s basically a sodium solution that you breath in to help protect your upper airways and prevent crud from reaching your lungs.

I haven’t gone to the parks yet but we’ve had to travel a lot during this pandemic (military orders), even during peaks. Flights, staying in hotels. FEND really helped (at least with peace of mind!) with my 1 YO who couldn’t wear a mask.
Just an additional layer of protection to look into

I fully expected to Google this and find a bunch of disreputable sites, but was very pleasantly surprised. Thanks for sharing, going to look more into this.

 

[ShoeCello]

I fully expected to Google this and find a bunch of disreputable sites, but was very pleasantly surprised. Thanks for sharing, going to look more into this.

Not to get us too far off topic here, but I wanted to jump in with a word of caution regarding this product. As a scientist, I always want to promote scientific critical analysis and rigor when examining claims, particularly from companies that are selling products. While the platform of a nasal mist seems promising, the claims that this product make appear to be based off of one or two papers, written by the creators of the product and others associated with the company (a major conflict of interest), and the paper is not published in a recognizable, reputable journal. In addition, the data from the paper by the creators is fairly limited and their data suggest that the products limits exhalation of droplets, meaning that it could be good for slowing COVID if everyone else exhaled fewer particles (or would limit the spread of COVID if your child already had COVID), but there does not appear to have any empirical evidence that the product would directly lower risk of COVID for anyone using the product (short of a large percentage of people at Disney using the product).

Thus, I would caution against any one of us from viewing this as a way to directly protect our children at Disneyland. There does not appear to be any credible scientific data or consensus yet that this product provides any protection against COVID unless the majority of visitors were using this, and I would hate for any parents or children to relax their precautions and use of other non-clinical interventions (mask wearing, hand washing, etc.) while at Disneyland due to the impact of using this product.

Have a great and safe time with your families at DLR!

 

[PrincessChelle]

I would second FEND as another good precaution on top of everything else we all mentioned. Our entire family would apply the mist before leaving our hotel room in the morning. We were in Disney World for 10 days in early August during the delta variant surge and we thankfully all stayed healthy. We would never rely on it solely or expect it to replace other precautionary measures, but here's at least another data point that it seemed to work well for us. Now that we're back home, the kids use it in the mornings before going to school. It should provide some increased protection for 6 hours is what I heard.

 

[MilitaryMouse]

Not to get us too far off topic here, but I wanted to jump in with a word of caution regarding this product. As a scientist, I always want to promote scientific critical analysis and rigor when examining claims, particularly from companies that are selling products. While the platform of a nasal mist seems promising, the claims that this product make appear to be based off of one or two papers, written by the creators of the product and others associated with the company (a major conflict of interest), and the paper is not published in a recognizable, reputable journal. In addition, the data from the paper by the creators is fairly limited and their data suggest that the products limits exhalation of droplets, meaning that it could be good for slowing COVID if everyone else exhaled fewer particles (or would limit the spread of COVID if your child already had COVID), but there does not appear to have any empirical evidence that the product would directly lower risk of COVID for anyone using the product (short of a large percentage of people at Disney using the product).

Thus, I would caution against any one of us from viewing this as a way to directly protect our children at Disneyland. There does not appear to be any credible scientific data or consensus yet that this product provides any protection against COVID unless the majority of visitors were using this, and I would hate for any parents or children to relax their precautions and use of other non-clinical interventions (mask wearing, hand washing, etc.) while at Disneyland due to the impact of using this product.

Have a great and safe time with your families at DLR!

Yep, this is why I said we use this as an additional layer of protection. On top of vaccinations and masks. However, FEND has been especially great for us since we have a 1YO. He can’t mask or get vaxxed so this is at least something that hopefully helps

Definitely agree with you that this doesn’t replace masking, etc. Just sharing an additional resource.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

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