Pediatrician offices across the state have been swamped with sick children this year.

Kevin Moffitt, administrator for Utah Valley Pediatrics, said sick visits for Utah County children rose 111% between October and December and continue to double in cases.

Carolyn Reynolds, executive clinical director for pediatric community based care for Intermountain Healthcare, also said the number of children being treated in the past several months has been abnormally high.

“We’ve seen a great increase in viral diseases,” Reynolds said. “We started seeing an abnormally high amount of kids with RSV earlier in the season than is typical. We usually see that hit in the winter months, but we started to see it crop up in August.”

Moffitt and Reynolds both said not only are children sick with COVID-19, but they’re coming in for other viruses, including colds, bronchiolitis, whooping cough, tonsillitis, gastrointestinal bugs and influenza.

“We also started seeing respiratory viruses show up in September and we usually see them later in the year,” Moffitt said. “We’ve seen some influenza this year, but it hasn’t been a big player so far, but some of the other viruses have doubled in volume. It’s been crazy.”

Not only have kids been sick with COVID, but they’re fighting other illnesses simultaneously, which has make them sicker than usual.

“We saw a lot of kids with the Delta variant, but when Omicron hit, it hit hard and it coincided with these other viruses. So we’ve had kids across the board who have really been struggling,” Reynolds said. “It’s especially concerning with kids under the age of five who can’t be vaccinated yet, although we have seen some fully vaccinated children come in with breakthrough COVID.”

While Moffitt and Reynolds both said they are not expert epidemiologists, both agree that children returning to school after being out of the classroom for several months could be a major factor.

“When COVID hit, kids were isolating at home and doing remote learning. People were staying home from work and most everybody took precautions,” Reynolds said. “Then when restrictions were lifted and kids returned to the classroom, all of these respiratory viruses started to increase faster than anyone ever expected.”

Moffitt said when people are isolated, they aren’t exposed to the typical illnesses that usually circulate each year, which means they don’t develop an immunity.

“When they return to normal activities and gatherings, they can be hit harder with sickness because they didn’t have the usual built up immunity,” he said.

Reynolds said in 2020, there were significantly fewer kids coming in to see their pediatricians.

“We saw a lot fewer sick kids in 2020 when everyone was locked down,” Reynolds said. “We had no flu in 2020. We’ve had some flu this year, but it kicked off slowly and started in October and then in late November, early December it really took off and then it just suddenly stopped and we don’t know why that happened.”

Moffitt and Reynolds said they don’t know when the uptick will slow down, but for now, they encourage parents to keep their children home when they’re sick, have them wash their hands often, keep unvaccinated children away from big crowds if possible and take them to their doctor, urgent care facility or emergency department if they are struggling to breathe.

“Keeping younger kids away from COVID is still a really great idea,” Reynolds said. “I believe mask wearing does protect our kids. Our elementary kids in Utah weathered the mask mandate really well, so if they are willing to wear them, please do.”

In addition, parents can also take advantage of telehealth visits done remotely with their child’s physician. That way, the doctor can evaluate whether the child needs to be seen or give advice on managing their symptoms at home.

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