With coronavirus cases in the UK continuing to increase, many worried parents have started putting face masks on their babies and toddlers while out and about.
But experts have warned that this practice ‘could prove deadly’, and are urging parents against it.
Speaking to The Sun Online, Dr Daniel Atkinson, GP and Clinical Lead at Treated.com, said: “There are risks associated with babies and infants wearing masks.
“For example, children do have smaller airways which will have to work harder to take up oxygen through a face mask.
“And there’s also the risk of the baby trying to remove a mask, and the mask becoming tangled and potentially causing injury.”
Meanwhile, another expert warned that putting a face mask on your child could prompt them to touch their face more.
This could have the opposite of the desired effect, and actually increase their risk of catching coronavirus.
GP Dr Philippa Kaye, explained: “Those under two would touch their faces and the masks all the time, making them less effective and are a risk re their airways and breathing – please avoid!”
Rather than using face masks, the researchers suggest that other preventative measures may be more effective to protect your family.
Dr Atkinson added: “There are other, more efficient and less risky ways you can protect your children from picking up coronavirus, which is to ensure they stay at home as much as possible, that you and they stay at least two metres apart from other people when outdoors, and that you help them practice regular hand washing.”
Advice about wearing face masks varies massively around the world.
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The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends against the measure for the general public, claiming that masks offer a false sense of security, and that they can be contaminated by other people’s coughs and sneezes or when putting them on or removing them.
However, 100 leading doctors have signed a letter saying they are ‘increasingly alarmed at official inaction over the need for the public to wear face masks.’
The doctors are backing the Masks4All campaign, which calls for homemade masks to be worn by the public to stop the spread of the virus.
In a letter to The Times, the doctors wrote: “Official UK policy is illogical. It says wear a mask to reduce the spread of infection if you become symptomatic, but what about asymptomatic spread?
“The latest guidance on PPE says that people should wear masks in hospital waiting rooms ‘to reduce both direct transmission and environmental contamination.’ Why not elsewhere?”
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