Starting Tuesday, November 10, 2026, children 12 and under will not be able to visit patients in the hospital. 

• All visitors must feel well and not be sick.  
• Visitors between the ages of 13-16 must always be with an adult.  
• Visiting hours are from 9:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.  
• Parents/guardians are not considered visitors and may be with their child 24/7.  Parents will still need to sign in and follow all safety precautions.
• More details can be found below in our Visitor rules section.
• Sometimes there can be exceptions to these rules. If you have any other questions, please talk to your child's nurse. 
• These precautions do not apply to clinic or outpatient visits. However, if your child needs to be admitted to the hospital after a clinic or Emergency Room visit, children age 12 and under will not be able to go to the inpatient unit. Please plan for another caregiver to care for any children who came with you.

Why do we have special visitor rules during virus season?   

• Children’s Mercy and other kids’ hospitals are seeing more children getting sick and needing to stay in the hospital because of viruses that make it hard to breathe (also called respiratory viruses). These can include the flu, COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and others. We want to keep our patients, families, and staff safe, especially when more people are getting sick.  

These rules help protect kids who are already sick, their parents, and the people who take care of them. We also want to keep our hospital workers healthy so they can keep helping others.  

• Dr. Christelle Ilboudo, our Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Control says: “Anyone who has a respiratory virus can give it to someone else, even before the person with the virus starts feeling sick. Children 12 and under are the most at risk to catch a virus, and the least likely to follow the habits that help to avoid spreading viruses when they are sick.”