When news of the coronavirus outbreak in China began appearing regularly across the media, my first reaction was to give it a wide berth.

As a journalist, this is highly unusual behavior for me. It’s fairly natural that I want to soak up big news stories, particularly those of global significance, staying practical and immersing myself in the facts, rarely feeling anxious and somehow feeling immune to the effects of any danger. However, the latter stages of pregnancy have sent me into vigilance overdrive where coronavirus is concerned and avoiding media coverage of the outbreak has become my default coping mechanism.

At least that was until this past week when, other than taking myself off to a deserted island with no access to Internet or TV, it became impossible to avoid the coverage and the sense of impending doom.

France has banned public gatherings of more than 5,000, Iran has cancelled Friday prayers and the Irish Rugby Football Union has postponed Ireland's men's and women's Six Nations games against Italy, due to be held in Dublin this weekend.

Every day, my inbox is littered with emails about measures to limit the spread of the virus, be that from my daughter’s school, hospitals, the local library, even my pilates class issued safety advice for anyone returning from the worst affected countries.

The World Health Organisation says the window of opportunity to contain the virus is narrowing and at the time of writing there were 40 confirmed cases in the UK. Public Health England has said widespread transmission is now "highly likely".

It goes without saying that coronavirus is the top story on news websites and features heavily on radio news and talk shows.

Even if you didn’t feel panicked, the fact that it has been elevated in news terms makes many feel they should be. And now that my significant other has begun panic buying disposable gloves and hand sanitiser among other things, I can’t even avoid it by unplugging the wifi. He certainly deserves praise for preparedness but none of this is helping my feelings of anxiety.

Seeing pictures of people wearing facemasks, not to mention my lectures about effective hand washing, has also brought questions from our daughter.

And that’s a tricky part in all of this. As parents, it’s natural that we want to protect our children from unnecessary worry or stressful situations. We definitely don’t want to burden them with adult problems.

But with the potential scale of this outbreak and the desire to keep our children safe and feeling secure, it is important that we talk to them about it in a way that’s appropriate for their age and stage of development.

After all, children are curious and are bound to ask questions when their world feels a little different. They also pick up on parental anxiety so it’s much better not to keep them in the dark, which only causes them to worry more.

The Child Mind Institute has some helpful tips for those wondering how to talk to children about coronavirus.

· Experts say any conversation with a child should be views as an opportunity to convey the facts and set the emotional tone. Janine Domingues, a child psychologist at the Institute notes: “You take on the news and you’re the person who filters the news to your kid.

· Children need reassurance so never talk to a child if you are feeling anxious.

· Take your cues from your child and invite them to tell you anything they may have heard about the coronavirus. The goal for parents is to avoid encouraging frightening fantasies so help children feel informed and get fact-based information that is likely more reassuring than whatever they’re hearing from their friends or picking up from the news.

· Focus on what you’re doing as a family to stay healthy and safe and remind children that they are taking care of themselves by washing their hands with soap and water for 20 seconds when they come in from outside, before they eat, and after blowing their nose, coughing, sneezing or using the bathroom.