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Back-to-school season is an exciting time for students and their families, but it can also mean back to sniffles, stomach aches and viruses that can be severe, like the flu.
As our kids head back to their studies and after-school activities, let’s give them the best chance to stay healthy all year long. The trick is in the preparation, which starts at home. Teaching them healthy practices, packing their backpacks with helpful tools and keeping them up to date on their vaccinations will protect them once they get to the classroom.
Wellness visits with the pediatrician or family doctor are opportunities to make sure our kids are getting their vaccines, and scheduling them should especially happen before school begins.
Children should have a wellness visit every year after age 4. Some vaccines are required by law in Pennsylvania, but parents can choose additional immunizations to shield their kids from the often-germy classroom environment.
Vaccines remain the best way of keeping our kids safe against serious diseases like measles, polio and COVID-19.
We’re used to hearing how frequent, proper hand washing can protect us against COVID-19, but it prevents a lot of other illnesses as well, from pink eye to the flu.
If we teach our children good hand hygiene, that knowledge follows them everywhere they go. With young kids, it’s important to wash with them until they understand how to do it right and can handle it themselves.
Touching a contaminated surface and then touching their face, mouth, nose or eyes is the most common way kids get sick, so we have to remind them to wash well and often.
And when the sink isn’t within reach, but they still need to clean their hands, using a hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol is a great solution for our kids to fight the germs that make them sick.
Take them shopping with you, because choosing their own fun packaging or kid-friendly scent might encourage them to use their sanitizer whenever they need it. Be sure their sanitizer doesn’t contain methanol, because the Food and Drug Administration lists it as an unacceptable and toxic ingredient.
Teach your kids to sneeze into their bent elbow instead of their hands. It will keep germs off their hands and make it less likely they spread those germs to another student or a frequently touched surface.
Watch out for common illnesses
These conditions are common among kids, and recognizing the signs can help you identify and treat them early.
Head lice can cause itchy scalp, red bumps on the head and neck, irritability, difficulty sleeping and white particles (lice eggs) in the hair.
Hand-foot-mouth disease can cause sores in the mouth and blisters on the hands and feet.
Fifth disease, also called “slapped cheek syndrome,” causes a rash on the cheeks and may come with a low-grade fever.
Pink eye causes the whites of the eyes to become pink or red, often with watery, green or white discharge. The infected eye may be itchy or painful.
If you recognize these symptoms, call you pediatrician. Some of these conditions can be treated with over-the-counter medications while others require a prescription.
As a general rule, keep your children home from school and call their doctor if they:
Have a fever
Have a cough
Vomit more than once
Have frequent diarrhea (more than three loose stools in 24 hours)
Complain of joint pain or muscle aches
Complain of chills or shaking shivers
Have an unexplained rash
Are unable to eat or drink normally
Are unable to concentrate on schoolwork due to feeling ill.
Dr. Alfred Casale, a cardiothoracic surgeon, is chief medical officer for surgical services for Geisinger and chair of the Geisinger Heart Institute. Readers may write to him via [email protected].