It can be so hard to know when a child is well enough for school or – too sick to go! Part of our job as parents is to get our kids to school on time every day. This helps ensure their success in school. Plus, if we keep our kid home, we may need to miss work or find a babysitter. So the decision about when a child is too sick to go to school can be very difficult.<\/p>\n
While your decision must involve a healthy dose of common sense, here are some basic guidelines to help you.<\/p>\n
Keep your child home if they:<\/strong><\/p>\n If they have tested positive for COVID follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a> and your local Department of Public Health guidelines to know when they are cleared to return to school.<\/p>\n Here is more information to help you know whether to keep your child home from school:<\/p>\n Fever<\/strong><\/p>\n If your child has had a fever in the last 24 hours they are probably contagious and do not feel well enough to participate in school, so keep them home.<\/p>\n Vomiting<\/strong><\/p>\n While one isolated urp is unlikely to be a reason to keep your child home, don\u2019t send them to school if they vomit right before school, or twice within 24 hours. If vomiting is paired with belly pain, fever, decreased urination, or an inability to drink any liquids, see a doctor.<\/p>\n Diarrhea<\/strong><\/p>\n Some kids have chronically loose stools (often from drinking juice) but if their poops have been watery or bloody, or they have had 3 in 24 hours, consider keeping them home \u2013 diarrhea can be caused by an infection.<\/p>\n Red eyes<\/strong><\/p>\n If the white of the eye is just slightly pink and the discharge is watery, your child should be good to go. However, if the eye is red, hurts, or has yellow\/green goopies, it\u2019s time to see a doctor.<\/p>\n Sore throat<\/strong><\/p>\n A sore throat can indicate the beginning of a cold or other respiratory illness or strep throat. Strep throat infections do not cause runny nose, cough or congestion. If a sore throat is accompanied by fever, swollen glands, rash, and\/or stomachache (and not with cough or nasal symptoms), get a strep throat test.<\/p>\n Rash<\/strong><\/p>\n Don\u2019t send your child to school if they don\u2019t feel well and have a new rash, especially if it\u2019s accompanied by fever. The rash should be evaluated by a doctor. Set up an appointment and be sure to call before you go, in case your child needs to be in a separate area in the waiting room for kids with contagious illnesses.<\/p>\n How to keep your children healthy<\/strong><\/p>\n We know that school-aged kids get sick an average of 6 to 10 times a year \u2013 that\u2019s a lot! There are a few things you can do to keep your child as healthy as possible:<\/p>\n Know that despite your best efforts sometimes your choice will turn out to be wrong. You may send a sicker-than-you-realized kid to school\u00a0and get called by the office later. Or you may keep your child home, only to be stuck with a way too healthy child bouncing around your home! To help avoid repeating that last scenario try to make staying home unappealing: no TV, no playdates, not too much fun with mom, dad, or babysitter.<\/p>\n Resources for parents:<\/strong><\/p>\n My Doctor Online: It can be so hard to know when a child is well enough for school or – too sick to go! While your decision must involve a healthy dose of common sense, here are some basic guidelines to help you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3971,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[158,566,448,157,547,529],"class_list":["post-3969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-issues","tag-colds","tag-covid-19","tag-flu","tag-influenza","tag-school","tag-sick-child","ages-all-school-ages"],"metadata":{"_edit_lock":["1691508750:8"],"_edit_last":["8"],"bonfire_pageloader_display":[""],"slide_template":[""],"ase_chapter_enable_timeline":["off"],"video_format_choose":["youtube"],"_wpb_vc_js_status":["false"],"_yoast_wpseo_content_score":["60"],"_yoast_wpseo_estimated-reading-time-minutes":["4"],"_yoast_wpseo_wordproof_timestamp":[""],"qode_animate-page-title":["no"],"qode_show-page-title-text":["no"],"qode_show-page-title-image":["no"],"qode_show-sidebar":["default"],"qode_hide-featured-image":["no"],"_thumbnail_id":["3971"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_ages":["293"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":["106"],"ase_map_component_start_point":["a:2:{s:3:\"lat\";d:29.76;s:3:\"lng\";d:-95.38;}"],"wpfp_favorites":["37"],"_yoast_indexnow_last_ping":["1691508750"]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3969"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3977,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969\/revisions\/3977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\nCold and Flu<\/a>
\nFever in Children
\n<\/a>Nausea and Vomiting in Children
\n<\/a>Diarrhea in Children
\n<\/a>Strep Throat in Children<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"