Pediatrician's Advice: Protecting Kids From Sickness At School

15 March 2019 by Brent Woods

If you have a child in preschool or elementary school, you may feel that they are constantly sick. Sicknesses from school may seem to be an almost constant trial for your family, with one child getting sick just as another is getting better. The whole family may be suffering from repeated illnesses, since caregivers are usually very likely to get whatever their child is ailing from. Many parents have basically begun to view schools as one large petri dish, a constant breeding grounds for germs and bacteria. How is one supposed to protect their child from the constant illnesses?

Many pediatricians have offered the following suggestions in order help your child stay healthier even while at school.

Vaccinate Your Kids

While there is a lot of hype right now surrounding immunizations, they are still a very valid way to protect your child from coming down with several major illnesses. There are currently vaccines offered for whooping cough, tetanus, diphtheria, polio, and chicken pox. The Center for Disease Control has several suggestions for vaccines that could keep your child safe while in school. Vaccinations are basically a jump start for your child's immune system. They are given a very small dose of an illness, their body defends them against it, and then should they actually be presented with the real illness, their body knows what to do.

Teach Them To Wash Their Hands

A very simple yet effective way to protect your children from illnesses is to teach them to wash their hands frequently. Hand washing is one practice that is not all that common in children yet can protect them from many common illnesses that may be floating around their school. Many children sneeze or cough their germs onto toys, school supplies, or surfaces at school, and then your child touches these surfaces and becomes contaminated. Washing one's hands frequently breaks the chain of infection. An additional step may be teaching your child to use hand sanitizer properly. They could even keep some in their backpack, desk, or locker in order to help them stay clean and free from illness.

Keep Sick Kids Home From School

If your children do become sick, pediatricians advise parents to keep them home in order to avoid spreading illnesses at school. It may be a challenge for working parents to find childcare or to take work off, but sick children who stay home do not affect other children with illnesses. This action again breaks the chain of infection and can help everyone to be healthier.

Learn more from a local family medical care clinic.

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