When to Keep Your Child at Home - Hillel Community Day School

WHEN TO KEEP A CHILD HOME BECAUSE OF ILLNESS DURING COLD AND FLU SEASON

Information provided
by school physician Cynthia DeVore, M.D.

Sometimes it can be difficult for a parent to decide whether to send children to school when they wake up with early symptoms of an illness or complaints that they do not feel well. In most cases, the illness is not serious, and children will do just fine with a supply of tissues, reassurance, and a little encouragement to try to get out of bed and get up and going. However, there are some situations in which it is best to plan on keeping your child home for the day to rest and recuperate or to arrange for an appointment with your health care provider. The following are a few such situations:

1. Fever greater than 100.4° orally, including a fever that requires active control with medication to keep down to normal
2. Child is too sleepy or ill to profit from sitting in class all day
3. Significant cough that makes a child feel uncomfortable or disrupts the class
4. Sore throat that is severe, accompanied by fever and/or simply feeling ill, that persists longer than 48 hours, or after known exposure to a confirmed case of Streptococcal throat infection
5. Honey-crusted sores around the nose or mouth that might be impetigo, or a rash in various stages including boils, sores and bumps that may be chicken pox, OR a significant rash accompanied by other symptoms of illness
6. Red, runny eyes until cleared as non-contagious by a physician
7. Large amount of discolored nasal discharge, especially if accompanied by facial pain or headache
8. Severe ear pain or drainage from the ear that needs to be evaluated by your health care provider
9. Severe headache, especially if accompanied by fever, which should be evaluated
by your health care provider.
10. Any condition that you think may be serious or contagious to others.

Whenever there is an outbreak of a specific infection that the health department lists as a contagious disease, the school sends out a notice to alert you to watch out for any symptoms that might suggest your child is coming down with the same infection. It is important that you alert your own physician to the fact that your child has had the exposure, so the doctor will know what tests might be needed. Be sure to ask your physician when it is safe for your child to return to school, both for your child’s health and for the health of the rest of the school.

If you send your child to school even though you are uncertain whether there is significant illness as described above, it is a good idea to give the school nurse a call to alert her to your concerns and to provide her with phone numbers where you can be reached that day should your child become more ill and require early dismissal. If you find a pattern of your child’s asking to stay home from school, especially if they are falling behind or appear anxious by the thought of attending school, or if there does not appear to be any obvious physical symptoms, it may be a good idea to contact your school nurse and your health care provider to discuss your concerns.

In general, during cold and flu season, unless your child is significantly ill, the best place for them is in school where they have all already been exposed to the same germs and where they are less likely to expose other more vulnerable people, like the very young or very old, to their routine bouts of cold and flu. Remind and show your children to discard used tissues promptly, not to share personal items, to cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze, to keep their hands away from their face, and to wash hands thoroughly and often with soap and warm water. Suggest that they silently sing the Happy Birthday song twice while washing their hands.

Finally, if you know your child is still running a fever, it is not a good idea to simply tank them up with Tylenol and send them onto school because as soon as the medicine wears off, you are apt to get the dreaded call from the school nurse to leave work and come to pick up your feverish child. Better to let them stay home in bed with a fever and take their medications at home until they are well off all medicines and seem ready to learn for a full day in a classroom.

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