Prevent Your Child From Getting Sick at School

Whenever my kids get sick so do I. I hate being sick it makes me have no energy, run down, and exhausted. I feel so bad when my kids ask me to play because I have no energy for that. I do not want to get out of bed but I do. If your child's in daycare or school, or you belong to a playgroup, there's only so much you can do to protect him from catching whatever's going around. When my child started preschool he was sick so much.

When I took him out for a few days to get well he would go back and still get sick. Children do not cover their mouth as they should. They are too little to understand that another person can catch their germ. Keeping your immunity up in general puts you ahead of the game. Influenza, commonly known as "the flu," is a highly contagious viral infection of the respiratory tract. Although the flu affects both sexes and all age groups, kids tend to get it more often than adults.

The illness even has its own season - from November to April, with most cases occurring between late December and early March. Even if you or your child may have gotten the vaccine last year, that won't protect you from getting the flu this year, because the protection wears off and flu viruses constantly change. That's why the vaccine is updated each year to include the most current strains of the virus.

Try these tips if you get the flu:

• Wash your hands frequently. You don't want to spread the flu to everyone else, if you can help it. Also, don't share cups and eating utensils with other people until you're better. Have children wash their hands every few hours.
• Drink lots of fluids. Hot tea or popsicles are great.
• Get lots of sleep and take it easy. This is a great time to cath up on your zzz's.
• Take acetaminophen or ibuprofen to relieve your fever and achiness. Over-the-counter cold or cough medicines may also relieve some flu symptoms. Avoid taking aspirin, though, unless your doctor says it's OK.
• Wear layers. You might be cold one minute and hot the next, and wearing several layers - like a T-shirt, sweatshirt, and robe - makes it easy to add or subtract clothes as needed.
If kids pick up germs from one of these sources, they can unknowingly become infected simply by touching their eyes, nose, or mouth. And once they're infected, it's usually just a matter of time before the whole family comes down with the same illness.

When the label on the medicine says "every 6 hours," that generally means the medicine is taken 4 times a day (for example, at breakfast, lunch, supper and bedtime). It doesn't generally mean to wake the child up in the night to take medicine. And "take every 8 hours" generally means the medicine should be taken 3 times a day. If your child has a bad reaction to a medicine or is allergic to a medicine, tell your doctor right away.

This is important medical information. You should also keep a record of this information at home: the name of the medicine, the dosage directions, the illness the medicine was given for and the side effects the medicine caused.