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When to keep your child at home
When to keep your child home
As parents we are sometimes confronted with the decision on when to keep our children home from school. Especially on the mornings when they wake up with vague “I don’t feel well” symptoms. Below is a list of a few reasons to keep your child home.
Fever-100 degrees or higher- A fever is a sign of an illness. Let it be viral or bacterial. A child with a temperature of 100 degrees or higher should not attend school. They should be fever free for 24 hrs before returning. Children should not be given Tylenol or motrin to reduce fever and then sent to school. The child may be highly contagious.
Sore Throat/Colds/Cough-Your child may have minor cold symptoms which should not exclude your child from school. When your child has a continuous/constant cough, purulent (thick) nasal drainage or sore throat, your child may be m0re comfortable at home.
Vomiting/Diarrhea- If your child has vomited, he/she should wait 24 hrs before returning to school. Example would be, if your child vomits at 8pm one evening, and wakes up the next morning feeling great, unfortunately we would like you to keep your child home. Many times they do well at night, don’t eat much for breakfast and head off to school, only to get sick later that morning.
As for diarrhea, many times there is abdominal discomfort and cramping associated with this. Again, we would prefer that the child hasn’t had an episode of diarrhea and is able to keep food down for 24 hrs before attending school.
Pink eye- If the sclera (the white of the eye), is reddened, please call your physician before sending them to school. If a child comes to the clinic with watery eyes, reddened sclera or complaints of itching/pain not caused by an injury, I will call the parent to have child picked up from school.
There may be times when the nurse calls the parent/guardian if your child has a persistent/distracting cough, having a non-productive day at school (head on desk), or just “not feeling well.” Sometimes kids can be sick without having “text book” symptoms of illnesses.