How to Decide if You Should Send Your Child to School When Not Feeling Well

Poor Little Baby

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By KRLawrence
eHow Community Member

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(6 Ratings)

So your little darling is not feeling well! There is a decision to make....should you send your child to school or now. On one hand, children need to be in school and if they stayed home every time they had the sniffles, they might miss more school than they attend. On the other hand, further spread of infection is usually caused by parents sending sick children to school. So how do you decide?

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Thermometer
Common Sense
Firm Conviction
An Understanding Boss

Step 1

No matter if the complaint is a stomach ache or cold symptoms, the first thing to do is check your child's temperature. If the child has a core temperature (oral temperature) of over 100, they need to stay home. It is a good rule of thumb that they should stay home until they have been without a fever for 24 hours. Be aware that often elevated temperatures are associated with bacterial infections and you might need to contact your child's physician to have him/her evaluated further. On the other hand, many times your child's temperature will actually be less than their normal baseline. The average baseline temperature is 98.6. If your child presents with a temperature of say 97.6 or below, this is often a sign of a viral infection. Most health departments don't require that a child with a viral infection be excluded from the classroom though. That leads us to step 2....
Step 2

This is where common sense comes in... If your child is suffering, no matter if the cause is viral or bacterial, sending them to school is counter productive. Your child will not be able to focus and will be unable to perform well. However, if they are able to make it through a portion of the day, this is often an alternative that will help them keep up on their work without overly stressing their body as it fights the infection.
Step 3

Remember that infection is a cyclical issue... you send a sick child to school, they infect someone else. After your child is feeling better, they often can reinfect your child or share a secondary infection with your child that will cause your child to be ill again. STOP THE CYCLE! If your child has green slime or yellow slime oozing out of their body, KEEP THEM HOME! Nasal drainage that is green or yellow is often indicative of a secondary infection that needs treatment.
Step 4

STOP THE MADNESS! Parents who dose their child with Tylenol or Advil and send them off to school when they are obviously ill are not doing anyone a favor. I understand that employers don't like when you have to stay home with an ill child. However, sending an ill child to school only makes matters worse, spreads infection and leaves a child miserable. I have heard many parents say that this dosing allows the to go to work and their employer does not mind as much if they have to leave work for a sick child... this makes no sense. MAKE A PLAN! Network with parents in your area. When your child is ill, find alternatives to allow you to meet your child's needs and deal with your employer more effectively.
Step 5

Perfect Attendance: Awarding children for perfect attendance is short sighted. Show me a child with perfect attendance and I will show you a child whose parents don't understand how to control the spread of infection. These children are often the children that get your child sick by coming to school ill because their family values attendance over health. On the other hand, fear of infection is not a healthy approach. While your child is young, exposure to infection is essential to helping them build a healthy immune system.
Step 6

Controlling the spread of infection starts with teaching your child good hand washing techniques. I recommend Dial's new timer bead technology that helps children learn to wash their hands long enough to kill germs. another important disease controlling technique is to reinforce the need for children to cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze and promptly wash their hands afterwords.

Comments

cutiebrookey said

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on 1/20/2009 I'm a kid and this was a lnk and right now I am sick witht he cold and I am home from school.I really am sick for real and my mom thought I was faking.Everyone does it we all fake but this time I wasn't. I was trying to figure out why she thought I was faking and I still don't know why .=0(.Bu I think I should send her this to let her know I am really sick.Everyone fakes but really I am sick!

rwhite-writer said

on 1/8/2009 An excellent article. I agree with "Teacherforever." This should be not only in the parenting handbooks, but in the school's handbooks for parents, as well. An employer who cares for their employees will always--always--allow them to put the well-being of their children first.