How to Know if Your Kid is Faking an Illness

Video Transcript

"You have a child, possibly a school-aged child, who's telling you that they're too sick to go to school. My name is Beverly Bitterman, A. R. N. P., Health and Wellness consultant. So, you need to figure out, are they really sick? Do they really need to stay home? Or are they faking it? Is there some other reason that they don't want to go to school? So, I'm going to presume that because you're asking this question that there's not something obviously wrong with them. They haven't had a cold for a week, they've not been throwing up during the night, they've not had diarrhea that you've known about. So your child, perhaps is complaining about a serious stomach ache, or a headache or an earache or something that you can't exactly see. So what you're wanting to do here is a couple of things. You're wanting to let your child know that you do care about their symptoms and you're also wanting to let your child know that most symptoms that would keep them home from school would show up in one way or another. A good first step to do would be to take a child's temperature and see what that is. Of course, if it's high, that would indicate perhaps your child isn't faking it and would need to perhaps stay home, unless you think your child is really old enough to have done something like swallowed hot water or something of that vein but most kids aren't quite that crafty. Beyond fever, you're going to look for other symptoms, you know, how do they look? Do they look pale? Do they look healthy in their skin tone? Do you know that there's some reason why your child might want, not want to go to school? Maybe they're being bullied at school...maybe they have a test they haven't studied for, something like that. So those are some things to consider, and really it boils down to as a parent, you're going to have to make a decision. You also will pay attention to how often does this happen? So a child who one time, does this, you know, maybe it's not so awful to let them stay home, but if it becomes a pattern, then you're wanting, perhaps, to seek help from, perhaps a behavioral counselor, someone like that who can help you out. You might want to talk to the teacher and find out if somethings going on at school. So, those are just a few tips and strategies to consider when you think that your child might be faking it. My name is Beverly Bitterman, A. R. N. P., Health and Wellness consultant, and I wish you great luck in raising your child."