When Your Child is Sick

Tweet A few days ago I came down with something. I don't know what it was, but it got worse during the day. I did not have a fever. In fact, my temperature was 97.7 degrees F. By evening I had been in the bathroom several times. Then I slept for about 12 hours. At first I thought it was something I had eaten, but it reminded me of the stomach flu I used to get when I was a kid. Even though I had no temperature, there was no way I could have gone to work that day. Even now, my stomach has been a little queasy off and on.

I started thinking about how a parent knows whether to keep a child home from school. Over the years I taught a lot of children who should not have been at school. Of course, there are also those who stay home with a paper cut, but that's a whole other story.

I started looking online and found some good websites. One of them (number 1 on the list below) gives the following recommendations:

The main reasons for keeping your child home are:
– He’s too sick to be comfortable at school.
– He might spread a contagious disease to other children.

As a rule of thumb, a child should stay home if he has:
– A fever higher than 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit
– Vomited more than once
– Diarrhea
– A very frequent cough
– Persistent pain (ear, stomach, etc.)
– A widespread rash

More good information can be found at the following websites:
1. http://www.choa.org/Menus/Documents/ForProfessionals/01sick_for_school.pdf
2. http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/features/your-child-too-sick-for-school
3. http://life.familyeducation.com/illness/school/36217.html
4. http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/pediatrics101/a/when_call_pedi.htm
5. http://www.bcm.edu/news/item.cfm?newsID=1297