Parenting Tip: When is your child too sick for school?

Is suffering from common cold and cough a reason enough to skip school? Find out.

By: Mansi Kohli | | Updated: July 7, 2016 2:31 am

A fever, a cough or stomachache – nowadays, our children come down with illnesses easily, and the decision to keep your sick child home can definitely be tricky. Here’s when you should keep your child home from school. Picture this: You wake up on a sunny weekday morning and while you are preparing your coffee, your child calls out your name in a squeaky yet tensed voice. You leave everything, rush to his room only to discover that your little bundle of mischief is feeling acute ache in his stomach. You give him a pill thinking it’s nothing serious and soon he’s off to school. But later that morning comes the dreaded call, stating that the cynosure of your eyes has thrown up all over the class. And it hits you that it could have been a stomach flu and you shouldn’t have missed the signs, which indicated that your kid was too sick to go to school. If this is something which has happened with you, then you know those pangs of guilt. This is because no matter how well your kid claims to be, there are certain health indicators, which are clear enough to note that he or she is too sick to go to school. Dr. Virender Kumar, Sr. Consultant in Neonatology and Pediatrics at Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute, New Delhi, helps us in watching out for some common illnesses of kids.

Fever – Your child isn’t fit for school if he has fever more than 99.5 degree F. He should stay at home and take proper medicine according to a doctor’s prescription. And before you reach out for help, do not forget to get started with the basics at home by following a few simple tips.
Red Eye– Child is good to go to school if it is due to an allergy and he or she is not in any sort of pain. The child should not go to school if it is associated with watering or stickiness. It is also advisable to not rub her eye and wash it with clear water immediately and consult an eye specialist as soon as possible. Also with digital eye strain increasingly becoming a common condition, it’s important for parents to keep an eye on their kids.
Diarrhoea– Your child can go to school if diarrheal episodes are less than 2-3/day. Anything more than this can be trouble, and it might be stomach infection, food poisoning, etc. In this case, she should not to go to school.
Sore Throat– Your child can go to school if suffering from a sore throat not accompanied by fever. But if there is pain in throat during swallowing food, or even drinking water or fever, then it might be throat infection or any other associated problem and it is advisable to not let your child go to school. Having said that, parents should note that a sore throat on its own can be quite irritating and can affect your daily life. So, to help you tide over the symptoms of a sore throat do follow a few tips to relieve the discomfort and stop its progression to a cough.
Cough– There are different kinds of coughs that your child can suffer from. But cough lasting for more than eight weeks can be termed as chronic and may be due to several conditions like nasal allergy, tuberculosis, acid reflux disease (GERD) or asthma.
Cold– Your child can go to school if she is suffering from simple cold. But if there are symptoms like body ache, fever, rashes, etc, then it can be some major problem. Do not take it lightly and immediately consult a doctor for check up.
Stomach Ache– Child can go to school if pain is not severe and not accompanied by loose stools or vomiting. But children are not always giving excuse of stomach ache to stay at home. Sometimes it could be genuine. Consult your paediatrician immediately and do not self medicate. Also Read: 10 Ways to Tell If You Child is Being Bullied at School