Avoid Sick Days: Back to School Tips

                                 
                       
It's time to go back to school. It's also the time of year for catching those seasonal ailments like colds, flu and stomach viruses. These illnesses can cause great distress and missed school days. Misses school days means getting behind in studies. Many times for the parent it also means missed work days, loss in pay and possibly strikes against your work record.

We teach our kids from an early age to share. So, sometimes it's difficult to make them understand that sometimes unpleasant, unseen and unwanted things get shared in the process such as; 

• parainfluinza viruses (common cold)
• Influenza 
• RSV 
• Staphylococcus aureus
• Streptococcal 
• E-Coli (associated with feces)
• C-Diff (Clostridium difficile) (associated with feces)
• Pseudomonas aeruginosa
• Enterococcus faecalis 

Each of these unseen organisms can cause very distressing symptoms of runny nose, sneezing, nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, diarrhea, fever, headache, body aches, dehydration and general malaise. Sometimes even more serious symptoms like respiratory distress or failure can occur in severe cases. They transfer from person to person by physical contact either with the person, object or surface the sick person has touched or breathing the air of a person who has just sneezed or couch without covering their nose and mouth.

So, how do we protect ourselves and our children from illnesses that cause such misery? The #1 most effective weapon is to WASH YOUR HANDS! Hand sanitizer has been proven to remove approximately 98% of bacteria on hands. It is important to know that some things such as E-Coli, C-Diff or anything associated with feces will only be killed and removed by traditional SOAP AND WATER hand washing.

With this in mind it is important to always keep in mind that any surface that is available to the public will have transferable germs and viruses. Always wash hands after touching things such as handles/doorknobs in public restrooms, shopping carts, community toys/play rooms etc. before touching your face, mouth, eyes or eating food.

For young children in the teething phase (especially in group settings such as daycare) who are always trying to put things in their mouths, a good preventative measure to regularly clean toys and  surfaces with 1 part bleach to 10 part water sanitizing solution.

Sometimes getting sick is unavoidable. When this happens, the goal should be to do what you can to shorten the duration of illness and contain it to avoid spreading it to others. Tips to reduce risk of infection of infecting others:

• Hand Sanitizer
• Wash hands with soap and water when visibly soiled or after going to the restroom
• Sanitize community surfaces (doorknobs/handles, toys etc)
• Cover mouth/nose when sneezing or couching with bend of ELBOW NOT HAND-covering with hand and then immediately touching other things or people still transfers the germs/virus
• If a trip to the doctor is in order, follow doctor's orders! Rest, take fluids, take any medication as prescribed and if antibiotics are required take ALL of them as prescribed. Saving antibiotics for later "just in case" causes the bacteria to not be completely eradicated and a resistance to be built. This resistance that bacteria builds to antibiotics causes more severe illnesses in the future and they become much harder to treat at that time. The term "super bug" was coined because of this vicious cycle that has developed simply because many of us stop prescribed treatment because we "feel better".
• Stay home when you know your sick or running a fever-Fever is the body's way of fighting off infection and the culprit causing it. It is the undeniable sign that you are sick and could possible pass your illness along to others. Whether you are the child or the parent, you should take the day off for your health and the health of others.