THE BACK-TO-SCHOOL SEASON of coughs, colds and stomach bugs is in full swing, so how best can you protect your little ones?
If you want to keep sick days to a minimum in your house this year, use this month to build healthy habits (for yourself and the kids) that’ll help keep everyone healthy all year long.
For school-age children whose immune systems are still developing, protection and prevention is especially important. Here are a few tips to get you started…
Give your little one a fighting chance against colds, coughs and bugs at school by teaching them how to wash their hands well every time they’re at the sink.
To start, make sure your child knows how to use the taps and has a towel nearby. Show them how to use soap, work up a lather, and rub palms, wrists, nails and fingers well, before rinsing and drying well. Have a forgetful kid? There are plenty of charts and other resources online.
Bacteria can spread as far as four metres when we cough or sneeze and can remain alive in the air for up to 45 minutes, according to 2017 research from Queensland University and Technology.
Some GPs advocate for teaching kids the “Dracula cough” – coughing or sneezing into your elbow to reduce the risk of germs spreading from hands and fingers. At the very least, arm your kids with tissues and teach them to wash their hands after coughs and sneezes.
Unless your child has a particularly involved teacher, it’ll likely be up to them what they eat from their lunchbox and what they leave behind. So make sure that even the healthy lunchtime options you pack up look colourful and appealing, be it fresh fruit, veggie sticks or a sandwich with fillings they genuinely like.
Get the kids involved in the planning, too. “Our son now helps and decides what snacks and dinner he would like for the next day. We get it ready the night before in the fridge,” says Olly Keegan, a member of TheJournal.ie‘s Family Magazine Parents Panel.
While homework and Friday spelling tests might seem like relatively trivial worries to you, to your child they can be significant causes of stress or anxiety, so it’s important to treat them with sensitivity.
The US National Scientific Council on the Developing Child says that adults who respond in a caring, helpful way to their child’s “positive stress” moments – those brief or mild moments of anxiety or frustration – can help promote healthy long-term coping skills.
Classrooms and playgrounds are heaven for adventurous head lice, who love nothing more than travelling from one head of hair to another. The HSE advises doing a wet and dry comb weekly, checking your child’s head with a lice comb for nits (the tiny oval-shaped yellow-brownish eggs) or any live lice.
Adults should be aiming for 30 minutes of exercise a day, according to the Healthy Ireland guidelines, but for kids (aged 2 to 18), that figure doubles to 60 minutes.
So even if your child has had yard time or a PE class during the day, make the effort to get them outside for a walk or kickabout after school, rain or shine. You’ll be building lifelong habits as well as upping their daily activity.
Six to eight hours is the optimum nightly sleep length for heart health in adults, according to a new study by Greek cardiologists. For young kids though, that figure is far higher: 13 hours a night for the first five years, and 11 hours after that.
There’s no room for leeway on bedtimes, says dad of three Alan Dooley, a member of TheJournal.ie’s Parents Panel. “We have been strict on bedtimes since the kids were small. Our youngest, aged five, is in bed with a story by about 8pm. If we stretch it, she’s exhausted the next day.”
When your child is unwell it can mean sleepless nights. Vhi health insurance customers can now access a consultant quickly at our Vhi Paediatric Clinic in Dundrum. From GP to consultant within 48 hours. Be seen within two sleeps. Visit vhi.ie/paediatrician for more details.
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