As a parent, you probably spend a lot of time thinking about the health and safety of your child. We know how to keep our children safe at home, yet when they are at school, we have to trust in the skills of their teachers and caregivers. In the age of COVID-19, it’s understandable to feel anxious about the health of your child at school. Luckily, there are many preventative steps you can take to protect their health throughout the school week.
1. Vaccinations
To protect the health of your child at school, you should ensure that they’ve had all of the appropriate vaccinations for children. One of the earliest vaccinations that your child should receive is the MMR shot (measles, mumps and rubella). The CDC recommends that children have this when they are aged between 12-15 months old. Children should have an MMR booster shot when they are aged between 4-6 years old. Other early vacations include Chicken Pox and Polio. Children can have a flu vaccination from 6 months old onwards; the CDC recommends that children get flu shots twice a year.
2. COVID-19 prep
As children begin to return to school, many parents are concerned about the risk of the COVID-19 virus. The best thing to do is to prepare your children by providing them with their own personal hand sanitizer and face mask. Of course, your child’s school will have put COVID-friendly measures in place. Regardless, it’s better to provide extra resources to keep your children safe.
3. Discuss best practices
Discuss best practices with your child, tell them to wash their hands often, and to cover their mouth and nose when they cough or sneeze. Ensure that they know not to share drinks or cutlery with their friends and that they should play together at a safe distance. You don’t want to make your child feel too anxious about sickness; however, they must understand how to stay safe. Make sure that your child knows how to recognise the signs of illness, including feeling feverish. One of the best ways to reduce a fever is to use paracetamol for kids.
4. Tie- up long hair
Head Lice often spreads around school environments, and they can be bothersome to get rid of! To help your child, it can be useful to keep long hair tied up; this can reduce the risk of catching lice. If your child does catch head lice, tea tree oil is an excellent home remedy.
5. Immunity boosting snacks
When children are young, their immune systems are more vulnerable to infection. To build up the immune system, it’s useful to provide your child with immunity-boosting foods to eat at school. Provide them with snacks like yogurt, strawberries, broccoli, oranges, or dark chocolate. All of these foods can help to support the immune system and protect the body from free radical damage. Teaching your children about healthy eating now will set them up with the right healthy attitudes later in life.
