It isn’t always easy determining whether your child is too ill to attend school, especially if you and your partner work full-time jobs and need to find a sitter or stay home to take care of the little one. However, there are several symptoms that indicate a risk of spreading the infection to other students. Do your part to maintain a healthy school environment by learning about illness warning signs and knowing when to see a doctor.

How to Know if Your Child Should Stay Home From School

Illness Signs & Symptoms

Keep your child home if the young one has serious pain in their throat, head, or ears that will make completing school activities challenging. Vomiting and diarrhea also call for the child to stay home, as do breathing difficulties from severe congestion. Yellow or green discharge from the eyes or a fever over 100.5 degrees Fahrenheit requires at least one day of rest as well.

Other signs include rashes from contagious diseases such as chicken pox and scarlet fever. The latter is a strep infection causing a white tongue and rashes on the groin, back, and chest as well as severe throat pain. Other contagious diseases and infections such as measles, influenza (flu), pinkeye, mumps, whooping cough, and rubella also require your child to stay home and fully recover before she can return to school.

When to Visit the Doctor

Take your child to the family doctor if symptoms persist or worsen. A child with the flu, for example, needs a higher level of care only when a high fever lasts over several days or they experience serious breathing difficulties or chest pain. A cough producing yellow, green, or bloody mucus should also be treated by a physician. Frequent vomiting and diarrhea need professional care as well due to the risk of severe dehydration.

Additional symptoms requiring a physician’s attention include a stiff neck that could indicate meningitis as well as serious lethargy and thick eye discharge that closes the lids.

If your sick child needs to see a doctor, contact Palladium Primary Care with locations in Greensboro and High Point, NC. Seek emergency care depending on your child’s symptoms or make an appointment with Dr. G. Osei-Bonsu, M.D., a compassionate expert who’s board-certified in internal medicine. Call (336) 841-8500 to schedule an appointment today or visit the doctors online for a complete service list.