We all know that the flu is highly contagious, but while we are often concerned when a coworker arrives on the scene with the sniffles, sometimes we forget to think about our children passing them on in their daycare.
With the flu season starting in Australia last month, and the August peak right around the corner, it’s time to scrub up on our flu knowledge.
For starters, did you know that the flu can actually be spread for up to a day before symptoms appear, and for five days after?
Our children are known to be much more prone to the sniffles and viruses that we adults have spent years building up a bit of immunity to, and it can sometimes be hard to know as a parent when to send your child to daycare or when to keep them home.
At Lifelong Learning Centres we place an emphasis on Healthy Children through a wide range of programs and there are many procedures in place to prevent illness and accidents. However, while our priority is to keep all children safe, we need to all work together.
We’ve put together a handy fact sheet to help you decide if your child is well enough to head to daycare to help ensure the safety and wellbeing of everyone at your favourite centre:
If you’re in doubt the three questions you should ask yourself are;
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Is my child well enough to take part in the day’s activities?
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Will my child pass on their illness?
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If I felt like this, would I go to work?
We also extracted some handy tips to help prevent the spread of infection this winter:
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Teach your child about the importance of regular hand washing and ensure they understand the need to wash their hands before and after they eat, or use the bathroom.
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Teach your child to avoid touching their eyes or nose and to sneeze or cough into the crook of their arm.
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Ensure they get plenty of sleep, healthy food, and engage with our healthy world with some fresh air.