Your child wakes up and tells you she’s not feeling well, and now you have to make a quick judgment call: should you send her to school or keep her home for the day?
Although three-quarters of parents report having had a child take a sick day in the past year, there’s no consensus on exactly how sick is too sick for school. The C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital conducted a nationally representative poll of over 1,400 parents and found that:
- 80 percent of parents would be unlikely to send their child to school with diarrhea.
- 58 percent of parents would probably not send their child to school if they threw up, even if they didn’t have any other symptoms.
- 49 percent of parents would be unlikely to send their child to school with a slight fever, even if their child were acting like their usual self.
- 16 percent of parents would probably not send their child to school with red or watery eyes.
- 12 percent of parents would be unlikely to send their child to school with cold symptoms such as a runny nose and a dry cough.
The top two reasons parents cited for keeping their child home were being worried that the illness would get worse and being worried that the illness would spread to classmates.
When parents are on the fence about when to have a child take a sick day, the issue of supervision factors into their decision. 11 percent of parents said that not wanting to miss work might influence their decision to send their child to school, while 18 percent said not being able to find someone to stay home with their child was another reason for children possibly going to school sick.
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| Estimated percentage of students who missed school over a 12-month period due to illness or injury, 2006. Source: cdc.gov |
When Should You Keep Your Child Home?
As the parent, you’ll need to decide if your child seems well enough or too sick for school. If your child has mild cold symptoms (such as a dry cough and runny nose) but seems to have his normal energy, he’s probably well enough to go to class. However, you should check with the school or daycare center before bringing your child in—the administration may have strict rules against children going to school sick in order to stop viruses from spreading.
You should also plan on keeping your child home if she exhibits any of the following symptoms:
- Severe cold and cough symptoms (your child may have something contagious, such as whooping cough or viral bronchitis)
- A fever within the past 24 hours
- Nausea and vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Lethargy and lack of appetite
- Pink eye
- An undiagnosed rash (it could be something contagious, such as chickenpox)
- Difficulty sleeping the previous night due to coughing or other symptoms
In most cases, your child should recover quickly and shouldn’t need to go to the doctor, even if he ends up taking a sick day. However, you should call your pediatrician if your child exhibits any signs of a more serious illness or infection. These signs might include a cough or cold that lasts more than a week or gets progressively worse, ear pain with a fever, a severe sore throat, blood in urine or diarrhea, severe stomach pain, persistent vomiting, or an inability to keep fluids down.
Pay attention to how your child is feeling and remember that while it can be challenging to keep her home for a day, it may be worth it to let her rest and prevent the illness from spreading.
