How to Keep Kids Healthy and Reduce Missed School Days

The first weeks of school bring home a lot. A lock­er com­bi­na­tion, a read­ing log, three per­mis­sion slips you need to sign tonight, and even­tu­al­ly, some­body’s cough.

While it’s near­ly impos­si­ble to keep every germ out of a build­ing with hun­dreds of kids in it, what you can do is build a few habits that make ill­ness less like­ly to spread and make the 6:45AM deci­sion about whether to send your child in a lit­tle clearer.

First, what a nor­mal year actu­al­ly looks like

Before you mea­sure your fam­i­ly against some germ-free ide­al, it helps to know the base­line. Adults aver­age two to three colds a year, and chil­dren usu­al­ly get more. School-age kids com­mon­ly land some­where around five or six. A first year in a new class­room or day­care tends to be the rough­est, and that’s expect­ed, not a sign any­thing is wrong.

Most colds fol­low a pre­dictable arc. Symp­toms peak in the first two or three days, then ease over the next sev­er­al days (most viral infec­tions will take 7 – 10 days to clear). A cough can hang on well after your child feels fine, some­times for two or three weeks, because irri­tat­ed air­ways take a while to settle.

Fall is also when colds stack up. One ends, anoth­er starts a few days lat­er, and it can look like a sin­gle ill­ness that nev­er quits. Usu­al­ly, it’s just a string of dif­fer­ent virus­es meet­ing an immune sys­tem that has­n’t met them yet.

So the real­is­tic goal isn’t zero sick days. It’s few­er of them, short­er ones, and less guess­ing about what to do.

Make hand­wash­ing part of the dai­ly routine

It sounds almost too sim­ple, but clean hands remain one of the strongest defens­es against res­pi­ra­to­ry and stom­ach ill­ness. School hand-hygiene pro­grams may reduce res­pi­ra­to­ry ill­ness, stom­ach ill­ness, and missed school days.

“I fre­quent­ly empha­size hand wash­ing as the num­ber one way to help keep kids healthy. We are asked about dif­fer­ent sup­ple­ments or vit­a­mins that may help, but no stud­ies sup­port these claims. Hand wash­ing is one of the best things that can be done.” — Dr. Nicole Schmidt, Pedi­a­tri­cian with Duly Health and Care

Chil­dren should wash with soap and run­ning water for at least 20 sec­onds, clean­ing their palms, the backs of their hands, between their fin­gers, and under their fin­ger­nails. Most kids stop around the fifth sec­ond, so that it might be help­ful, and fun, to give them some­thing to hum.

Build the habit around moments they already have: before eat­ing, after the bath­room, after recess, after cough­ing or blow­ing their nose, and when they walk in the door after school. When there’s no sink near­by, alco­hol-based san­i­tiz­er works as a back­up. Watch younger chil­dren while they use it.

Teach chil­dren how germs spread

Chil­dren don’t need to fear germs, but they should under­stand a few basic bound­aries. Encour­age them to cough or sneeze into a tis­sue or their elbow (not their hands) and clean their hands afterward.

The oth­er bound­ary is shar­ing. Kids share every­thing, which is usu­al­ly won­der­ful but can occa­sion­al­ly be a prob­lem when the item has been in some­one’s mouth. Things to keep to themselves:

• Water bot­tles and cups
• Forks, spoons, and straws
• Lip balm and toothbrushes
• Sports mouth­guards
• Instru­ment mouthpieces

This one takes repeat­ing, espe­cial­ly with old­er kids.

“I also empha­size to school-age kids, espe­cial­ly teenagers, that shar­ing foods or drinks with friends can be a way for them to become ill as well. They should have their own water bot­tle and snacks when pos­si­ble.” — Dr. Nicole Schmidt, Pedi­a­tri­cian with Duly Health and Care

At home, wash reusable bot­tles and lunch con­tain­ers reg­u­lar­ly. You don’t need to dis­in­fect every back­pack and jack­et at the end of the day. Instead, focus your clean­ing where hands land most: door­knobs, faucet han­dles, light switch­es, shared tablets and remotes.

Pro­tect sleep, hydra­tion, and nutrition

A pre­dictable bed­time makes school morn­ings eas­i­er and qui­et­ly sup­ports every­thing else. Keep bed­time and wake-up times close on week­ends, even if Fri­day takes some negotiating.

Send a water bot­tle your child can actu­al­ly reach dur­ing the day, and build meals around fruits, veg­eta­bles, whole grains, and pro­tein. Keep in mind that no sin­gle food, vit­a­min, or sup­ple­ment can guar­an­tee pro­tec­tion against illness.

Being up to date on vac­cines is a dif­fer­ent sto­ry, and it’s one of the most reli­able things you can do.

Stay ahead of the school year by sched­ul­ing a vis­it with a Duly pedi­a­tri­cian to review your child’s vac­ci­na­tions, devel­op­ment, and school health needs. >

Use home care to man­age cold symptoms

Most uncom­pli­cat­ed colds get bet­ter with time and com­fort care. Flu­ids, rest, and patience do more than any­thing on the phar­ma­cy shelf. A cool-mist humid­i­fi­er can ease dry air, as long as you clean it on the man­u­fac­tur­er’s schedule.

For a stuffy nose, plain saline spray or drops loosen thick mucus, mak­ing it eas­i­er for an old­er child to blow their nose or for you to clear an infan­t’s nose with a bulb syringe.

A few age-spe­cif­ic rules are worth keep­ing straight:

“Hon­ey should not be giv­en to kids under 1 if they have a cough due to con­cern for bot­u­lism, but tea and hon­ey can be help­ful for those over age 1 who have a sore throat or cough. Do not use cough med­i­cines under age 6. Humid­i­ty can help with con­ges­tion, such as a cool mist humid­i­fi­er or a hot show­er. If suc­tion­ing a younger child, always use saline to help loosen the nasal secre­tions for a bet­ter result.” — Dr. Nicole Schmidt, Pedi­a­tri­cian with Duly Health and Care

Saline is not the same as a med­icat­ed decon­ges­tant or steroid spray, and that dis­tinc­tion mat­ters. Don’t give your child a med­icat­ed spray unless it’s approved for their age and rec­om­mend­ed by a clin­i­cian. Some decon­ges­tants actu­al­ly wors­en con­ges­tion when used too many days in a row, so fol­low the prod­uct instruc­tions and ask a clin­i­cian about con­ges­tion that won’t quit.

One more thing worth a care­ful look is the active ingre­di­ents in cough, cold, aller­gy, and fever med­i­cines. Com­bi­na­tion prod­ucts often con­tain the same ingre­di­ent as some­thing else you’re giv­ing, and that’s how acci­den­tal dou­ble dos­ing hap­pens. Nev­er reach for left­over antibi­otics or a pre­scrip­tion writ­ten for some­one else.

Not sure which treat­ment is appro­pri­ate? Explore Duly’s same-day pri­ma­ry and Imme­di­ate Care options for an ill­ness that can’t wait. >

When it isn’t a cold at all

Not every run­ny nose comes from a virus. A cold runs its course. Aller­gy symp­toms stick around as long as your child keeps meet­ing the trig­ger, whether that’s pollen on the walk to the bus or the class guinea pig, and they bring increased itch­ing and repeat­ed sneez­ing than a cold does.

Left alone, they chip away at sleep, focus, and class par­tic­i­pa­tion. If your child seems to catch one end­less cold after anoth­er, a clin­i­cian can sort out what’s real­ly going on.

For ongo­ing con­ges­tion, wheez­ing, or aller­gy symp­toms, vis­it Duly’s Aller­gy, Asth­ma & Immunol­o­gy specialists. >

Decid­ing whether to keep your child home

A mild run­ny nose does­n’t auto­mat­i­cal­ly mean they should stay home. Ask whether your child can sit through class com­fort­ably, man­age their own symp­toms, and get through the day with­out pass­ing some­thing con­ta­gious to the room.

Keep your child home for:

• Fever
• Repeat­ed vom­it­ing or diarrhea
• Dif­fi­cul­ty breathing
• Sig­nif­i­cant weak­ness or fatigue
• Symp­toms that make nor­mal par­tic­i­pa­tion impossible
• Any con­di­tion cov­ered by your school’s exclu­sion policy

Return require­ments vary more than you’d expect, so fol­low your school’s guide­lines. Gen­er­al­ly, chil­dren should be improv­ing and well enough to take part in school with­out need­ing sub­stan­tial extra care.

Some symp­toms skip the judg­ment call. Go to the emer­gency room for trou­ble breath­ing, blue or gray lips, severe dehy­dra­tion, con­fu­sion, dif­fi­cul­ty wak­ing, seizures, severe pain, or symp­toms wors­en­ing quickly.

When symp­toms aren’t clear, Duly’s Imme­di­ate Care Cen­ter is always an option for morn­ings that can’t wait until the after­noon. Find an Imme­di­ate Care Cen­ter near you. >

Fre­quent­ly Asked Questions

Can my child go to school with a cold? Often, yes. If symp­toms are mild and improv­ing and your child feels well enough to par­tic­i­pate, school is usu­al­ly fine. Fever, repeat­ed vom­it­ing, diar­rhea, or real fatigue mean stay­ing home.

Does saline nasal spray short­en a cold? No. It does­n’t fight the virus. It loosens mucus and keeps nasal pas­sages moist, mak­ing con­ges­tion eas­i­er to manage.

Should sib­lings stay home when one child is sick? Usu­al­ly not, unless they start show­ing symp­toms, a clin­i­cian says oth­er­wise, or the ill­ness trig­gers a spe­cif­ic school policy.

How many colds a year is too many? Sev­er­al a year is typ­i­cal for a school-age child, and more in a first year of school or day­care. What’s worth a con­ver­sa­tion isn’t the count. It’s a pat­tern of ill­ness­es that keep get­ting worse instead of bet­ter, last far longer than expect­ed, or come with repeat­ed ear infec­tions, sinus infec­tions, or pneumonia.

My child’s mucus turned green. Do they need antibi­otics? Usu­al­ly not. Col­or alone does­n’t dis­tin­guish a virus from a bac­te­r­i­al infec­tion, and green or yel­low mucus often appears in ordi­nary colds as they run their course. Dura­tion, direc­tion, and how your child is doing over­all tell your provider far more than col­or does.

Why is the cough still here two weeks lat­er? Because air­ways stay irri­tat­ed after the virus itself is gone. A post-viral cough hang­ing around for two or three weeks is com­mon, espe­cial­ly at night. Call your provider if it’s get­ting worse rather than slow­ly bet­ter, or if it comes with fever, wheez­ing, or trou­ble breathing.

When should I call my child’s pedi­a­tri­cian? Call when symp­toms are get­ting worse, last­ing longer than they should, or when you have to pull your child out of school again and again. Also call for breath­ing con­cerns, signs of dehy­dra­tion, a fever that won’t break, or unusu­al tiredness.