Let's Have A Healthy School Year

This School Nurse’s thoughts on food, sleep, hygiene, stress, allergies, medication, keeping kids home, and more...to begin a new year:

Exercise and nutrition are key to your child's well-being. These as sensitive issues for many parents. While parents want healthy children, it's hard to stop serving processed food or to limit children's excessive electronic-game playing and TV viewing.  Parents often lose sight of basic nutrition by focusing only on obesity or anorexia. Eating issues are especially challenging in our society, where portions are super-sized.  Use cooking time as a springboard for discussion about food choices.  When children prepare food, they become more familiar with healthy ingredients.  I am always concerned about children who skip breakfast--noting that many wind up in my office with headaches.  As I explain to them, “breakfast” means breaking the fast from dinner last night.  If they don’t feed their brains after the fast they cannot think straight with a hunger-headache.  Morning is their most productive learning time.  If you don’t feed them a good breakfast, you are not giving them a good start to their best time of the day.

Many children are sleep deprived. They're up late online or watching TV in their rooms. The next morning they're on their way to school at 7:30 AM. A child who is exhausted can't concentrate in school.

Hand washing is the key to curbing colds, viruses, and other infections. Children should learn to sneeze into the nook of their arms and parents should make sure that alcohol-free liquid hand cleaners (Purell, for example) are readily available in their child's classrooms when hand washing cannot be the first option.  If your teacher doesn’t have alcohol-free hand sanitizer in their room, buy them a bottle!

Children sometimes come into my office because they need a respite--some time to unwind. Children may be grappling with difficult situations at home or going through a stressful phase in their life.  We need to teach children to relax, to take deep breaths.   I often treat children with stress-related headaches and stomachaches. Children often confide in me that their stress stems from their social life as well as from schoolwork.  Parents may not always be aware of just how much things like tests, birthday parties, and peers affect their children.  First and foremost, parents need to "relax." Parents worry too much--and often about the wrong things. In trying to micromanage their children's lives, they may transfer their own anxiety to their kids. Kids need to develop the confidence that they'll be okay and this is best taught by the parents!

I would like to remind parents of the benefits of play to relieve stress. Children need to be outside, using their imaginations. Creative games, board games, active games, and fantasy play all help reduce their stress.

Is your child a frequent visitor to the nurse?  Try this Three Things Rule for children to begin teaching them ways to promote their own comfort and solve their own problems.  Got a belly ache?  You cannot come to the nurse until you have tried the following:   1. Used the bathroom   2. Eaten a non-junk food snack   3. Had 2 glasses of water.  In other words, gas pains, bathroom needs, thirst, and hunger are things kids can solve without a nurse. This can work for other discomforts too.  This is not about discouraging kids from seeking help, this is about teaching them self-care and prevention.  Parents can help by making sure their child has a water bottle every day (not just the one for lunch) and a non-junk food snack or two in their backpacks.

Food allergies, notably to peanuts, have become an increasing concern--and that many children keep EpiPens in the classroom or nurse's office to use in case of emergency.   When sending snacks, please do not send anything with peanuts or tree nuts in them.  Find out if there are other allergies specific to children in your child’s classroom and don’t send snacks or birthday treats that contain those ingredients.

I see a lot of asthma, made worse by pollutants.  Second-hand smoke or allergies to a pet may trigger a reaction, as can cleaning fluid fumes and perfumes.  I can’t tell you the number of children that are suppose to be carrying their inhalers that are not.  Many a parent has been called and had to run frantically to school with a rescue inhaler.

I treat a number of children on medication for ADHD.  Unfortunately, some parents don't tell the school that a child is on medication. It is not until they forgot to take it at home and they have become unmanagable, that I find out the child is on medication for this problem.

Keep the nurse informed.  It may not be until a school trip that the school is informed that a child needs to bring an inhaler or medication.

Influenza, Strep throat and pink eye (conjunctivitis) are among the biggest problems when it comes to infectious diseases.  While parents need clear guidelines about when to keep children home, many working parents face difficult choices--and just hope that their children don't get sick.  I will call a parent to pick up a child from school if a fever goes over 100, and despite the inconvenience, I have found most parents are generally cooperative.  Arrangements should be made before school starts for an emergency contact in case a parent just can’t leave work, perhaps a relative that stays home or a close friend who would be willing to watch your child so you can finish your work day.  There's no point in a child being in the classroom if he can't function.  

Go to the post on When to Keep Your Child Home for more advice on this subject ... and remember:  A sick child cannot learn effectively and is unable to participate in classes in a meaningful way. Keeping a sick child home prevents the spread of illness in the school community and allows the child opportunity to rest and recover.