If you are the parent of a school-age child, you may have already encountered a few outbreaks that started at school. It is never fun to know that each time your child goes out to learn and socialize with their friends, they are also at risk of catching something. With a pandemic going on, you may be even more concerned about how you can keep your child safe at school, and the following are a few tips you can share with them.
Wash Your Hands
Good hand-washing can prevent many infections, and a good way of making sure that they are washing their hands correctly is by telling younger ones to wash their hands with soapy water while singing the alphabet song. When they get to the end of it, they can consider their hands washed well. Older children can count to 20 while washing their hands, then rinse them off.
Discourage Sharing
This may sound a bit mean, but with some germs able to live on dry surfaces like toys for hours and on moist surfaces like sinks for days, it is a good idea to limit sharing. There’s no avoiding the fact that your child is in close quarters with plenty of other children while at school, but they can avoid extra risk.
Ask them to avoid sharing personal items like lip balms and ointments, hats, brushes, and even water bottles. You could also pack a water bottle if their school allows them to avoid using the water fountain. If this is not an option, teach them to use the fountain without putting their mouths directly on the spigot.
Give Your Child Nutritious Food
A healthy child is more able to fight off many infections that they pick up at school. When they eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, they give their immunity a serious boost, naturally. An easy way of ensuring that they have a healthy plate of food each time they eat is by making their plate colorful with different fruits and vegetables. These all come together to help with different health concerns, and it can be an easier way to get all the necessary nutrients for some children than taking supplements in tablet form.
Keep Your Child Home When Unwell
Cities across the country have experienced a rapid growth in the number of schools serving school-going children over the past 15 years. This has helped to decongest classroom populations somewhat, but hallways during recess and similar settings still see students in a small space at the same time. If your child has come down with coughs, colds, or other illnesses, it is best to keep them home until the sickness passes. This can help prevent other children from catching the same illness and spreading it.
Teach Healthy Habits to Children
It is not easy to keep children in order most of the time, and as a parent, it is your duty to help them stay safe and keep others safe. Teaching them healthy habits like covering up their mouths when they cough and sneeze can go a long way in keeping their classmates healthy.
You can make sure they don’t form habits like keeping their hands in their mouths or picking their noses with their fingers. Once in school, they will share these healthy habits with their friends, making the environment at school somewhat safer.
While private schools commonly have small class sizes of student-to-teacher ratios of 12:1, this is not the same case for public schools. The best thing you can do as a parent is to help them learn healthy habits. This will keep them and their classmates safe and result in overall healthier schools.