Help protect your children -- and their classmates -- when they're under the weather, so that they can return to the classroom healthy and ready to learn.
When your child is sick
The best thing you can do is to keep your children home when sick. This will help stop the spread of illness to other children and teachers. Keep them home when they show any of these symptoms:
- fever of 100 degrees F or higher
- nausea or vomiting
- severe headache
- diarrhea
- red, watery eyes with yellow or green drainage
- undiagnosed rash
Children should stay home until they have been naturally without fever for at least 24 hours. Please do not give children fever-reducing medication and then send them to school.
If you are called to pick up a sick child at school, please come quickly. If you know your child has been exposed to someone diagnosed with the flu virus, call your doctor immediately to find out what to do.
INFLUENZA (The Flu)
Influenza (the flu) is a viral infection that can cause illness ranging from mild to severe and to life-threatening complications. Symptoms of the flu include fever, headache, extreme tiredness, muscle aches, dry cough, sore throat and runny, stuffy nose. Children sometimes also have nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. Flu is spread through respiratory droplets from a cough or sneeze, or from droplets on unwashed hands. Vaccine against flu is available every year beginning in October through private physicians and at the Mecklenburg County Health Department. The vaccine is recommended for people at high risk for complications of the flu, (the elderly and those with chronic illnesses, including asthma) and people in close contact with them (this includes household contacts). When vaccine supplies are in good supply, flu shots are also available for children and adults in the general public
CDC - The Flu
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