Back to school health tips from the HSE

With summer drawing to a close, HSE child health experts have shared top tips for helping children and parents prepare for the school year ahead. This includes advice on changing children’s routines after the holidays and planning ahead for common illnesses and viruses.

The HSE Talking Health and Wellbeing podcast returns to its weekly schedule today with a focus on supporting parents as young people return to school. Our ‘Back to School’ episode will be followed in the coming weeks with episodes on ‘Healthy Lunchboxes for Kids’ and ‘Screen Time and Young People’.

This podcast series is available on:

• Podbean
• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• HSE Health and Wellbeing YouTube channel

Dr Abigail Collins, HSE National Clinical Lead, Child Health Public Health, who spoke on the ‘Back to School’ podcast episode, explained:
“Starting school or going back to school or preschool after a summer off and getting back into a routine can be difficult for parents, let alone children. Try to be kind to yourself – there’s a lot of work involved in getting your child ready for school, and it can be an emotional time for everyone.

“As every parent knows, all children get sick at some point. Teaching good hand hygiene, having a thermometer and children’s pain/fever medication ready, keeping up-to-date with vaccines, saving important numbers in your phone and planning how you would manage with a sick child at home can all help.

“Parents can find advice on a wide range of topics on HSE’s mychild.ie, including coughs, colds and viral infections, head lice, vaccines, choosing a school bag, screen time and physical activity.”

Back to school tips

Here are some tips to help make going back to school as smooth as possible.

Easing anxieties and worries

Check in with your child about how they are feeling about school. It's normal for children to feel worried or anxious from time to time. For example, when they're starting pre-school or primary school, or also for older children transitioning to secondary school.

Above all, it's important to listen to what your child tells you about their anxieties or worries. Try to validate them by telling them ‘I can see why you are worried’. You can help your child to understand that anxiety is normal, everyone has it, even you. Explain to them there are ways we can manage worry and deal with the things we fear together. For example, talking with an adult they trust, such as a parent or teacher, and reminding them of their strength and how they overcame fears in the past.

Reading books about school and trying to have some extra one-on-one time with a child who is struggling can help too.

Sweet dreams and routines

Bedtimes and wake-up times often get later and later during holidays, so it can help to try to bring these back gradually in the week or so before school re-opens. Start to bring a bit more routine back in to the days leading up to school. Screen time and meals may also be more difficult to manage than usual. You may need to be patient and reintroduce routines slowly.  Also, anticipate that children may be tired and may be a little out of sorts for the first weeks as they adjust, as might you. But things should settle down as you get into a routine.

Bringing home the bugs

Most children will end up picking up common viral infectious illnesses such as colds, flu, hand, foot and mouth, RSV, chickenpox, slapped cheek syndrome and others when they go back to school. Some can be serious for more vulnerable people, including newborn babies and those who are pregnant or immunocompromised. To protect those most vulnerable, remember the basics of good hand hygiene, keep your child at home when they are unwell and keep up-to-date with your child’s vaccines.

Back to basics

You can spread infections to others before you seem unwell yourself, which is why hand hygiene is so important. Teach your child how to wash their hands well and to cover coughs and sneezes. Have a packet of tissues in their school bag and make sure they know to throw used ones in the bin.

Home time

If your child is unwell, keep them at home. Trust your instincts.

For example, if your child:

• has a temperature of 38 degrees higher
• is low in energy
• has diarrhoea or vomiting.

There are 3 key reasons why:

1. Your child needs to rest and recover.
2. Being sick makes your child more vulnerable to catching something else in school.
3. To prevent the spread to other children in the class, some of whom may be living with vulnerable family members for whom an infection or illness could be serious.

There is a useful graphic which tells you how long children should stay home across a number of different illnesses, available on the HSE Health Protection Surveillance Centre HSPC website.

Think in advance about how you would manage if your child has to stay at home.

• Check to see if you have essentials in case of illness – children’s paracetamol, ibuprofen, thermometer, etc.
• Always read the label carefully when giving medication to your child. Paracetamol and ibuprofen are the medicines most associated with queries to the National Poisons Information Centre, which provides a public phone advice service. Always close the lid after using a medicine bottle and store all medicines out of children’s sight and reach to prevent accidental poisoning.

Save important numbers on your phone, such as:

• your GP’s out of hours service number
• Poisons Information Line on (01) 809 2166 – open 8am to 10pm, 7 days a week

And, of course call your GP or medical care provider if you are worried about your child.

You may have injury units or urgent care facilities nearby that will treat children with injuries or illnesses that are not life-threatening. It’s good to be aware of where those are and their opening times. Some may require you to phone ahead in advance. You can find this information on the HSE website.

Don’t wait – vaccinate

It’s important to get your child vaccinated as it helps their immune systems to protect them against serious illness. Firstly, contact your GP if your child missed out on any of the routine childhood vaccines which take place in 5 visits from age 2 months to 13 months.

There has been a rise in measles cases this year and it can be a serious illness. With much higher cases of measles in many European countries where children may have been on summer holidays, measles really is important to think about. Catch-up measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines are available. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are needed for the best protection, the first is usually given at 12 months of age and the second at junior infants stage. Catch-up vaccines are available from participating GPs if your child is older than junior infants and has not received two doses of MMR vaccine.

We are also advising parents to be aware of upcoming vaccines offered in junior infants and in the first year of secondary school. Look out for the immunisation pack in their school bag and complete and return the consent form to their school.

It will be flu season soon and children are twice as likely as adults to catch the flu. This is why all children aged 2 to 17 years can get a free nasal flu vaccine this autumn. It’s a safe and effective way to protect them and the rest of your family too.