Good News! We have one of the three school age kids heading back to school this morning. Cordelia is heading off to school after being home sick for a week with the swine flu. She's been armed with cough drops and a sports bottle filled with water.
Better news, we seem to have a chance at sending another of the kids off to school tomorrow. The twins seem to be heading in the right direction themselves. I'm optimistic that by this weekend we all may even be a "swine free" household again.
Several of my friends asked how you determine when your child is ready to head back to school? I read on the Center for Disease Control website the following guidelines:
"CDC recommends that people with influenza-like illness remain at home until at least 24 hours after they are free of fever (100° F [37.8°C]), or signs of a fever without the use of fever-reducing medications.
This is a change from the previous recommendation that ill persons stay home for 7 days after illness onset or until 24 hours after the resolution of symptoms, whichever was longer."Our own pediatrician seemed to be in the agreement with these recommendations, so fever free and virtually symptom free (minus a small sore throat) it was back to school for Cordelia today.
Obviously, the most important thing is that they feel good enough to go. I see no reason to push your child into heading back to school before they are feeling up to it, even if they are fever free without medications for 24 hours.
Another question I have been asked is if you can get swine flu again? Here's the answer according to the Mayo Clinic website:
"After being infected with the 2009 swine flu virus, your children can't catch the same virus again — not from you, not from anyone else. All flu viruses are that way. Once you're exposed to a flu virus, your immune system develops antibodies and memory cells unique to that virus. Your body can then defend itself if you're exposed to the virus again."
Keep in mind, that that doesn't mean that you are immune from any new strains that may develop next year or in years to come.
Hopefully none of you end up needing this info at all, but I thought I'd share what I have learned just in case. If you missed it, here's a link to my 1st post on my kids coming down with swine flu.