Back to School Illnesses

Here we go again - Back to School time!

Do you dread back to school time because your kids will be sick?

All. The. Time.? 

It seems like when school starts, my kids were constantly sick. 

And when one kid gets sick, it would go through the whole family.  

 Worse with asthma 

My kid's classmates would have snotty noses and be sneezing (never covering their sneezes.....) but that was about it for symptoms. 

Meanwhile, since all 3 of my kids have asthma, they would be sneezing, wheezing, and coughing. They would have to whip out their inhaler at school and take a couple of puffs.

I would always have them or the school nurse call me if they needed their inhaler at school. I needed to track how often they were using it. 

I needed to know if they were getting worse, and if it was time to adjust their inhalers to a higher dose, or add another inhaler while they were sick. 

They would usually end up missing school.

A LOT of school. 

They would exceed the "allowed number of missed school days." Listen, I'm not taking my kids out of school for a European vacation.....

My kids are sick. 

Really sick. 

As in, we need to go to Urgent Care because Son #2 or Daughter Kitty isn't breathing well. 

Their peak flow meter is dropping, they are lethargic, struggling to breathe, and coughing so hard they are about to throw up. 

The nebulizer isn't working, and they are getting worse.  

Sometimes we could ride it out at home. Other times, we would go to the ER and they would end up being admitted to the hospital. 

What seems to be a mild cold in a classmate can actually show up as pneumonia, RSV, or COVID for my child. 

When should you take your child to the ER? 

This information is from University of Maryland Children's Hospital 

Signs that I need to take my child to the ER  

I know it's scary and frustrating to have kids in school with asthma. I've been there. My kids are all adults now. 

But I have a LOT of grey hair now, thanks to lots of visits to the hospital for asthma. 

Hang in there! 

Hugs, 

Andrea