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What should parents with small children do about swine flu?
For those of us with small children something like the swine flu brings another layer of worry.
How to do you get a 3 1/2 –year-old to protect herself? It means it's time to stress to the kids what are already good hygiene habits.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control say we parents have to set good examples. Teach the kids to wash their hands often and well. Show them how to cover their mouths when coughing or sneezing.
It sounds practical. But then there’s government talk that just doesn’t make sense with small children. The CDC wants us to teach our children to stay at least six feet away from people who are sick. And if there’s a swine flu case in South Florida, keep the children away from crowds.
What toddler is even going to know what six feet means? Never mind to stay that far away from another sick child. And how are they supposed to recognize when a playmate may be sick? And are we supposed to keep the kids out of day care? It just doesn’t make sense.
It falls to us parents. And really, we have to depend on the judgment of other parents to keep their sick kids at home.
For now, we have not changed the routine for Ana Isabel or Lucas Emilio, who just turned 1. But if things get worse, it could mean cutting out trips to the playground they so enjoy. No more visits to the children’s museum that Ana asks to go to almost every weekend. We could be spending a lot more times in the backyard with fewer playmates coming over.
As parents we have to be even more vigilant than ever. And worry just that much more.
Here what the CDC's says are the symptoms to keep an eye out for and what to do if your child gets sick.
Gretchen Day-Bryant has a son in high school and a daughter in middle school. She’s lived to tell about the struggles of juggling little kids and work...
Joy Oglesby has an infant daughter and a sister 13 years her junior, whom she babies to the now-adult...
Cindy Kent Fort Lauderdale mother of three. Her kids span in ages from teenager to 20s...
Rafael Olmeda and his wife welcomed their first son in Feb. 2009, and he's helping raise two teenage stepdaughters...
Lois Solomon lives in Boca Raton with her husband and three daughters...
Anne Vasquez loves to worry, or so her husband says...
Georgia East is the parent of a five-year-old girl, who came into the world weighing 1 pound, 13 ounces...
Brittany Wallman is the mother of Creed, 13, and Lily, 6, and is married...
Chris Tiedje is the Social Media Coordinator, and father of three blonde, blue-eyed kids all under six years old.
Comments
I think the truth is that kids are practically safe/unsafe everyday. Who knows when a dengue carrying mosquito will bite, or if a maniac driver recklessly drives off from the road. Parents can only do so much. There is a limitation to parental vigilance, and that is when the government should step in. This swine flu case is so irritatingly unfortunate that I'd go as far as to say that it just probably came from some lab, the same labs that also produces massive amounts of medication and drugs that people will now buy out of panic.
Posted by: Shannon @ Missing Child Blog | April 30, 2009 3:25 PM
Hey Shannon,,,,,,,,are you kidding me? Unbelievable........
Posted by: unknoen | May 1, 2009 12:27 AM
I agree with shannon. You people think our government is going to protect us. They dont care about us, they only about the dollar. Wake up America, there are more of us than there are of government official. We need to take back our country from these schmucks
Posted by: Brian in Tamarac | May 1, 2009 9:09 AM
I agree with shannon. You people think our government is going to protect us. They dont care about us, they only about the dollar. Wake up America, there are more of us than there are of government official. We need to take back our country from these schmucks
Posted by: Brian in Tamarac | May 1, 2009 9:10 AM
Got a text the other day..... Hundreds of people are infected with swine flu and everybody wears masks, millions of people are infected with HIV but nobody wears a condom!
Posted by: Lynette in Central FL | May 3, 2009 7:30 PM
I just fail to see the reason for any panic at all. 30,000 people die each year from the normal flu, and we don't run around wearing masks. Much less than that die from this new H1N1, and local drugstores are selling out of masks! Are you kidding me??
Keep your eye on what the government is doing while they're distracting us with this nonsense...what are they trying to push through Congress while we're so distracted by this terrible 'pandemic' that isn't anywhere near as serious as the old fashioned flu we're all so used to.
Posted by: Dixielou | May 4, 2009 1:20 PM
Question nobody seems to be asking? Why do daycares charge you for doing the right thing? My 2 1/2 year old attends pre-school full time. Last week he came down with a high fever- it turned out to be an ear infection but we kept him out of school for the week and paid a sitter $400 to stay with him while we went to work. His pre-school has written a letter telling all parents to keep flu-like children out for 7-10 days. However no mention of waiving the cost of that week. I firmly believe working moms everywhere are penalized for keeping kids home. Many mothers feel if they are paying for the week they simply dose the child with tylenol and hope for the best. I think we need to address this issue and take the greed out of pre-schools for the benefit of our childrens health. These changes would encourage keeping sick kids home.
Posted by: Myka Monson | May 5, 2009 10:32 AM