Frigid weather means more colds

Deerfield kindergartner Brett Blackburn scans nurse Dianne Thomas's office as he lays on a bed with a sick stomach Friday, Dec. 12, 2008. Thomas explained that she has already seen nearly 170 kids feeling sick in the first two weeks of December.

Deerfield nurse Dianne Thomas feels the forehead of kindergartner Brett Blackburn during a visit to her office Friday, Dec. 12, 2008.

TOO SICK FOR SCHOOL?

Sometimes it’s difficult to know when to keep your child from school.

Dianne Thomas, school nurse at Deerfield and Woodlawn schools, suggests keeping your children home from school if they have any of the following symptoms:

• A temperature over 100.4 degrees

• Persistent vomiting or diarrhea

• A severe cold with fever, sneezing and thickened nasal discharge, especially for younger children who do not remember to cover their mouth or wash their hands

• A cough that keeps the child awake at night or worsens with increased activity

• A persistent red sore throat, especially if the tonsils are enlarged

• A severe or persistent earache

When in doubt, she said, it never hurts to call a school nurse or doctor.

Sniffles, sneezing and coughing — symptoms of the common cold — are increasingly being heard in classrooms and workplaces.

“Our volume definitely has started to pick up with the sick visits lately,” said Kim Johnson, lead nurse practitioner for Take Care Health Systems clinics in the Kansas City and Topeka markets, which includes one in Lawrence.

The best medicine to avoid getting sick: plenty of rest, a well-balanced diet and washing your hands.

“The No. 1 prevention is washing your hands, and I think that is really something that we fail to make sure that we are doing,” Johnson said.

She said everything from escalators to doorknobs to shopping carts harbor germs, and they can live for up to a week on such surfaces. Johnson highly recommends using a hand sanitizer when there’s no access to soap and water.

If you have a cold, covering your mouth when coughing or sneezing is important.

“If you cough, those germs go 20 feet,” Johnson said. “That’s why the flu and colds seem to spread like wildfire. So, make sure you cover your cough even if there’s no one in the room because you have just basically sprayed germs all over the inanimate surface objects in that room.”

Best medicine

Dr. Lori Hougham, Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department health officer, said the best way to get over a cold is to get plenty of rest and drink lots of fluids.

She said colds are viruses, and they take from 10 to 14 days to run their course. If you aren’t feeling better after 10 days, see a doctor.

“A far as over-the-counter medications for adults, nothing has actually been proven to be very effective,” Hougham said. “So, it’s mainly just symptomatic control.”

But, she added that Mucinex can be good for colds and coughs and generic cough medications can help control symptoms. Doctors don’t recommend any cold medications for children under age 2.

Too sick for school?

Hougham said to keep children home from school or day care when their temperatures are over 100.4 degrees.

“That does indicate that they could be contagious. Other than that, there’s really no hard, fast rules,” she said. “The first two to four days of an illness or cold is the most contagious. After cold symptoms appear, staying home and resting could be the best for the child.”

She said runny noses don’t necessarily mean illness, but it could mean they are starting to fight off a virus or cold.

Hougham said parents should seek a doctor’s advice when their child’s fever lasts for more than 48 hours and nasal congestion or runny nose lasts for more than 14 days. A physician should be contacted right away if a child is fussy and pulling on their ears, refusing to drink for a prolonged period of time, working hard to breathe or breathing fast.

“We definitely want to see them for that,” she said.

Flu activity?

Hougham said adults should stay home from work if they have a fever. If an adult gets a fever during the peak flu season — November through March — they should call a doctor immediately because treatments are most effective if they can be started within the first 24 to 48 hours.

So far, no flu activity has been reported in Kansas, but sporadic activity has been seen throughout many states, including Nebraska, Missouri and Colorado.

And it’s not too late to get a flu shot.

“We highly recommend getting a flu vaccine for kids if they haven’t had one yet,” said Dianne Thomas, school nurse at Deerfield and Woodlawn elementary schools.

She said school absences are just starting to go up because of common cold symptoms, but that’s typical for this time of year.

“The No. 1 thing that we encourage are teachers, our parents and our kids to do is to wash their hands and keep their kids home when they have these kinds of symptoms.”