Even if your child rarely gets sick, odds are she’s going to come down with something once she starts preschool. The odds are about as good as you spilling something on your brand new white shirt five minutes after you walk out the door.
That is to say— A SURE THING.
When you take into account the number of kids in the class and the fact that they all have mouths and noses and grimy hands that wipe their noses and then touch all the same toys and tables and art supplies and snacks (plus there’s always that one kid who licks everything), you can see how transferring germs is unavoidable. Especially when nobody has mastered the art of coughing into their elbow quite yet.
It’s not really “if” your child will catch something from another student in the class, it’s a matter of “when”.
So what can you do? Short of sending your child off to school in a bubble, not much. Except make the right decisions about when to keep your own sick child out of class.
On that fateful day when your child wakes up with a sniffle and a cough, you like all the other parents in the class will think— “Is she sick enough to keep her home from school?”
You have three options:
1. Send her. Even though she’s got dried up snot caked up around her ears from continually wiping her nose with the back of her hand, she does not have a fever and is in good spirits. Sure, the other parents will give you dirty looks when you drop her off, but they would (and will) do the same in your position. Plus, you have things to do! Work to go to! You can’t stay home with a sick kid!
2. Keep her home. You can watch TV all day together while lying on the couch without feeling guilty about giving her too much screen time. You can try and fail to take her temperature because she won’t stay still long enough for you to get an accurate reading. You can force feed her chicken soup and swear up and down that the bubble gum medicine actually tastes like bubble gum, even though you’ve never tasted it so you really have no idea.
3. Take her to the doctor. But be forewarned. There is a non-existent window that is “the right time to take a kid to a doctor”. You either take them too soon or too late and both scenarios make you feel like you did something wrong.
Here are the only two outcomes of taking your sick kid to the doctor:
You see what I mean?
One company that is working to make parents savvier when their kids get sick is Kinsa, which has just developed the Kinsa Smart Ear Thermometer. The thermometer gives you an accurate reading in one second, which is awesome for super squirmy kids who won’t still. It’s so easy to use, you can use it even on a baby while she is sleeping.
I used it on Harlow a few weeks ago when she came down with a cold and was amazed at how quickly and easily it calculated her temperature. It was 100.3. Honestly, I think that was the first time I ever trusted my own thermometer. Which was great the next day when it gave her a 98.6 because I could trust that she was getting better too.
You can use the Kinsa Smart Ear Thermometer on it’s own or in conjunction with the Kinsa app which wirelessly and automatically records your child’s temperature history. Plus, the app lets you record your child’s symptoms to share with your doctor or to compare with Kinsa’s in-app expert medical guidance.
You can also record what medicine you gave your kid and at what dosage, which is especially useful if you have another caretaker watching your sick kid during the day. Multiple caregivers will be able to log into the same account and have all the info they need on their own device.
You can even keep tabs on the rest of your preschool class since the Kinsa Group feature will tell you what common illnesses are circulating nearby.
Kinsa recently launched a pre-sales campaign for their new Smart Ear Thermometer. For the next three days, the ear thermometer is as low as $40 for one thermometer, with options to buy value packs as gifts for even bigger savings. Retail price of the thermometer when it hits shelves will be $59.99.
Funds raised through the pre-sales campaign will go towards supporting FLUency, which gives free Kinsa thermometers to schools throughout the country.
So get a Kinsa thermometer and maybe, just maybe, your child can avoid catching something at school.
I have to get one! Right now I have a digital thermometer that takes the temp at their temples and every time I’m not sure if I’m doing it right. And then they move and I have to start all over again.
Since my daughter started preschool this year she and her two siblings have gotten strep throat and they are all have had random fevers and runny noses. I need a bubble!
Just ordered it!
YAY! Thanks for ordering — we hope you love it!
I THINK YOU JUST HELPED ME WIN CHRISTMAS. MY BEST FRIEND AND MY SISTER-IN-LAW ARE GOING TO BE BLOWN AWAY BY THESE! THANK YOU SO MUCH. BTW, YOUR BLOG AWESOMESAUCE. THANKS FOR MAKING ME LAUGH EVERY DAY!
Oops! Didn’t check my Caps. Didn’t mean to yell all of that… Though I am excited. 🙂
Sarah, love your SCREAMING excitement about the thermometer! 🙂
Meh. This was mildly interesting until it became a shameless plug for that stupid ear thermometer. Yes, we get it, they’re sponsoring your blog. (Or did they just give you a free sample?)
I promote brands that I stand behind and relevant products that I think my readers would like to know about. This blog isn’t shameless— it’s how I earn my living, which my readers know and understand. You should stay off the internet if you don’t like sponsored content.
The problem I have with this post is that it gave no indication that it was going to be an ad. It was shared with me on Facebook and I started reading it, until halfway through I realised I was reading an ad all along, and felt cheated.
This also explained some of the weirder stuff in the first half of the post: Failing to take a temperature because she won’t stay still long enough?? This has never happened with my regular old ear thermometer which takes (gasp!) two to three seconds to take a reading. But of course it nicely ties in with the promoted product further below.
Had there been a mention of the product in the title, it would not have been a problem for me.
Ilana, don’t let losers like @Minni get you down (though I’m sure I dont need to tell you that). She (or he? what kind of name is Minni anyways, are they a mouse?) clearly dont understand how blogging or most media these days for that matter, works. Almost all the women in my office read your blog and we LOVE IT. Your posts are witty, thoughtful and oftentimes truly make me stop and think. They are things most parents can relate to, and you do it in an irreverent and awesome way.
I appreciated your post about the ear thermometer and in fact, bought the 3 pack – I think they will make great gifts and there was nothing stupid about it – you’re making a living for your family, and these thermometer people are trying to make a product that will help parents like me. So thank you and keep up the awesomeness!
What kind of name is Minni? A fake one of course, duh. I don’t use my real name when commenting on a random blog post on the internet. 🙂
OMG. This spoke to me. My daughter started pre-k in upper manhatten and barely a month in she got sick. I took her to the dr when the school sent her home from what they tought was high fever. When we went to the dr, they said she’s clearly fighting off a cold, but does not have the fever the school reported. All I could think about is, my daughter has never gotten sick….until now. Oh, the trade off for early childhood development at 2! And I have an ear temp taker,but always open to other products. As a SMBC (Single Mom By Choice), i need as many resources as possible. This will go on the list as a back up. Thanks you.
I think it is such a great product and idea! but the best to try to keep kids from getting sick is not sharing stuff because that how they spread the germs. Im kind of germaphobic I admit, so teaching them to wipe their hands with sanitizing wipes or gel at all times especially before eating, and teaching not to lick the fingers and not to share stuff like bottles and food containers with others which is sometimes hard because at snack and lunch time sometimes the teachers even mixup by mistake their stuff and the kids are to small they don’t know what belongs to who so I label everything with some amazing labels that I found online at http://www.stickerkid.com and the teachers love them, my son and me too at least we all know that he is using HIS stuff and drinking from the right bottle and not sharing germs…