It’s almost time for children to go back to school and you know what that means: in less than a month, you’ll probably catch yourself searching for “urgent care near me” when your child gets the tell-tale back-to-school cold.
When your child goes back to school, looking for a 24 hour pediatric urgent care should be a top priority. While you’re not able to stop your child from getting sick, here are some preventative measures you should take to help them avoid it.
Hand sanitizer
To prevent the common cold from plaguing your child, you can always give them a travel-sized bottle of hand sanitizer. This shouldn’t be done for small children — hand sanitizer is toxic when ingested and might land you in an urgent care or pedi center should your young child eat it.
But hand sanitizer is a great practice to start teaching your child once they’re old enough. The average child in America will catch up to ten colds a year. To help prevent this, encourage them to use hand sanitizer before they eat to avoid ingesting harmful germs and bacteria. Some even come in fun, fresh scents that will help your child use it more often.
Sharing is caring, but not hats
One of the worst back-to-school health issues is lice. Discourage your child from sharing hats or other hair accessories with other children to prevent this parasite from thriving in your child’s hair. While lice aren’t always preventable, performing regular inspections and watching out for the symptoms of lice can help stop the parasite in its tracks. Watch out for small red bumps on your child’s scalp and neck and take them to a 24 hour pediatric urgent care if your child is excessively itching.
Keep your child home when they are sick
One of the best things you can do for your child when they’re sick is to keep them home from school. Missing one day of school won’t set them back too far and it’ll help prevent countless other children from getting sick. Your child needs rest, liquids, and mild foods to feel better. If you send them to school, they’ll stay sick for longer and you might catch yourself searching for “urgent care near me.”
Look for nearby pediatric urgent care facilities
If your child gets injured or suffers from a severe cold or flu, you need to know where the closest urgent care is to you. Between hand, foot and mouth disease, strep throat, and other common childhood illnesses, urgent care centers are sometimes the only source to accurately identify and treat these issues.
When you’re looking for emergency care, visiting the closest urgent care facility is the best way to keep your child safe this school year. Know where the nearest 24 hour pediatric urgent care is to you to keep your family safe.