As parents gear up to send their kids back to school next week, Doctor Jonathon Skelton at STAR ER said this time of year is when they see an uptick in strep throat, upper respiratory illnesses, and croup cough.
He said it’s little things like hand washing, and not eating or drinking after classmates that can make a big difference.
“For croup cough symptoms, you can take your child into the restroom and run some real hot water,” Skelton said. “Steam it up and let them breathe that in, if they are still struggling to breathe they need to come to the emergency room.”
The ER said due to the heavy winds and cotton gins, they are also seeing patients for all kinds of allergies, as well gastrointestinal illnesses.
Skelton said it’s never too late to get a flu shot since they haven’t seen an an increase of flu cases just yet. As kids head back to class on Tuesday, it’s encouraged that if your child has been sick over the break, to make sure you wait 24 hours until the symptoms subside, and then send them back to school.
“If the child gets better, and it’s a short lived illness in regards to the severity of it you can still have some symptoms for several days. So, keep those hands clean, cover the cough and that will help from spreading it to others,” said Skelton.
