Contagious?

Am I contagious?

Sometimes it’s hard to know if your child is sick enough to warrant the inconvenience of arranging the nanny, Gran or staying home with them yourself. So here are a few tips that may help you make that decision. If your child has a fever, they are most likely contagious. They should be fever-free for 24 hours (without fever-reducing meds) before return to child care. Other symptoms that necessitate a sick day are:

– Vomiting, (2 or more times in the past 24 hours) diarrhea or stools with blood/mucous pink eye, undiagnosed skin rash, severe cough, very sore throat, headache in an unwell child.

– Mouth sores with drooling

– Lethargy

– Persistent crying/inconsolably irritability Difficulty breathing

When your child is brewing an infection, they are usually quiet or unenergetic and just not themselves, pay attention to this behavior as they are often contagious from this point. You may not need to rush off to the doctor just yet, but try keep them away from susceptible people, especially other children, elderly and pregnant women. That is another reason why it is important to wash your and his hands frequently. You never know when your child or another child is passing a virus or bacteria.

You will only be able to establish how long they’ll be contagious for once you know the diagnosis. When that has been identified some time frames are listed in the table. https://www.healthychildren.org/English/tips-tools/Symptom-Checker/Pages/Infection-Exposure-Questions-Contagiousness.aspx

Infections that are not Contagious: Many common bacterial infections are not contagious (e.g., ear infections, sinus infections, bladder infections, kidney infections, and pneumonia).