How to tell when your child is too sick for school
When your child says they don’t feel well enough to go to school, what do you do? Do you take the day off work and try not to feel cross if they’re full of beans by lunchtime? Or do you send them to school anyway and keep your fingers crossed that you don’t get a phone call asking you to come and take them to the doctor?

Sometimes it is hard to know whether a child is genuinely ill or suffering from a case of “school-itis”. Or you may have the opposite problem, where your child has been sick but hates missing out on school activities and insists they are well enough to go back, despite still seeming under the weather.It’s often a judgement call you have to make as a parent, but to help you decide, here’s a list of symptoms for which you should definitely keep them at home.

Fever
A child has a fever if their temperature is over 37.7°C. This is an important sign that something is amiss in their body and mustn’t be ignored. If they also have nausea, a sore throat or a rash, they should see a doctor.

While high temperatures can be brought down with medications like paracetamol, which will make your child feel better for a while, the reason for the fever is still there. Find out what is causing the problem – it could be an infection or a contagious illness. Your child’s fever should have been gone for 24 hours before they return to school.

Vomiting
Some kids can have a single episode of vomiting and be fine afterwards. But if they complain of still feeling unwell keep them off school in case they throw up again or develop other symptoms, like diarrhoea. They could have a bug, and it may be infectious. Make sure they drink plenty of water so they don’t become dehydrated. It should be safe for them to go back to school if they haven’t vomited for 24 hours.

Diarrhoea
Keep your child at home until 24 hours have passed since their last episode of diarrhoea. Not only can diarrhoea be accompanied by painful stomach cramps and be infectious, it can be mortifying for your child if they have an “accident” at school. As with vomiting, keep fluid levels up to avoid dehydration. Obviously, drinking healthy drinks is best but if liquid levels need to be high and they like ginger beer or lemonade, then let them have it.

Strep throat
It’s hard to know whether a sore throat is serious or not, but if it persists, it is worth getting it checked out as it could be strep throat. This is highly contagious but can be treated with antibiotics. One sign that your child really does have a sore throat is they have trouble swallowing.

Persistent or severe cough
This can be due to an allergy or a cold getting worse. It may also be a sign of a secondary infection, such as pneumonia, which needs medical treatment. Asthma may also be responsible for coughing.If the cough is persistent or severe your child needs to see a doctor.

Conjuctivitis
Conjunctivitis – when their eye becomes red and gives out a yellowish discharge – is very contagious and your child’s school won’t be happy about them turning up. Similar symptoms can also be caused by an eye allergy, and in that case your child won’t need to stay home. You may need to see a doctor to get a correct diagnosis.

Cold & flu
If your child has a cold, you may want to keep them at home for a day or two because their runny nose, streaming eyes and sneezing will be making them feel miserable – plus it’s catching. If it is the flu, there’s no way they’ll be able to go to school as they’ll feel too sick. As well as cold-like symptoms, signs of the flu include an aching body, high temperature, cold sweats, sore throat and in some cases, vomiting. It’s contagious and could take five days to a week to get better.

Chickenpox
It causes fever and an itchy rash and, while some cases are mild, most children are obviously unwell. Chickenpox is highly contagious and kids should be kept off school until all the blister-like lesions have turned to scabs, and there have been no new lesions for two days.

Are they faking it?
Some kids put on Oscar-worthy performances to try to convince their parents they need to stay home from school to watch DVDs and be waited on hand and foot.

Signs that your child could be trying it on include:

• Symptoms that suddenly improve. It’s hard for most kids to keep up an act for too long. If a cough miraculously stops 10 minutes after you ring the school to report your child’s absence, be suspicious.
• Symptoms that change or are vague. Ten minutes ago it was their stomach that hurt, then it was their throat, now it’s their back. While some illnesses do have a variety of symptoms all at one time, complaints that
  travel from one part of the body to another may not be real.
• Being able to concentrate on TV or computer games. Genuinely ill kids will probably nod off watching TV, or only be able to play on the computer for a short while before needing to rest, or they’ll have no interest in them at all.
• Eating lots. Loss of appetite can be a sign they’re ill but if they’re raiding the fridge it may well be the opposite.

If so, why?
It could just be that they want to be at home more and doing their own thing. Younger kids may be missing you and know that being off sick means they get to have you fussing over them.

But there could be a more serious reason why they are pretending to be sick, especially if they do it repeatedly. They could be the victim of bullying or suffering from anxiety or depression. Ask them what is troubling them, or if they can’t or won’t discuss it, have a confidential chat with their teacher.