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March 2016 | Read this issue and more at www.healthandwellnessmagazine.net |
Flu in Children
Sharing close quarters and utensils make
youngsters more susceptible
By Harleena Singh, Staff Writer
The flu virus can spread easily, and
anyone can catch it. It doesn’t matter
how fit or healthy your child is. The
illness comes on fast and is more
intense than a cold, making kids feel
worse during the first two to three
days they are sick.
The flu is contagious, especially
when kids share close quarters, such
as in classrooms at school. It can
spread through the air by coughing,
sneezing and by hands, cups and
other objects that have been in contact with an infected person’s mouth
or nose. It can easily move from child
to child as they share pencils, toys,
spoons, etc.
Flu in children usually causes at
least two or three of the following
symptoms: headache, body ache or
pain, dry cough that may become
moist, a sudden fever, fatigue, nausea,
vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain,
sore throat, chills or shivering and
runny or stuffy nose. The flu can be
more serious in kids who also have a
chronic or long-lasting disease. Most
kids recover within seven days.
Focus on treating those symptoms
that bother your child most. Use a
nasal decongestant, cough medicine
or ibuprofen for body aches and fever
if needed. Alternatively, you can give
a multi-symptom cold and flu medicine to treat the various symptoms.
Do not give aspirin to your child if he
has influenza because this can