Back to school is an exciting time for many kids and families, but there are a few things you can do to make sure your kids are healthy while in the classroom.
Courtney Smith, a pediatrician with CHRISTUS Children’s, explains what all you can do to help keep your child from getting sick, staying well-rested and not injuring themselves with their backpacks.
Immunity:
When it comes to illnesses, kids are going to get sick. This happens for many reasons, but the biggest one is germs.
“Washing hands, using hand sanitizer, especially before they eat, before they touch their face, those things are all super important,” Smith said.
If your kid isn’t feeling well, Smith recommends you taking them to the doctor as soon as you can so they can figure out what’s wrong.
“Our job is to help walk you through when you need to stay home from school, or it might just be allergies or when we need to add something additional,” said Smith.
Something else that helps your kids from getting sick is vaccines.
There are the vaccines recommended for different ages in life and seasonal vaccines like the flu vaccine to help protect your child.
“There’s a wide variety of things that we don’t see as often anymore, thank goodness, because we are now able to protect kids with vaccines,” Smith said.
If you don’t know if you’re child is up-to-date with their vaccines, Smith recommends reaching out to the school. The nurse at your child’s school can let you know which vaccines are needed for the school year. After you get that list, you can take it to your child’s pediatrician and get them caught up on any vaccines they may be missing.
“We follow the CDC guidelines for vaccines for a reason because there are some illnesses that used to kill kids, that used to keep them out of school and we want to make sure they are protected as much as we can,” Smith said.
Sleep Changes:
Sleep is very important for people of all ages, but especially for learning kids.
Smith recommends younger elementary-aged kids to get 10-12 hours of sleep per night. For older kids, she recommends 8-10 hours per night.
“If kids head into the school day sleep deprived, that effects how they’re able to focus, it effects how they’re able to learn new information, it effects how they’re able to handle big emotions,” Smith said.
One important thing to remember, is no screentime for 30-minutes to an hour before bedtime. Staying on a screen keeps your mind active, making it harder to fall asleep.
Instead of screentime, Dr. Smith recommends your kid doing the following activities to help relax at night:
- Read a book
- Color
- Draw
- Journal
- Listen to music
“Regardless of how many hours of sleep they’re getting, if that sleep is not ideal-it’s not good sleep, it’s interrupted sleep then that can be a problem as well,” said Smith.
No matter what your child does to help get ready for bed, Smith recommends following the same routine every night.
This includes on the weekends. Smith says it’s best to have your child follow the school sleep routine on weekends, or else the sleep schedule can get off track.
“That really does throw your body’s internal clock off. It convinces your body that you need a new sleep routine,” Smith said.
Backpacks:
You may not think about it, but a backpack plays a huge role in your child’s health.
“We see a lot of kids that seem to have backpacks heavier than they are and we can sometimes see injuries from that,” said Smith.
Doctors recommend no more than 10-20% of your child’s bodyweight be in a backpack.
Heavy and improperly worn backpacks can cause back and shoulder pain.
Smith says there are also certain ways a backpack should be worn in order to relieve and pain your kids might be having.
You want to make sure backpacks have padded shoulder straps, fit in the middle of your child’s back and is carried on both shoulders. Smith says carrying a backpack on just one shoulder can lead to issues.
“That doesn’t distribute the weight evenly so it can lead to more injuries, it can lead to more pain because of that imbalance,” Smith said.
Dr. Smith recommends having your child check with their teacher if their bags are getting too heavy from how many books and supplies they are bringing home.
“Figure out what books they actually need. Some kids may not quite understand which books they do need to bring home and which things can be left at school,” said Smith.
Dr. Smith also says it helps to have an extra set of supplies at home so your child doesn’t have to worry about bringing them home at the end of each day.