When Should Your Child Stay Home?
The decision can be difficult: Should your child stay home from school or daycare today or will he be okay if you let him go?
In the back of your mind, you may be worried about missing a work day or appointments. But on the other hand, you want to make sure your child will be comfortable and safe throughout the day.
Monitor the Symptoms
The first place to start is by examining his symptoms. If those symptoms — maybe coughing or wheezing — were detected early and treatment steps in your child's management plan were promptly followed, he probably can head off to school. However, make sure that he will be getting any needed medication on schedule during the rest of the day.
Also, if he's showing slight sniffles or sneezes, for instance, from an incoming cold or from the beginning of allergy season, he still might be fine to attend classes.
If your child, though, needs his quick-relief medication more than every six hours to relieve his asthma symptoms, you should have him stay at home. Or, if he will be going on an outdoor field trip, for instance, on a high pollen count day — and one of his triggers is pollen — he might consider remaining behind at school or at home for the day.
Essential
Your child should remain home — and even possibly see his provider — if he is not responding to his quick-relief medication and continues to have difficulty breathing. Also, if he appears tired or restless from a sleepless night related to his asthma or is using his stomach or neck muscles to pull air into his lungs, he should remain at home as well for the day.
A peak flow meter can be used to see whether he is in the acceptable or green zone or is heading toward the danger or red zone on his daily management plan. This reading can be compared to his “personal best” reading on his asthma action plan. However, the peak flow reading may not always be accurate if the child with the asthma symptoms has other ideas on his mind — such as getting “a free day off” from school — when he is blowing into the peak flow meter. So, use your best judgment with the peak flow meter reading and always correlate it with asthma symptoms. Just because a number is in the yellow or red zone does not mean the child's health is impaired.
The child's technique when using the peak flow meter should be observed to see that it is done correctly — or the data it produces may not be correct. The maneuver to perform accurate peak flow readings is totally effort dependent, meaning your child must do a vigorous hard and fast blow to trust the result. If he is not trying hard or blowing out long and slow instead of fast, the reading may be inaccurate, which results in inappropriate medications being used.
Symptoms — Or Not?
Sometimes you may run into the opposite problem: Your child wants to do something — maybe play basketball outside on the neighborhood court or use her new skateboard — but she doesn't appear to be breathing just right, in your opinion. She insists she feels fine, but you're not sure.
Again, if your child is comfortable using a peak flow meter, try it and see if she is close to her “personal best” reading — an indication that she can go outside. For younger children, watch their breathing while engaged in play or other activities. If they appear to be breathing harder or look uncomfortable while resting, consider guiding them indoors, selecting some less strenuous activities, and implementing your asthma management plan medications.
Fact
Researchers have indicated, though, that children as young as seven years could dependably report on their own asthma health status. The researchers assessed data reported by the children for reliability, for validity, and by symptom and lung function comparisons. In all but one age category, scores were in the acceptable range.
Often parents and children may have different views on the impact of the disease. Some aspects may be difficult for parents to assess. This suggests that children can take more of a role in monitoring their own asthma status.
