The worst things to do when your child is sick can often make situations worse. As a parent, you naturally want to make your child feel better, but there are some common mistakes that can significantly affect your child’s recovery. Being well-informed and knowing what to avoid helps parents take the right approach to ensuring the best care for their child.
1. Ignoring Symptoms
Children get sick a lot, but while it may be easy to brush off their symptoms as “just another cold,” all it takes is one time ignoring seemingly innocuous symptoms to land you with a hefty hospital bill. Of course, you shouldn’t drag your child to the doctor for every runny nose, but symptoms like headaches, high fevers, rashes, and difficulty breathing should always lead you to seek a second opinion. You never know when your child may have caught something serious at school.
2. Self-diagnosing Without Consulting a Doctor
Worse than ignoring symptoms is taking notice of them yourself and attempting to diagnose your child without having them see a doctor. Although it may be tempting, stay off of websites that help you self-diagnose and seek the help of your pediatrician instead.
Self-diagnosing is dangerous, as you may overlook a symptom that a professional would notice. Additionally, the methods of treating a particular virus vary based on your child’s individual health and weight—something a doctor is better able to guide you on.
3. Forcing Them to Eat or Drink
When your child is sick, you want nothing more than for them to stay fed and hydrated; however, forcing them to eat or drink can make their symptoms worse. Forcing a child to eat or drink when they are sick can make them more uncomfortable, especially if they are suffering from a stomach illness.
Plus, many conditions require the stomach to remain empty so the body can focus its energy on healing the body in other places. So, if your kid asks for a snack, provide one, but otherwise, allow them to skip any meals they don’t feel like eating.
4. Giving Over the Counter Medicine Without Guidance
You should never give your child over-the-counter medication without guidance. It is hard to see your child in pain, but hold out until you see a doctor before giving them any sort of medication.
Not only could you give your child the wrong dose for their size, but you may also mask symptoms that are steadily getting worse that you should be monitoring. Although Tylenol is sold over the counter, when given in high doses or in conjunction with some other medications, it is an extremely dangerous drug that is responsible for 500 deaths each year..
5. Sending Them to School or Daycare
It’s tough when your kid is sick, and either you or your partner has to skip work to take care of them. It may seem easier to just send them to school or daycare, but this only causes further issues.
For one, you are exposing other kids and parents to what could possibly be a serious illness. Also, your child needs rest to heal, something they won’t be able to get at school or daycare, prolonging their illness. If that weren’t enough, there’s a chance your child’s condition could worsen during the day, and their teacher won’t notice—something that could lead to a medical emergency.
6. Not Maintaining Proper Hygiene
When your child is ill, it’s easy to just plop them on the couch and allow them to ignore their basic hygiene routines, but this is actually one of the worst things you can do for them. Ignoring basic hygiene like teeth brushing, bathing, and hand washing can prolong your child’s illness and spread it to the rest of the family. Additionally, bad hygiene can lead to other serious conditions, meaning your child could heal from this illness only to be dealing with infection from another source from poor or neglected hygiene practices.
7. Allowing Too Much Screen Time
In the same manner as hygiene, it’s important to ensure your child doesn’t overdo screen time when they are sick. A sick child needs rest, but resting includes sleeping, not the TV.
Your child may inadvertently force themselves to stay awake as they watch TV, rather than getting the sleep they need. The distraction could also cause them to miss their bodily cues, which are critical for monitoring their symptoms when they are sick.
8. Ignoring Follow-up Care
Not all illnesses require your child to visit a doctor, but when the symptoms persist, you should always follow up with a healthcare provider. A prime example of this is when your child suffers a respiratory illness such as the flu.
While this may clear up on its own, a persistent and lingering cough can be a sign of an infection like pneumonia. As such, whenever your child is sick, monitor their symptoms even after they start to feel better, seeking medical advice if they are still coughing or struggling to breathe days after their fever has broken.
9. Using Alternative Remedies Without Medical Advice
Just as you should never administer over-the-counter medical remedies without the advice of a doctor, you also shouldn’t try natural remedies without guidance. Some alternative treatments are harmless, but others could cause serious harm to your child.
A common alternative remedy to allergies or a sore throat is taking a spoonful of honey. Although this can’t harm an adult, it can be harmful for children with a developing immune system, such as those under two years of age. So, call a doctor before using even the most harmless-seeming alternative remedies.
10. Neglecting Your Own Health
Having a sick child often adds extra work to your physical and mental load, and it can be easy to push your own needs aside, but this is the last thing you should be doing. When your kid is sick, you’ll want to ensure you maintain your own hygiene, hydration, and nutrition, as there is a chance you could catch whatever your kid has next.
You need your body to be prepared to fight the illness, just in case, even though it may be difficult to find time for yourself. Otherwise, you could be in for a long recovery.