Keeping sick kids home is a life-saving lesson

If your children are sick, don’t send them to school. That’s the message for households ahead of the new school year.

If your children are sick, don’t send them to school.

That’s the message for households ahead of the new school year, as a summer wave of “winter illness” threatens to turn the classroom into a petri dish.

Changes to normal viral patterns have led to children continuing to be diagnosed with winter viruses such as ­influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) right throughout the summer months and even as they prepare to head back to school.

So far in January, almost 800 children aged between 0 and 14 have tested positive for RSV, up from less than 500 during the same time last year, according to NSW Health statistics.

Reported cases of influenza are also on the rise, with 656 children of the same age catching the sickness this month in NSW. Last year, 431 kids between 0 and 14 tested positive for the flu, jumping from just nine in 2022.

With students returning to school from next week, Education Minister Prue Car said it was important for parents to be aware of the spike in respiratory viruses across NSW.

“If children are unwell, we ask parents to keep them home where possible, to stop the spread of illness in schools and minimise disruption to learning,” she said.

Brittan Guthridge in Centennial Park with daughters Mackenzie and Quinn. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Dr Louisa Owens, a pediatric respiratory physician and a member of the National Asthma Council Australia Guidelines Committee, said it is unclear why the usual respiratory viral seasons have changed, however it was possible that Covid and extended lockdowns disrupted normal patterns for infections.

“We had a couple years where we hardly had any respiratory viruses with the lockdown,” she said.

“So the viruses may have adapted a little bit, and now we are seeing them a lot later and in the warmer months than we traditionally did.”

Little Mackenzie Guthridge starts her first year of school this year and, with her little sister Quinn in daycare for the first time, their mum Brittan is preparing for a wave of school sickness.

“With two kids they just rotate illnesses and pass it around and then on to the next thing,” she said.

“I feel like four months out of the year one of them is always sick but it usually calms down when the weather gets a bit warmer and they are outside more.”

While her little ones have avoided the summer spike of sickness, Ms Guthridge said she anticipated her girls would come down with something as their environments change.

“Quinn is starting daycare for the first time so I’m preparing myself for her to get sick more,” she said.

“I was thinking I’d have two days to myself again but that’s probably not going to happen because she is going to get sick all the time.”

Dr Owens encouraged parents to keep their children home if they are suffering from a respiratory illness, saying a small cough could have serious consequences if it spreads in the classroom.

“Every February there is a ‘back-to-school asthma spike’ that sees a sharp rise in children with asthma admitted to hospital due to a change of environment or allergens, sharing a new set of bugs with classmates, which can trigger colds and respiratory infections and possibly missing preventer doses over the holidays,” she said.

“What’s a runny nose for one kid could be a lot more significant for someone else.

“So just being very mindful of that and if your child appears sick, try to keep them home for a day or two.”