Heading back to school H1N1...........

[murcor]

Our American neighbors have been back to school for a few weeks and we are hearing H1N1 is spreading faster and having huge out breaks in the schools.

I am interested in What Canadians think as our children are heading back to school soon.

Personally, I am scared to send them off next Wednesday

 

[SandraC]

I work in a school and viruses go around like crazy in Sept, January, after Christmas break and March after Spring break.

My dd15 is nervous about H1N1 because she has serious heart defects [3 operations so far]. She is scared because many fatalities are young adults with serious underlying illness like her.

Her cardiologist said to keep washing hands and use Purell.

She has a virus now....had to get a chest x-ray yesterday.

So yes, I'm a little nervous.

S

 

[Eeyoreloverforever]

One the one hand I am worried it is something serious and will really interfere with our lives (we have lots of travelling planned this fall too).
Yet on the other hand I have heard it is basically a regular flu that has been hyped by the media and the fatalities are the same fatilities that happen with the regular flu that are just not reported.

I am already a germaphob and my daughter is the same, so for her sake I have been down playing.

My biggest concern is my dd who is 5 and just starting school. You know how nasty and germy little kids are and they put everything in their mouths. She also tends to be the one who gets everything and usualy pretty bad.

I am also concerned because for some reason this year I seem to be also getting everything (dd5 had fifth disease last month and passed it on to me) and I have asthma and every cold goes to my chest.

I have been encouraging the kids to keep their hands clean and I bough Purell for their book bags. I don't know what else I can do.

 

[drag n' fly]

I work for the public school board here and today was our first day back. We are as prepared as one can be. Two out of the five of us already had it....so we know what to expect if it hits

 

[Zeldy2]

To be honest, i'm currently studying in the respiratory therapy field, and i'll be working all the year in hospitals, and i'm not worrying about this too much not to say at all. So far, what they do know about this virus is that it's very similar to the current influenza with a few exceptions, IT'S NOT to be taken lightly of course, but you shoudln't also be scared to death ^^'

If you're wondering if this virus could be really bad for your children, DO as SandraC did, ASK YOUR DOCTOR

I won't make any reccomendations here since i am not a doctor, but what i can say is if you really don't want your children to catch any disease, just put them in a glass box, this should do it I'm kidding but the point is that every year influenza spreads in schools across the world as well as other virus, and the media never even touched a word about this, and the precautions are THE SAME

- WASH WASH WASH have i said WASH your hands!!!
- Purell IS indeed useful, but washing is WAY better ^^ But when soap and water isn't acessible, purell should handle it
- For those who have the symptoms of the influenza and can't leave school for somewhat reason, cough in your elbow
- If you wish to get some more info visit Fightflu dot ca ^^

 

[tjbaggott]

I hadn't really thought of this subject all summer, but as we are getting closer to fall, and my kids start back to school on Monday (EEEEK, TWO MORE DAYS!), and closer to our Disney World and Disney Cruise trip planned for the end of October, and now this thread, I'm starting to think about it. I think as part of our back to school supplies, I will send my Gr. One child with a few boxes of Kleenex and a large bottle of Purel for the classroom. I'd love to see the purel dispensers attached to the walls like you see in the hospitals (and like we have here at home), but the schools, at least ours, have not done that yet. Many of the grocery stores have, so why not all schools? I'll also get my kids travel sized purel bottles to keep in their school bags. Not going to panic, but will take some extra steps to try and keep everyone healthy.

 

[Tiger926]

For those of you commenting on Purell in schools, I'm surprised it's still allowed in your district. We pulled it out of schools a few years ago due to alcohol safety concerns. We can't have it anywhere in our schools - I'm the school health and safety alternate in our school, so we have had meetings and memos about this.

We received non-alcohol based sanitizers to be used in our schools in April, when the virus first broke out, so our board won't be adding alcohol based sanitizers back into schools at this point.

Good luck to all - I teach at-risk highschoolers, so this is a concern of mine, as is all fall/winter seasons as they can't and don't care for themselves very well.

Tiger

 

[Charleyann]

I am absolutely terrified to send my son back. He has cystic fibrosis and Juvenile Rheumatoid arthritis. He has bowel problems and the minute he gets a virus his bowels obstruct. With his lung condition it makes us terrified....All I can say is OMG, I 'm scared!!!!

Charleyann

 

[snickerboo]

Well, honestly, outside of it effecting important upcoming fall events in our lives, I am not too worried about my kids getting this. I'd really rather they get it now while it is just a garden-variety flu, in case it mutates, then they'd have immunity if things turned worse.

Bath & Body Works has hand sanitizers that aren't alcohol-based. I don't think they're as good though. They use triclosan. They also have alcohol-based ones there but, if your school doesn't allow alcohol-based sanitizers, try B & BW.

 

[brighteyes]

For a young child, they don't have to drink the hand sanitizer, even licking their hands after use could be enough to have negative consequences for a child.

 

[Tiger926]

Well, honestly, outside of it effecting important upcoming fall events in our lives, I am not too worried about my kids getting this. I'd really rather they get it now while it is just a garden-variety flu, in case it mutates, then they'd have immunity if things turned worse.

Bath & Body Works has hand sanitizers that aren't alcohol-based. I don't think they're as good though. They use triclosan. They also have alcohol-based ones there but, if your school doesn't allow alcohol-based sanitizers, try B & BW.

BTW: I think not allowing alcohol sanitizers is overkill. There were a few media reports about kids drinking them. Thankfully, I live in a rural community where it's still 1992 so we aren't effected by the latest media reports. LOL

Triclosan is a very serious chemical - Health Canada and the FDA have been researching its effects, and this is a chemical that may be banned in the near future. It's a very bad chemical...

Our school board did not ban due to kids drinking it (we never had any in our district), although this is possible, but also due to liability reasons in regards to allergies and other serious reactions, so it's not overkill. Hand sanitizers kill germs for a reason - the alcohol content is high, as well, young kids are constantly getting it in their eyes and mouths. We have a huge amount of allergies and cancers where I live, so our board has been proactive in this regard, as well as what chemicals can be used by janitors within our schools. We aren't allowed to bring Lysol wipes into school, Febreeze or anything like that either - I am someone with a chemical allergies, so I appreciate this, as people were stinking up our schools with all kinds of unneccessary and dangerous chemicals in the name of disinfecting or freshening up. Our janitors know exactly what to use and where to use it. Regardless of whether one belives in it or not, we must abide by these policies. I remember when I first started teaching, 10 years ago, as a Spec Ed teacher, I was a pharmacist dispensing meds at lunctime to my students. Now we have gone totally away from that (thank goodness!) in regards to what we can give to students. Imagine if I put hand sanitizer on your kids hands (that's not my business to do so), and he/she has a serious reaction to it? You are going to sue us. We no longer can give students anything - all alcohol and alcohol based products, plus pretty much everything else has been removed from our first aid kids. We are not doctors, nurses nor pharmacists, so anything with chemicals in them (of which hand sanitizers are) cannot and should not be given to your children by any of us. Except for epi-pens which can only administered in case of emergency by those of us trained to do so.

As a teacher, I don't drive kids anywhere, nor do I give them anything to ingest. I don't even put bandaids on my students (my children and I have serious reactions to almost all bandaids) - I am very vigilant about this sort of thing, as all teachers should be. Teachers were not though, and thus the reason for the removal of chemical based products from our schools.

Thanks, Tiger

 

[drag n' fly]

Here is a good site for h1n1 info


http://www.fightflu.ca/index-eng.html