Preschool children go to school: Try to guide the 2 most important Ks

April 12, 2022 06:53 GMT+7

Ms. Cao Thanh Ha – Van Quan, Ha Dong said that for more than 1 year, her children have been at home and their grandmother has taken care of them. Until now, she is very happy to go to class, but her whole family is worried because her child is sick when she goes to school. Before that, I went to the hospital many times because I was sick, sometimes with pneumonia, sometimes with viral fever, and each time I went to the hospital, it haunted the whole family, both costly and tiring, and especially worried about my health.

These days, Ha and her husband regularly teach their children how to wash their hands and spray alcohol to prevent illness. I hope to keep it until then.

Ms. Hoang Thuy, (Thanh Xuan, Hanoi) said that her child’s preschool class is 3 years old. Since the outbreak of the disease, children have not been able to go to school. When the school consulted to return to school, the whole class had 28 students, only 20 parents chose to go to school, 2 parents chose not to go and 6 parents did not choose. Thuy does not know how to choose because she is afraid that her child will catch the disease and post-Covid-19 sequelae.

Illustrated photo.

Doctor Truong Huu Khanh – Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Infectious Association said that many parents fall into the mentality that their children don’t go to school, they want their children to go and when they go to school, they are afraid of many things.

Dr. Khanh said that children who do not go to school can still contract the disease from other sources such as neighbors and parents. If children do not go to school, it will affect their social communication.

Until now, Dr. Khanh believes that children must go to school, and when children go to school, it is not too rigid to just let them stay in class, not let them go out to play.

When children go to school, we should not think “zero Covid” at school, but need to consider how to handle when there is a case of Covid-19. We should not strictly allow children to go out to play, just leave them in the classroom because if the child is in the classroom, the risk of infection is higher than if the child is in the school yard.

When sending children to school, children should be allowed to live in groups, eat in groups, study in groups, the possibility of spreading the disease is only in small groups.

Parents should not worry that preschool children going to school will be more difficult to prevent diseases than older children. In fact, preschool children are easy to educate because they are following habits and imitating. For example, when teachers and families regularly instruct their children on how to wash their hands with soap, washing them properly will certainly do better than older children and adults. Therefore, parents should not assume that it is more difficult for preschool children to get to class for prevention than for older children.

Schools are also not required to take their children’s temperature when they arrive at school. When measuring body temperature, Dr. Khanh said that the automatic thermometer only detects whether the child has a fever or not, in fact we have to detect whether the child has a fever or not from home, not at school. If someone in the house is sick or has a fever, they should notify the school to consider keeping the child at home. In addition, measuring body temperature is also not very accurate when children go out in the sun, exercising a lot can cause the child’s temperature to rise.

With the current time, Dr. Khanh thinks that we still maintain 5K flexibility, most importantly 2K wear masks when necessary, not always wearing masks and washing hands properly. There is no need to make a medical declaration as before, just parents and the school need to flexibly notify the child’s condition.

Currently, according to the weather, children going to school may be infected with viral fever, hand, foot and mouth disease and may have more dengue fever.

It is best to implement prevention of hygiene habits for children at school, if reducing Covid-19 will reduce other infectious diseases. Schools that take good care of and prevent Covid-19 will always prevent many infectious diseases in young children.

Khanh Chi