Being a parent is hard! Being a parent to a kid who seems to ‘be sick’ without any symptoms, other than perhaps not wanting to go to school, is even harder! Many children have mastered the trickery of pretending to be sick so that they don’t have to go to school or can avoid some big event they’d rather not attend.
Faking sickness is pretty typical for children of all ages.
We live in a different time, the pandemic is causing anxiety, fear and other emotions come to the surface for kids and adults. Many parents want to know how to tell if their kids may be sick, especially with schools reopening under new guidelines.
The new guidelines for reopening schools require parents to keep their kids home if they exhibit certain symptoms of the virus. Here are some ways you can figure out if your kid is pretending to be sick or truly has an illness.
Stomach Troubles
This is one of the more difficult symptoms that kids often say they have. Stomach troubles can be a sign of a virus or anxiety. One of the best ways to determine if stomach troubles mean that your child is anxious is to think about what they have said in the last few days. Usually, they’ll be tell-tale signs that your child was starting to feel anxious, and then stomach troubles hit the day of this anxious situation.
The CDC has stated that kids may have more stomach issues than adults when it comes to recognizing symptoms of the virus in kids. This may show up as decreased appetite or nausea. This means you must pay close attention to the signs that your kid is truly experiencing gastrointestinal issues as opposed to anxiety.
Low-Grade Fever
The schools aren’t playing around with the pandemic as they work to reopen their schools. Kids aren’t going to be allowed to attend school if they have a low-grade fever. This seems to hold true for any school district around. If your kid has a fever of 100 degrees or higher then they may have an illness and should stay home to rest.
You can use any home thermometer to check your kid’s temperature each morning and more importantly anytime they say they’re not feeling well. Even though your kid may have a regular temperature, they could still exhibit other signs of illness.
Extreme Tiredness
If you’ve been parenting for a while then you know the various signs that your kid has an illness. Extreme tiredness is one of the more common signs that your kids may have an illness. If your kids have started to withdraw from regular activities they enjoy, such as gaming, to lay down and sleep then perhaps your kids have contracted an illness and should stay home.
Be sure to keep an eye on your kids if they’ve started to sleep more than they usually do, stop enjoying activities they normally love or tend to be in their bed more hours than necessary. This could be a sign that your kid is stressed or anxious, too so be sure to evaluate this symptom of illness over a few days’ time.
These are just some of the hacks to know if your kids may have an illness. The key is to take note of how your kid usually acts when they’re otherwise healthy, and then rule out any changes that could be causing anxiety. This will help you better determine whether your kid is truly suffering from an illness and needs to stay home from school or not.