Back to School Health Tips for Parents and Students

With students and parents preparing for a new school year, it’s time to take out your back-to-school checklist. Along with an assortment of new clothes, pencils, and pens, we recommend adding a few health-related tasks to your to-do list. 

Returning to school after a long break, especially if you went on vacation or spent time doing things outside your normal routine, requires preparation to get your body in the habit of early starts and a bit of stress.

Parents are likely familiar with the infamous “back-to-school plague,” a phenomenon in which children get sick every two weeks after returning to school. Spending a long period in a confined space with others daily involves a lot of shared germs. This affects not only the students but also the teachers, administrators, and their families. 

So, check out our back-to-school health tips to keep yourself and your loved ones marked as safe from this year’s back-to-school plague!

How Do I Keep My Child Healthy When Starting School?

The start of a new school year is a busy time, especially for parents! There are dress codes to adhere to, routines to reestablish, and often grumpy children in the morning to manage. Keeping your child healthy mostly relies on focusing on the basics.

1. Good Sleep Hygiene: Help your child develop a proper sleep routine, allowing them to get a full night of restful sleep. This generally involves turning off all screens a couple of hours before bedtime and engaging in soothing activities instead, like reading or puzzles. Help your child brush their teeth before bed (if necessary) and make sure their room is set up to encourage rest. Keep the room dark and avoid distractions that keep your child up and playing when they should be sleeping.
2. Keep Up with Vaccinations: Make sure your child visits their doctor as recommended and receives all the necessary vaccinations to keep them safe and healthy.
3. Proper Diet and Exercise: Our immune systems require plenty of vitamins and minerals to function. A healthy, well-balanced diet will provide your child with everything they need to fight off the germs they’re exposed to during the school year. It’s also important to ensure your child gets plenty of exercise to maintain their overall health.
4. Push Water: A lot of kids prefer sugary fruit drinks or milk, but drinking several 8-ounce glasses of water each day will help support the immune system and other necessary bodily functions, keeping your kid healthy and happy.
5. Basic Hygiene: Even teens need occasional reminders to practice good hygiene! Make sure your child is washing their hands properly, brushing their teeth, sneezing or coughing into the crook of their elbow, etc.

Despite all these tips, kids are still expected to get sick when returning to school. It’s our body’s natural response when exposed to germs, so try not to worry too much! If you’re ever concerned about your child’s symptoms, consider starting an online appointment to discuss the issue with a provider at The Urgency Room.

Back-to-School Health Tips for Adults

Kids aren’t the only ones struck down by the back-to-school plague. Teachers, administrators, cafeteria workers, and other adults working closely with schools fall ill around this time of year. 

The tips we listed above for children are equally important for adults. Proper sleep, nutrition, hydration, and hygiene are all essential tools to keeping yourself healthy. However, adults face additional challenges and stressors, making it challenging to find the time to do everything necessary.

It’s essential to find ways to keep yourself in good health. Try adding exercise into your routine in simple ways, like parking further away from the door when shopping or arriving at work, pacing during your breaks, or getting a gym membership to a location open twenty-four hours so you can go before school starts. 

To encourage healthy habits, keep snacks full of protein and energy, like nuts or trail mix, in your purse, car, or bag. Also, consider keeping hand sanitizer available so you and everyone you interact with can eliminate germs throughout the day.

How Do You Stay Healthy at School?

Staying healthy at school involves implementing all the tips we mentioned and then some! It’s a challenge. You can expect to catch a sniffle here and there, but you can keep yourself safe by staying up-to-date with doctor’s appointments and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. 

Here are more tips to help you succeed at staying healthy:

• Avoid touching anyone who is sick or anything they’ve recently touched.
• Teachers, administrators, and other adults should keep hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes on hand to disinfect surfaces whenever possible.
• Avoid touching your face, especially your eyes, nose, and mouth.
• Clean your phone screen (and other surfaces you interact with frequently throughout the day), often with sanitizing wipes.
• Don’t drink from public water fountains if you can avoid it! Carry a water bottle with you and wash it daily.
• Consider taking an all-purpose vitamin, especially if your diet is lacking in any essential nutrients.
• Avoid touching unnecessary surfaces like walls, other people’s desks, door knobs, etc.
• Use a paper towel or tissue to touch surfaces that are likely to be covered in germs, like knobs for flushing toilets or opening bathroom doors.

Many students engage in sports during or after school, and they’ll need to implement some additional practices to ensure they stay safe and healthy. Listening to coaches, warming up and cooling down properly before and after practices and games, and learning symptoms of common sports injuries will help them maintain their health. 

Staying healthy at school requires a blend of vigilance and common sense. Keep yourself safe by practicing good hygiene, being prepared for encountering other people who may be unwell, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Managing Stress: The Biggest Back-to-School Health Tip

Stress is a hidden danger to health. Chronic stress can contribute to long-term problems for the heart and blood vessels, so it’s essential to develop a strategy to manage your stress levels. 

There are many ways to keep your stress levels down, and there is no one right way to go about it. Some people may find breathing and meditation techniques helpful, while others may rely on distractions from stress or strict routines to help manage their days. 

Find a method that works for you, like engaging in yoga, developing engaging hobbies outside of work and school, or practicing meditation to keep your mind and body calm. 

If you’re struggling to deal with stress and feel it creeping toward anxiety, reach out to your doctor for a referral to a mental health professional. They can give you the tools you need to manage your stress and stay mentally healthy. 

Visit The Urgency Room for Fast, Affordable Care

Regardless of how well someone follows this advice, catching an illness you can’t shake during the back-to-school chaos is still possible. In that case, schedule an appointment at one of our physical locations to get treated and back to full health as quickly as possible.