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Welcome to the 2007-2008 School Year!

For your convenience the Billerica Public Schools Health Services website provides standard health forms and health information.

Billerica Public School Nurses - Health Services

I would like to review a few policies that will help us have a smooth school year:

  • Please keep the school informed of phone numbers where you can be reached at all times; if you change jobs, cell phones or pagers remember to update our files
  • List local people as emergency back-up if you cannot be reached
  • Students dropped off to play in the playground prior to 8:20am will be unsupervised
  • Please see that your child goes to bed regularly and at an early hour. Grammar school children require 10-12 hours of sleep nightly.
  • A good breakfast is essential! By encouraging healthy eating habits at an early age you set the tone for the future
  • Keep your child home with a cold, sore throat, or other signs of infection
  • It is our goal to keep contagious illnesses under control. Please keep this in mind when your child is ill.
  • Notify the school nurse at 978-436-9560 if your child is out of school for three consecutive days
  • Your child must be fever free for 24 hours before he/she may return to school
  • If your child if put on antibiotics for a bacterial infection he/she may return to school after taking the antibiotic for 24 hours
  • No student is allowed to bring medication to school. This includes over the counter medication such as Tylenol and Motrin
  • The medication policy for the elementary school states that NO Medications including over the counter medications may be dispensed at school without a physician's order (Please see the medication policy handout)
  • Feel free to contact me at any time with issues/concerns that may affect your child's school performance at 978-436-9560

Sun Protection

Most children enjoy being outside in the sun, but exposure to the sun's ultraviolet(UV) rays can be dangerous. Too much exposure can result in painful sunburn. UVA rays, which for many years were thought to be harmless, penetrate deeper than UVB rays and can damage the skin. They can cause skin cancer; including melanoma later in life.(Melanoma is a life-threatening form of skin cancer).

Because 80 percent of the average person's exposure to the sun occurs before the age of 18, it's especially important that children are properly protected for the sun's harmful rays-even on cloudy days, when the UV rays still can do their damage.

Here are some tips on how to protect your child:

  • Have your child wear a hat to protect eyes, ears, face and neck
  • Have your child cover up with extra clothing
  • Keep your child out of the midday sun as much as possible; encourage play in the shade
  • Always apply sunscreen before your child is exposed to the sun and reapply frequently

Head Lice

When school is in session, we have occasional outbreaks of head lice. To correct the enormous amount of misinformation about head lice, here are some important facts and tools that will help you detect and combat lice if they should infest your child.

What are Head Lice?

  • Head lice are tiny (like sesame seeds), wingless, bloodsucking insects that feed on the human scalp
  • They do not infest animals
  • They cannot live away from the human host longer than 20 hours in our climate
  • They do not fly or jump, but crawl at high speed
  • They infest people regardless of social and ethnic status
  • They are not an indication of poor hygiene

Where do head lice come from?

  • Head lice crawl from one head to another.
  • The most common method of transfer is by direct head contact.
  • Transfer also occurs through shared combs, brushes, hats and other headgear and coats.

How do you know if your child has head lice?

  • Examine your child weekly to catch an infestation as early as possible
  • Use bright light to examine your child’s head
  • Work in small areas (about 1 inch), parting the hair with a comb to look for eggs attached to the hair near the scalp.
  • Hatched eggs are white to sandy colored; intact eggs are more difficult to see and are tan in color
  • Lice travel quickly therefore they are difficult to find

How do I treat my child?

  • Kill the lice using a lice killing product available in pharmacies and drug departments
  • Reapplication of the product is required to assure effectiveness
  • Remove all eggs; if this is not done a reinfestation will occur in a few weeks
  • Use a fine toothed comb
  • Clean house: Wash or dry clean your child’s clothes, bed sheets, combs and brushes; put toys in a plastic bag for 2 weeks; vacuum

Beating the Cold Season

Colds, flus, and coughs are prevalent during the winter months. Most of these upper respiratory infections (URI's) are caused by viruses and can be treated at home by drinking lots of fluids, warm salt water gargles, over the counter cough and cold products, and saline nasal sprays. Non-aspirin pain reliever is recommended for children with flu symptoms, fever, or a cold. Aspirin is to be avoided because of the risk of Reye's Syndrome. Strep throat, which is a bacterial infection, is characterized by a very red, painful throat and tell-tale white spots on the back of the throat. Antibiotic treatment is recommended. Ironically, the majority of sore throats in children are caused by viruses.

School Attendance Guidelines: Viruses are transmitted to others before a person develops symptoms of illness. Therefore, there is no need to exclude students as long as they feel well enough to attend and are without fever.

People with strep throat are not infectious until their symptoms appear. Students with a positive Strep Culture should stay home until after they have had at least 24 hours of antibiotic medicine and fever is gone.

The Heimlich Maneuver

The Heimlich Maneuver is the best first aid to use for chocking. Remember, this is for a person who cannot get air. If the chocking person can still talk or cough, the Heimlich Maneuver should not be used.

Heimlich Maneuver For Babies

  • Put the baby stomach down
  • Elevating the baby a little, put your hand under baby,and pat strongly below the breastbone 5 times to dislodge food

Heimlich Maneuver for Children and Adults

  • Stand behind chocking person,reach around the person's body with your arms.
  • Make a fist. Grab it with your other hand and place the side of your fist against the abdomen,below the ribs and above the navel.
  • Press the person's abdomen with a quick, upward thrust. Repeat 4 times if required.

Influenza and Pneumonia

What is influenza?

Influenza is commonly called the flu and is an infection of the lungs and respiratory tract caused by the influenza virus. The virus spreads during the winter and when many people get the flu at about the same time the situation is called a flu epidemic.

The proteins that coat the flu virus constantly change. As a result new strains of the flu virus circulate every few years. It is important to get a flu shot every year to protect yourself against the most common strains. Even though you get the vaccine, a strain of the flu virus may emerge against which no vaccine was given and you can still get the flu. The vaccine is usually given annually in October or November. The shot usually takes three weeks to start to work and the protection is gone within six months. Therefore the vaccination needs to be repeated every fall. The most common adverse reaction to the influenza vaccine is soreness at the injection site. The flu vaccine does not cause the flu. If you get sick right after the vaccination it is due to another illness and would have happened even if you had not had the vaccination. People who are allergic to eggs should not get the vaccine because the vaccine is made from virus grown in hens eggs.

What are the signs and symptoms of influenza?

The unfortunate people who get the flu feel like they have a cold but the symptoms are more severe. In addition to the usual cold symptoms one can expect to have body aches, headaches, chills and fever (101-102 degrees F), sneezing, weakness, fatigue, and a dry cough.

These symptoms may last for 7-10 days.

How is the flu treated?

A tincture of time is the usual treatment and in addition drink plenty of fluids to prevent dehydration, rest, and take mild pain medication such as acetominophen or ibuprofen. If you are at high risk for developing a secondary infection because of other health conditions, or if your symptoms do not improve in 7-10 days or you have persistently high temperatures, consult a health care provider immediately.

Easy First Aid

Even when you do your best to avoid injury, you can still get hurt. Here's a simple formula to use if you're sure what you're dealing with is a sprain. It's called R.I.C.E. If there's even a possibility yours is a more serious injury, see your doctor and do exactly what he says.

R = Rest

Stop any movement that might stress the injured area.

I = Ice

Wrap ice in a towel and pack it around the injury. This will reduce swelling and bleeding and help soothe the pain.

C = Compression

Wrap an ace bandage or compression bandage around the injury. Make it snug, but not to tight.

E = Elevation

Lift your injured part higher than your heart. When the pain and swelling subside, you may return to normal activity however, skip your sport until everything's back to normal. When you're ready to play again, ease into it.

It is fun to play hard, but you also want to play smart. By taking a few precautions, you can prevent injuries from occurring.

Concussions

Concussions account for 3% to 5% of injuries sustained by athletic participants (Mueller & Cantu, 2003). A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury caused by a blow or jolt to the head that can range from mild to severe and can disrupt the way the brain normally works. Concussions can happen in any sport and should never be ignored or taken lightly. Concussion is a major injury that can have life-threatening results. Symptoms of a concussion may include:

  • dizziness
  • confusion
  • nausea
  • vomiting
  • headache
  • blurred or double vision
  • ringing in the ears
  • a funny taste in the mouth
  • poor coordination or balance
  • concentration or memory problems
  • sensitivity to light or noise
  • feeling foggy or groggy
  • feeling sluggish
  • emotional instability (anger, crying, and anxiety).

The most serious danger of concussion is Second Impact Syndrome (SIS), a sudden swelling of the brain that occurs when an athlete sustains a second blow to the head while still symptomatic from a previous concussion. Even though the second blow may occur days or weeks after the first or may be no more powerful than a slap, it can cause a sudden swelling of the brain that quickly leads (within 2 or 3 minutes) to unconsciousness or cardiac arrest. Fifty percent of people who sustain SIS die, and the rest have a very high risk of permanent brain damage.

Recognizing these dangers, CDC, with the support of partners and experts in the field, has developed a multimedia educational toolkit called Heads Up: Concussion in High School Sports, which is available at http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/tbi/Coaches_Tool_Kit.htm

Designed for athletic staff (coaches, athletic directors, and trainers) as well as parents/guardians and school health personnel, the toolkit is meant to “provide a commonsense approach to help raise awareness and prevent sports-related concussions among athletes.” (CDC Injury Center director Dr. Ileana Arias)

The Massachusetts Medical Society also offers a free, downloadable brochure, Concussion, A Coaches’ Guide for Sideline Evaluation, that explains the symptoms of concussion and includes tests for assessing the condition and recommendations for basic treatment at the time of injury. The brochure is available at http://www.massmed.org/pages/concussion_brochure.asp.