Colds and Fluswww.fridayschildmontessori.com

So your child is under the weather and doesn’t feel like

coming along to join us at Friday’s Child Montessori.

You think that he or she has a cold or the flu and think that it’s best that he or she doesn’t

go today.

Good move – whether it’s a cold or the flu, it’s best to keep your child home if he or she is sick so all the other children at

the early childhood centre don’t get it.

Should you be getting in touch with your local GP?

Montessori principles advocate sharing – but there are some things that we really, really

don’t want you to share!) But does your child just have a cold or does he or she have the flu?

Colds and flus have a lot in common. They are both spread by viruses rather than bacteria.

Viruses and bacteria are lumped together as “germs” when you’re explaining about the principles of hygiene to a

child, but they aren’t the same thing.

Bacteria are single-celled organisms that reproduce by splitting in the same way that amoebae do, and there are

some “helpful” bacteria around, like the ones that live in your insides and keep your intestines healthy; the yeasts

in bread;

and the bacteria that ferment wine, cheese and yoghurt. Viruses, on the other hand, reproduce by sneaking into your cells and using their

mechanisms to reproduce – they squirt their DNA into the nucleus of one of your cells,

like a cuckoo laying eggs in another bird’s nest. Unless you count the viruses that are used for genetic modification (and that’s a controversial topic), there are few helpful ones, if

any.

At this point, you might be asking, so what?

Why is it important to know that colds and flus are

spread by viruses instead of bacteria?

Well, it’s only bacterial infections that you can fight

with antibiotics.

Antibiotics don’t do diddley-squat to help deal to viral

infections. In fact, if you try fighting a virus with antibiotics, the only thing you’re going to do is increase the chance of

superbugs developing,

superbugs being dangerous bacteria that are resistant to

antibiotics. A number of worried parents have tried asking the

doctor for antibiotics when their child

has a nasty cold, but this isn’t

the best thing.

Both the cold and flus share a few symptoms and they both are spread by various

insanitary habits such as not washing hands properly,

sharing food and drink items, picking noses and so forth.

However, the flu is a lot more dangerous than a cold. People

can die from the flu –

look at what happened in a lot of the Western world shortly

after World War 1 (as if enough people hadn’t died already!):

fatalities of this particular strain of the flu are in the

millions, making it about as big a medical disaster as the

Plague in the Middle Ages or AIDS in Africa today.

Keep your child away from colds and flus. If symptoms

occur, consult your GP.

A friendly reminder by

www.fridayschildmontessori.com