Colds and Flus www.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