When should your child go to school if he or she has an infection? The answer is not as easy as it seems.

Infections such as colds are very contagious. Sure most kids do quite well with colds. However some children, especially those with asthma or more serious illnesses such as cancer may not do well with even minor illnesses. You certainly don’t want to be the one who landed your child’s classmate in the hospital.

Certain infections such as ear or sinus infections are really not that contagious and your child can go to school without a significant risk of causing another classmate to be sick.

Generally, if your child has a temperature over 101, runny nose or cough he should probably stay home. If he starts improving and has no fever or cough for one day then it would probably be safe to send him to school.

However this might not be the case if there is a classmate in your child’s school with a serious illness such as cancer. Then out of courtesy and respect for this unfortunate child, you should keep your daughter home until she is completely asymptomatic.

With more and more parents unfortunately opting out of immunizations, this places other children at higher risk of contracting diseases normally protected by vaccinations. I feel strongly that all children should be vaccinated.

If your child is not vaccinated then please keep her out of school until she is completely better so as not to increase the risk for other children to get sick.