The flu shot, of course, helps to prevent this viral infection from causing illness (here are recommendations about the shot for children). But the flu shot doesn’t guarantee that someone won’t become ill from a season’s flu viruses.
So to help, here are recommended steps to take – ones that start with a visit to your child’s pediatrician. The sooner you can get your child in to see a doctor, the more treatment options are typically available.
VeryWellHealth.com shares common flu symptoms, which include fever. Children, in general, run fevers more often than adults do and with the flu, fevers in children may be higher than in adults. Body aches are also a common symptom, although young children may struggle to explain how that feels. They may tell you, for example, they just don’t feel good or that everything hurts.
Other symptoms include:
Your child probably won’t want to eat much with the flu and will likely be tired.
If your child is just experiencing vomiting and diarrhea, perhaps with a fever, that probably isn’t the flu. But if he or she is experiencing those symptoms along with cough and congestion, it very well could be the flu.
NationwideChildrens.org shares how medical professionals can typically diagnose the flu without needing to perform any tests, based just on the symptoms. After the diagnosis, your child may or may not be prescribed Tamiflu. Factors going into the decision will include any risk factors as well as when your child is being diagnosed. That’s because Tamiflu works best when it’s given within 24 to 48 hours of symptoms appearing.
Children younger than five are at special risk for complications from the flu, so watch them especially closely. Even in a year with relatively mild flu, 7,000 children are hospitalized each year with this viral infection. During epidemic years, this increases to an average of 26,000 children hospitalized. The CDC provides more information on this subject.