Spring Allergies
April showers bring May flowers--and pollen! If your student suffers from Spring allergies, Health Services can help. We are happy to keep over-the-counter allergy medicines such as Zyrtec, Claritin or Allegra for your student to take during the school day. If this is something you're interested in doing, please fill out our over-the-counter medication consent form, sign the bottom and send it to your student's health office. Medications must be sent in the original container-please no pills in baggies, tupperware or other unlabeled containers. Each health office does keep oral Benadryl in stock, for those with life-threatening allergic reactions. It is not recommended to be used as a first-line treatment for seasonal allergies and careful consideration should be taken when administering Benadryl at school, given that it can result in drowsiness.
It can be difficult to determine whether red, itchy and watery eyes are a result of Spring allergies or are a result of a bacterial or viral infection that may need further evaluation. See below for a quick run-down of symptoms, treatment and the District's guidelines on exclusion from school for pink eye.
Bacterial pink eye: Symptoms include yellow or green colored, sticky discharge from the affected eye. Eyes are often very itchy and the eyelids may become swollen. You may notice your child's eyelids are crusted shut, especially in the morning. This must be treated with antibiotic ointment or eye drops and will then typically clear within 5-7 days.
Viral pink eye: Discharge is normally watery but may be sticky and yellow in the morning. Eyelids can become very swollen. Symptoms typically follow a recent cold or sore throat. Antibiotic ointments or eye drops will not help with viral pink eye. Eye wash solutions such as Artificial Tears can help relieve symptoms. Contact your Provider if symptoms do not improve within 7-14 days.
MSD's Health Services Department follows the DHS Wisconsin Childhood Communicable Disease guidelines for exclusion practices from school. For the majority of pink eye cases, students do not have to be excluded from school. Circumstances that would result in your student being excluded from school include fever or if the student is unable to refrain from touching their affected eye. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Stephanie Peplinski, District Nurse, at peplins@mcfsd.org.
Parent/Guardian & Emergency Contact Information
Emergencies can happen at any time, so it is crucial that school staff, especially Health Services staff, are able to get in contact with a parent/guardian or an emergency contact during the school day. Please take a moment to review your students' listed emergency contacts in the IC parent portal to ensure the information listed is the most current. If there are special circumstances where you know you will not be available for calls during a specific time of day or if school staff should utilize an alternate phone number such as an office line, please ensure that this is communicated and/or make sure that your listed emergency contacts are aware of this, as health office staff may need to contact them if your student is seen in the health office and parent/guardian notification is required. To make changes to your emergency contacts please see here for steps to update contact information. Thank you for our partnership in helping to keep our students safe and healthy!
