SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – It’s August now which means the start of the school year will be here before we know it. There are many preparations that go into heading back to the classroom, including a check-in with your child’s doctor.
“And that ranges from a year old or under even up to that 17, 18 years old when you’re still getting ready for that last year of high school,” Dr. Daniel Boadwine, a pediatrician with Avera Health, said.
Boadwine says for many age groups, it’s just a simple school readiness assessment. But some kids might need some vaccinations.
“A lot of them are done in infancy, right, up to about a year old, fifteen, eighteen months. But then once you get closer to four or five years old you also are due for those pre-kindergarten vaccines, if you will,” Boadwine said. “Some of those would be like the measles, mumps and rubella, chicken pox vaccines, polio, pertussis, whooping cough, those sort of things. And then as kids get closer to middle school and that 11-year-old age range, they also start to become due for some boosters vaccines as well as some meningitis vaccines.”
Some of those immunizations are required by South Dakota law.
“Being in school you’re around so many other people and the goal with vaccines is not only to protect each individual person but it’s to protect the community and population at large,” Boadwine said. “So the more people that we have getting vaccinated, the less likely we are to see outbreaks like pertussis or whooping couch or measles or chicken pox.”
Common colds, however, are hard to avoid during the school year so Dr. Boadwine has these tips:
“Simple things are getting really good rest, making sure the kids are being active and getting some good exercise,” Boadwine said. “We know that can help with their immune system and their ability to fight off infections.”
Dr. Boadwine says August tends to easily fill up for clinics, so for next school year, he wants parents to know they can schedule these appointments earlier in the summer as well.
