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With measles, Benjamin Franklin’s old saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” holds. Unfortunately, pediatricians don’t have any medication that kills the measles virus. Children who are hospitalized are given support, but nothing to kill the germ. For instance, pediatricians may give oxygen to children with measles pneumonia. Pediatricians may also give Vitamin A to help prevent blindness from measles, but again, vitamins do not stop the germ.

Giving your child the MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) vaccine is the best and most natural method to prevent measles. Immunizations prompt a body’s own immune system to make antibodies. These “germ fighters” are ready to defend your child when a nasty virus like measles appears. Pediatricians give this vaccine according to a tried and true vaccine schedule at 12-15 months of age and again at 4-6 years of age. The recent death of an unvaccinated child from measles in Texas serves as a tragic reminder of the risks of not vaccinating.

How nasty is this virus?

Pretty nasty. About 1 in 5 people infected with measles end up in the hospital, and pneumonia strikes about 1 out of about every 20 children with measles. If you think about a classroom of children, that’s a lot of kids.

This is not the first time we have published this post. Again, a school shooting happened, and you may be wondering how to explain this tragedy to your children.

Understand that your kids sense your emotions. Not telling them about an event may make them concerned that they are the cause for your worried hushed conversations. Break away from your discussion with adults to say, “Do you know what we are talking about? We are not talking about you.”

While difficult, it is possible to talk about a school shooting with your child in an age-appropriate manner.

Even though an event may be far away, media makes it seem as if it happened next door, and sooner or later your children will see or hear about it. Tell the facts in a straight forward, age appropriate manner. Answer questions and don’t be afraid to answer with an “I don’t know.”

Preschoolers are concrete in their thinking—dragons are real and live under their bed, so don’t put any there that do not exist. For a preschooler a simple “Mom is sad because a lot of people got hurt,” will suffice. Young school-aged kids will want to know more details. And be prepared to grapple with more high level questions from teens.

Playing in the great outdoors really is great. But when your kids scamper inside, make sure they wash their hands. Now that the winter viral season has receded, the big reason to wash hands is spring allergy season. The pollen they’ve collected on their hands will make its way to their face exacerbating already itchy noses and eyes.

The easiest way to tell if your young child is experiencing seasonal allergies is if your nose starts to twitch. If your child’s nose also starts to twitch, they probably also have allergies. Allergies have a strong inheritance pattern. If both parents have allergies, up to 50-80 percent of their kids may have allergies. Keep in mind, allergies never cause a fever and since children need to be exposed to an irritant before they can be allergic to it, children under two years of age are less likely to have seasonal allergies—not enough seasons have passed.

For other ways to keep spring allergies in check- read up on this post contributed by Dr. Lai in the CHOP Health TIp of the Week.

Another reason to wash hands after zipping indoors? Poison ivy…but that’s a story for another day.

Naline Lai, MD and Julie Kardos, MD

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