Back-to-School Checklist Includes More Than Just Pencils and Paper

Parents across the U.S. are about to get their children geared up for the upcoming school year. In cities and towns everywhere, school starts in a matter of days or weeks, and parents want their children have everything they need for a successful school year. But getting your child ready for school involves more than just school supplies and new clothes. It also includes things like vaccinations and healthy school-day meals.
Immunizations

Making sure your child is up to date on immunizations helps to insure a healthy school year. Not only do children who are about to head back into the classroom need flu shots, but they also may need to be immunized for whooping cough, hepatitis B, and chickenpox, or need to receive the Tdap vaccine for tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis.

Most schools require parents to provide an up-to-date immunization record prior to enrolling a student, meaning that before school starts, is imperative that a child have all necessary vaccines. For a complete listing of vaccines or boosters that children may need, the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued updated guidelines for childhood and teen immunizations.
Breakfast

Back-to-school breakfast planning is also important. Starting a child’s day off with a nutritious breakfast will help them remain focused, as well as promote improved overall academic performance. Research has shown that children who regularly ate breakfast had better standardized test scores, better behavior, and were less hyperactive than children who skipped breakfast. But this doesn’t mean that cooking a big breakfast is crucial to your child’s educational welfare. There are a number of whole grain cereals that will pack the positive punch necessary for academic success. Another good example of a healthy breakfast to kick-start your child’s day is one egg, with a slice of whole grain toast, a piece of fruit, and a glass of low-fat milk.

Lunch

If you are a parent who packs your child’s lunch, there are some new health concerns to be aware of. According to a recent Texas study that tested over 700 lunch packs of preschoolers, less than 2 percent of the meats, vegetables and dairy products contained in those lunches were still in the safe temperature zone by lunchtime. The study was performed on sack lunches about an hour and a half before lunchtime, and even though 45 percent of the lunches included an ice pack, and another 12 percent were kept in refrigerators, nearly all of the perishable foods were too warm and considered to be in the danger zone.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), perishable foods kept between 40 degrees and 140 degrees Fahrenheit (4 to 60 degrees Celsius) for more than two hours are no longer safe to eat. This is due to conditions being right for bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella to quickly multiply. The CDC estimates that about 48 million people become sick due to food-borne illnesses each year, with about 3,000 of them losing their lives.

Keeping your child’s lunch safe can be achieved by packing the lunch with multiple icepacks, and having your child remove the lunch from its container and put it in a refrigerator once they get to school. For kid-friendly lunch options, Healthy Eating columnist Susan Brady penned “Making School Lunches Healthy (Again),” or as an alternative, parents can choose to buy school lunches.

The pressures of school are tough enough without the added concerns of illness, and lack of nutritional fuel to promote brain power. Help your child get off to a successful start by providing them with the health tools, in addition to the educational tools that they need.