The first few weeks of a new school year reliably bring a wave of minor illness. Hundreds of children back in the same rooms after six weeks apart, sharing everything, including whatever they picked up over the summer. It is not a sign anything has gone wrong. It is simply what September does.
A little preparation makes the difference between a manageable few weeks and a run of last-minute pharmacy trips and missed work. Here is what is worth doing before term starts, and what is worth knowing about where to go when something does crop up.
Start with the medicine cabinet
Most households have one, and most have not looked properly inside it since the last time they needed something urgently.
Check expiry dates, because liquid medicines in particular do not last as long as people assume, and once opened many have a shelf life measured in months rather than years. Make sure you have children's paracetamol and ibuprofen suspensions in the right strengths for the ages in your house, an oral rehydration product for tummy bugs, plasters and a working thermometer.
Then dispose of anything out of date properly by taking it to a pharmacy rather than putting it in the bin or down the sink.
"The classic situation is a child spiking a temperature at nine on a Sunday night, and the bottle in the cupboard ran out in March," says Ana Carolina Goncalves, Superintendent Pharmacist at Pharmica. "Ten minutes checking the cupboard in August saves a lot of stress in October. And please bring old medicines to a pharmacy rather than binning them. We are set up to dispose of them safely."
Know what your pharmacy can deal with
This is the part many families do not fully use, and in Northern Ireland it is more generous than people expect.
Pharmacy First, which replaced the older Minor Ailments service, lets you walk into a community pharmacy without an appointment and be seen by a pharmacist for a range of common conditions. There is no charge, and if the pharmacist decides a medicine is needed, it is supplied free of charge. That includes a specific sore throat service available in most community pharmacies across Northern Ireland for anyone aged five and over.
Prescriptions in Northern Ireland are free at the point of dispensing, so cost is not a barrier either way. The barrier is usually just not knowing the option exists.
For a great many September complaints, that walk-in route is faster than waiting for a GP appointment and entirely appropriate.
Coughs, colds and sore throats
Expect them. Most are viral, most resolve in a week to ten days, and most need fluids, rest and time rather than anything from a pharmacy shelf.
Antibiotics do not work on viruses, which is worth remembering when a cough drags into its second week. A lingering cough after a cold is normal and can persist for three weeks or more.
What does warrant proper attention: difficulty breathing, a temperature that will not come down, a child who is unusually drowsy or difficult to rouse, or a rash that does not fade when pressed. Those are not wait-and-see situations.
The September asthma peak is real
If you have a child with asthma, this is the section that matters most.
Asthma attacks in children spike noticeably in September. The combination of returning to school, circulating viruses and autumn allergens catches out families who have had a quiet summer and drifted away from routine.
Two things to do before term. Check the preventer inhaler is being used properly and consistently, not just the reliever when symptoms appear. And check the technique, because inhaler technique degrades over time and a spacer that fitted a six-year-old may not suit a nine-year-old.
Also make sure school has an in-date reliever inhaler and an up-to-date asthma plan.
Head lice, without the panic
They will go round, and they are not a reflection of anything. Head lice do not care how often hair is washed.
Only treat if you find a living, moving louse, because treating on suspicion is how resistance builds and how families spend money unnecessarily. Detection combing with a fine-toothed comb on wet, conditioned hair is the reliable way to check.
If you do find them, wet combing repeated over a couple of weeks works without any product at all, and there are treatment lotions available from any pharmacy if you would rather. Tell school and check the rest of the household at the same time, because treating one child while another is quietly carrying them is how it goes round twice.
Reset the sleep routine before you have to
Six weeks of late nights takes more than one evening to undo. Shifting bedtime earlier by fifteen or twenty minutes a night across the last week of August is far easier on everyone than a hard reset on 31 August.
Getting daylight in the morning helps considerably, and getting screens out of bedrooms helps more than most other single changes.
Flu vaccination
The seasonal programme opens in the autumn, with school-aged children usually offered the nasal spray vaccine through school rather than at a GP surgery. Watch for the letter and return the consent form when it comes, because the most common reason children miss it is paperwork rather than choice.
