HOUSTON (KIAH) – The holidays are over and soon kids are going back to school. CW39s Idolina Peralez sat down with Dr. Christina Johns, a pediatrician specializing in pediatric emergency care + Senior Medical Advisor at PM Pediatric Care, to discuss what illnesses she is seeing in her practice that may be joining your children in the classroom.

Q: Dr. Johns, you’ve mentioned it is stomach flu season, and as kids head back to school, is this something that can easily spread in the classroom?

A: You know, it can. Stomach viruses tend to be highly transmissible through contact and droplets. So another great opportunity to remind your kids to wash their hands very well.

Q: And as they all are heading back to school, many kids all over the country. RSV, COVID, flu, still very big threats. What can we do to prepare our kids? What do we need to tell them as they head back into school?

A: You know, as kids get back to school next week, I think it’s important for all parents to know that we are still seeing plenty of circulation of all of these viruses. And so this week while we have a couple of days while kids are still off, if you haven’t gotten your children their flu shots, if they are eligible for their COVID Omicron vaccine or any COVID vaccine, now is the time to do it. 

These are things that we know work to help decrease the likelihood of getting infected but also serious infection and of course death. So it’s certainly one thing that you can absolutely have control off to help your children

Dr. Johns shares more on health issues that impact children on her Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok accounts.