What to do if your child has Strep Throat
Dealing with Strep Throat for Children

Strep throat, a common infection among kids and teens, is caused by the group A streptococcus bacteria. and it's very common among kids and teens. Symptoms of the infection include fever, sore throat, swollen tonsils, and stomach pain. Strep throat usually requires antibiotic treatments and proper care should ensure that your child can come back to school within a few days.
Strep Throat Transmission
Strep throat is spread in school when big groups of kids and teens are together in close quarters. The bacteria that causes strep throat tends to linger around the nose and throat areas, so sneezing, sneezing, coughing, or shaking hands can easily spread the strep infection from one person to another. Hand washing and general good hygiene can go a long way to avoid catching various infections that spread easily from person to person.
Strep throat vs. Sore throat
Sore throats don’t necessarily lead to strep throat and vice versa. Sore throats are accompanied by a runny nose, cough, hoarseness, and red eyes. These symptoms indicate that the infection is caused by a virus. Sore throats can clear up without medical treatment. However, a strep throat will start to develop other symptoms including difficulty swallowing, headache, fever, nausea, rash, red and white patches in the throat, red and enlarged tonsils, and swollen glands.
Diagnosing Strep Throat
If your child displays a good number of these symptoms, check with your child’s doctor just to be safe. The doctor will then take a swab to sample the fluids in the back of your child’s throat. This rapid strep test will then diagnose your child as either positive or negative for strep throat.
Treating Strep Throat
Doctors may prescribe ten days of antibiotics for treating strep throat. Within about 24 hours after your child starts taking the antibiotics, your child will no longer be contagious and his or her temperature will probably be back to normal. Other symptoms should start to go away by the second or third day after taking antibiotics.
It's very important that he or she finish the antibiotic prescription even if your child may not feel sick at that point. If your child stops taking antibiotics too soon, bacteria can remain in the throat and the symptoms can return.
If your child is not treated for strep throat, he or she could remain contagious for up to 21 days. Not finishing the prescribed course of antibiotics could also put your child at risk for other health problems, such as rheumatic fever (which can cause permanent damage to the heart), blood infections, scarlet fever, or kidney disease.
Keep your child’s eating utensils, dishes, and drinking glasses separate from those that everyone else is using to prevent him or her from spreading strep throat to others in your home. Wash these items separately in hot, soapy water after each use.