Many illnesses are infectious, meaning they can be spread easily from one person to another.
To stop sickness from spreading, it is important for you to keep your child at home when they are ill, and not let them go to school or Early childhood education centre. How long they should be home depends on what illness they have.
When your child catches an illness, there will be an incubation period before they show symptoms. Some illnesses are infectious before symptoms show; some are infectious even after symptoms have disappeared.
The Infectious Diseases table on the HealthEd website describes the symptoms and exclusion periods for some common childhood illnesses. It's also available to download as a poster.
