Over half of all parents have taken time off of work to take care of their children while sick.
In total, some 53% of mothers and fathers missed work when their child fell ill.
Overwhelmingly, the responsibility of caring for a sick child falls to one parent; 64% of mothers have taken time off of work, compared with only 26% of fathers.
Grandparents often help out as well, with 28% taking time out to look after a sick child.
The research, carried out by probiotic company Pro-Ven, found that on average nearly half (43%) of all school children miss four or more days of class each year due to everyday childhood illnesses.
However, homeschooling during the pandemic was found to have had a noticeable impact on children’s health, with 77% of parents reporting that their child had fallen ill less often during lockdown and 61% saying theirs had not fallen ill at all.
Usually children fall ill with a common cold, with 64% of parents citing this as the reason for their child staying home from school.
But clinical trials carried out by Pro-Ven also found that such absenteeism can be reduced through the use of probiotics.
Speaking to Newstalk, the company’s founder Dr Nigel Plummer said:
“Absenteeism from school, if we take the average across the two trials, was 20% decreased in the probiotic group, [among] the children taken Pro-Ven, compared to those who weren’t [taking Pro-Ven].
“Then we look at other aspects of the coughs and colds - duration of coughs and colds was significantly decreased as well. The use of antibiotics, that was down by 35% in the probiotic group.
“And the incidence over six months, because we gave this Pro-Ven probiotic to children throughout the winter, so they took this chewable tablet daily throughout the wintertime and the incidence - so how many times during those six months did these children suffer from symptoms of coughs and colds - that was decreased by 30% as well.”
