The current season, which began Sept. 28, 2025, and runs through May 23, 2026, continues to see a steady increase in cases across Cook Children’s Health Care System, primarily within primary care and urgent care offices. 

During the first week of February, the positivity rate for the flu hovered at approximately 30% in urgent care clinics, according to Kara Starnes, D.O. medical director of Urgent Care at Cook Children’s. 

Pediatricians encourage caregivers and families to take preventive steps, noting that a previous infection does not mean immunity for the season. 

“Even if you have already tested positive for the flu this season, it is worth getting your flu shot to protect against other strains,” said Phillip Scott, M.D., pediatric hospitalist, medical director for the Nelson Ku High Risk Asthma Clinic. 

While Cook Children’s Medical Centers in Prosper and Fort Worth have not seen a significant spike in hospitalizations, the system reports an increase in visits for the common cold. 

Don’t Let the Flu Stall Your Spring Break 

With Spring Break just a few weeks away, medical experts share tips to ensure families spend their vacation making memories instead of making visits to urgent care.  

“If you are traveling and will be in large crowds such as at the airport or at a large event, it is worth getting your flu shot for protection against the flu,” said Dr. Scott. 

Beyond prevention, the flu vaccine can significantly reduce the severity of symptoms if an individual does become sick, lowering the risk of hospitalization. 

Pediatricians also recommend the following: 

• Wash your hands
• Get a flu vaccine for you and your child
• Avoid touching your nose, mouth and eyes
• Cover your nose and mouth when sneezing and coughing
• Avoid close contact with people who are sick
• Keep your children at home and away from public areas if they are not feeling well 

Signs and Symptoms  

 Flu, RSV and COVID-19 are caused by different viruses, but all are upper respiratory illnesses that share similar symptoms such as:  

• Fever
• Cough
• Fatigue
• Sore throat
• Runny or stuffy nose
• Muscle pain and body aches
• Headache
• Vomiting and diarrhea
• Loss of appetite, taste, or smell
• Shortness of breath  

 Managing Symptoms  

If your child is sick, call your pediatrician first who can help you decide whether the level of sickness escalates to the doctor's office, urgent care, or the emergency room. For many children, viral illnesses like the flu, RSV, and COVID-19 can be managed at home with supportive care. Over-the-counter medications like acetaminophen or ibuprofen can help reduce fever and discomfort. Avoid ibuprofen in infants younger than 6 months.  

Maintaining hydration is crucial. Please encourage your child to drink fluids and consider giving them electrolyte drinks or popsicles. Saline nasal drops and cool-mist humidifiers can help alleviate congestion.  

A fever is defined as a temperature of 100.4 or above. A temperature above 100.4 in babies less than 2 months old is a medical emergency and needs to be evaluated in the emergency room. Any fever lasting longer than four to five days, or one that continues to climb and does not break with fever reducers, should be evaluated by a physician.  

 When to Seek Medical Attention  

While most cases can be managed at home, it's essential to recognize the signs of respiratory distress or dehydration, which require immediate medical attention.  

 Signs of respiratory distress:  

• Increased number of breaths per minute
• Increased heart rate
• Bluish color around the mouth, on the lips, or on the fingernails
• Pale or grayish skin
• Grunting sound during exhale
• Nose flaring
• The chest appears to sink in with each breath
• Head bobbing when breathing in
• Change in alertness  

Signs of dehydration:  

• Urine output is significantly below the child’s normal (at least once every 8 hours)
• Not producing tears when crying and the eyes appear sunken
• In infants, the soft spot on top of their heads looks sunken
• Dried mucus membranes (lining within the nostrils, mouth, throat)
• Sleepy and unresponsive  

If your child exhibits any of these signs, seek immediate care at an urgent care facility or the emergency department. Reserving visits to urgent care or the emergency department for truly urgent needs helps ensure timely care for those who need it most, reduces waiting times for everyone, conserves resources, and limits your child’s exposure to other viruses.  

Related Stories: 

• Is it Flu? What Parents Need to Know This Flu Season
• Know When to Use Telemedicine, Urgent Care, or the ER for Kids
• Top 10 Questions Parents Ask About Vaccines 

August is a chaotic month for any busy parent. Between back-to-school preparations and the last days of summer, it's easy to get overwhelmed. On top of that, August is also National Immunization Awareness Month—a perfect time to make sure your children are up-to-date on their vaccinations.

When people learn that I’m a pediatrician they often ask if my own two children are vaccinated and I always reply with a resounding yes. My children are vaccinated for several reasons: 

Vaccines are safe! 

• Every vaccine that is currently in use has gone through a rigorous testing phase to make sure that the vaccine is safe. Side effects and potential reactions are closely reviewed by multiple agencies at the federal level. Even after the vaccine has been approved, the Vaccine Adverse Effect Reporting System (VAERS) continues to monitor for additional side effects. 
• Millions upon millions of vaccines will be administered this year with minimal side effects. The most common side effects are low-grade fever, redness around the injection site or maybe some mild muscle aches. 

Vaccines are effective! 

• Vaccines have led to the eradication of previously fatal diseases like Smallpox. 

Vaccines save lives!

• Vaccines have saved the lives of nearly 200 million people in the past century. Many of those lives saved are of young children and babies. 
• Vaccines prevent diseases and illnesses that have serious consequences, even in healthy children. 
• Vaccines prevent diseases that can lead to hospitalizations, pneumonia, potential hearing loss, potential loss of an arm or a leg, brain damage, and even death. 

Vaccines do not cause autism. 

• Decades of research has shown again and again and again that there is no link between vaccines and autism. 

The ingredients in vaccines are safe. 

• Just as the individual vaccine is studied, the ingredients in vaccines are also rigorously studied. 
• Some vaccines contain ingredients like aluminum, which can be found in fruits and vegetables. Aluminum helps the body produce an immune response and is perfectly safe. 
• Vaccines can be preserved with very small amounts of formaldehyde, so small that it is not harmful at all. 
• These ingredients are like baking powder when you’re making cookies. By itself, baking powder does not taste good but in small amounts, it’s needed for your cookies to come out looking and tasting great! 

Vaccines are recommended by my children’s doctors.

• My kids’ pediatrician - along with the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the Infectious Disease Society of America, the American College of Physicians, the American Medical Association, and the American Nurses Association - all support routine childhood immunizations. 

Vaccines help keep my community safe. 

• My children are vaccinated because doing so protects them and our community. 
• Vaccines can help prevent your child from spreading illnesses to at-risk individuals such as your parents who have diabetes, your child’s classmate who has a newborn at home, your neighbor who is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, your co-worker who just received a kidney transplant, or the cashier in the grocery store who has an autoimmune condition. 
• We rely on everyone to get their vaccines to keep the community safe. 

And the most important reason to me is that I want to protect my dad. My dad has type 1 diabetes and is immunocompromised. My kids will always get their flu vaccines every year so we can give him the BIGGEST hug without worrying about making him sick. 

So, this month, in between back-to-school shopping, meet the teacher nights and the ever-exciting first day of school, please call your child’s pediatrician and make sure that they are up-to-date on their vaccines. We would love to talk to you more and answer all of your questions and concerns! 

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The flu season is upon us once again ... what do you need to know as a parent?

1.What are symptoms of the flu?

The flu may start like the common cold with symptoms of cough, congestion and runny nose, but may also be associated with prolonged fever, muscle and body aches and fatigue. It is spread from person to person when an infected person, coughs, sneezes or talks and droplets are released into the air. It can also be spread less often from touching surfaces where drops are present. The flu virus is contagious from up to 1 day before the person presents with symptoms and up to 5-7 days after the symptoms resolve.

2. How can you protect yourself?

The best way to protect yourself is by getting the flu vaccine as soon as it becomes available. Most doctors’ offices and clinics currently do have the flu vaccine available. Last year, flu activity peaked at the end of December to the beginning of January, but you may start seeing it as early as September-October this year.

Other means to protect yourself are effective hand washing and wiping down surfaces with anti-bacterial/viral cleansers.

3. Why get the flu vaccine?

In the United States each year, more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from seasonal flu-related complications. Last year, there were more than 105 pediatric flu related deaths in the United States. On average the effectiveness of the flu vaccine last season was about 61 percent.

4. Who should get the flu vaccine?

• Everyone over the age of 6 months.
• Higher risk populations include those between the ages of 6 months to 5 years, children with asthma or other chronic disease, pregnant women, people with immune problems and adults  more than 65 years old.
• Children under the age of 8 MAY require 2 doses of the vaccine 4 weeks apart from each other depending on their previous immunization status.

5. Which flu vaccine is recommended?

There are several options for flu vaccines this year. For 2014–15, U.S.-licensed influenza vaccines will contain the same vaccine virus strains as those in the 2013–14 vaccine.

Trivalent flu vaccine protects against two influenza A viruses (an H1N1 and an H3N2) and an influenza B virus. This is only available in the injectable form.

The quadrivalent flu vaccine protects against two influenza A viruses and two influenza B viruses. The quadrivalent form is available as an injection and a nasal spray.

Specific Age Recommendations

• 6 months to 2 years: injectable flu vaccine only.
• 2 years to 8 years: nasal form is preferable according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There was 50 percent more effectiveness with the nasal form vs. the injectable form in this age group. If the child is between the ages of 2 and 4 and has asthma or wheezed in the last year, then the injectable form is recommended.
• 8 years and above: either form is acceptable.

6. What happens if you get the flu?

See your health care professional as soon as possible because if it is treated with anti-viral medications in the first 48 hours, the duration as well as the severity of the illness can be decreased. The CDC does not recommend treatment of healthy individuals with anti-viral drugs, but certain high risk populations will benefit from treatment.