Tomorrow afternoon my daughter has "volunteered" me to go to her class during health and speak to them about c-diff. They are a bunch of third grader's. I have no problem speaking about c-diff to an adult in scientific terms but to explain it to 8 year olds may be a challenge. I know if I even go near the word diarrhea all hell will break loose.
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions which might help I would so appreciate it. I have until the morning to come up with something.
Thanks in advance.
Christina
Need Help
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supersmurf
- Contributor
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Hi Christina,
Sounds like an interesting time trying to explain c-diff to a bunch of 8 year olds. I've never taught any grades lower than grade five... but even then :-)
Perhaps if you were to explain to them that there are both good and bad bacteria in your body, kind of like the police and bad guys. Normally the good bacteria are like the police and keep the bad bacteria from getting into too much trouble. But when you take antibiotics it makes the good and bad bacteria very sick and tired, which is why they help you to get rid of infections. Sometimes though when you take antibiotics not all of the bad guys get sick and die and they get very strong again and take control over the police bacteria. The bad bacteria then get into all sorts of trouble and make a person very sick.
I'm not sure quite how you want to finish it, but somehow you need to add in there that we should only take antibiotics when we really need them, and if we do make sure that we eat things like yogurt when we take them.
Being 8, they will proably have all sorts of gory questions for you, I was always amazed at what my grade fives came up with... I guess to avoid the big "D" word, perhaps you could say that you had to go to the bathroom alot and that your stomach was very, very sore.
Don't know if this helps,
Cheers,
Sharon
Sounds like an interesting time trying to explain c-diff to a bunch of 8 year olds. I've never taught any grades lower than grade five... but even then :-)
Perhaps if you were to explain to them that there are both good and bad bacteria in your body, kind of like the police and bad guys. Normally the good bacteria are like the police and keep the bad bacteria from getting into too much trouble. But when you take antibiotics it makes the good and bad bacteria very sick and tired, which is why they help you to get rid of infections. Sometimes though when you take antibiotics not all of the bad guys get sick and die and they get very strong again and take control over the police bacteria. The bad bacteria then get into all sorts of trouble and make a person very sick.
I'm not sure quite how you want to finish it, but somehow you need to add in there that we should only take antibiotics when we really need them, and if we do make sure that we eat things like yogurt when we take them.
Being 8, they will proably have all sorts of gory questions for you, I was always amazed at what my grade fives came up with... I guess to avoid the big "D" word, perhaps you could say that you had to go to the bathroom alot and that your stomach was very, very sore.
Don't know if this helps,
Cheers,
Sharon
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Nancy1
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Christina
- Long Time Contributor
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Thanks,Nancy. All went well and I think they all got it. Lots of questions were asked and answered. I was there about 40 minutes. I didn't really use the cop idea but explained good and bad bacteria and how antibiotics alter that. I stressed good hygiene and also eating yogurt while taking antibiotics as a preventative. We also talked about when an antibiotic is needed and when it is not. My daughter said I did a good job so I guess that's what matters most. But I could tell they understood by the questions they asked me. I would definately do it again if asked.
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