Charm City Moms: Swine flu death: How to prepare kids - A blog for Maryland parents by The Baltimore Sun's Kate Shatzkin

Swine flu at schools Now that we have official word of the first death from the swine flu in the U.S. -- and, unfortunately, the victim was a toddler -- I'm throwing in a special consult to answer Ilana Bittner's timely question about swine flu. She wanted to know how to help kids guard against it without scaring them or making them seem "antisocial to their friends."

Pediatrician Daniel Levy, who's given us advice before, wrote back the following to answer Ilana's question:

"This potential pandemic has everybody concerned, including the high-ups at CDC and the WHO. There are very clear guidelines in place for isolating suspected cases, and taking appropriate precautions for prevention. Inevitably, kids will hear things in school, from friends or the media, and of course at home.

Here are a few simple and sensible guidelines:

1. Kids under five simply need to be protected, without much explanation. Hands should be washed with an alcohol-based hand cleaner or antiviral soap before handling infants. Toddlers and preschoolers should wash their hands prior to eating or after using the toilet.

2. School-aged children should be given a dispenser of hand cleaner to use prior to eating or after using the bathroom.

3. If a case is identified in a school or daycare setting, the health department is to be notified, and further instructions will come from administrators of the facility.

4. The key for parents is to act calmly and follow all instructions from public health officials and physicians.

Children invariably take their cues from loved ones. If adults explain in an age-appropriate way that there is a flu germ in the community that can make us sick, and that we will do everything possible to protect them, kids will take comfort."

Interestingly, when I tried to delicately broach this with my 5- and 8-year-old kids while we were driving to school this morning, they seemed to already have been briefed -- by their friends. My daughter said there had been some debate on the playground about whether swine flu really came from pigs. So after we talked about that for a while, I just reminded them to do what they'd do whenever the flu is going around: be careful to wash their hands often, not to share food and drinks, and to keep their fingers out of germy body parts.

If you can't get enough information about this, here's our Q&A on swine flu, and a cool Google Map of swine flu tweets on Twitter.

(Associated Press photo of a child going to school with a face mask in New York)