Good advice. There's really no reason for all this panic. If your child is otherwise healthy, this seems to run shorter than the typical influenza -- by a few days -- more like 5-7 days instead of 7-10 days. But, boy, that cough can hang on -- from what "barking" I heard around the middle school out of children who indicated they were cleared by the doctor to return.

-- Cherie, commenting on Cathy Benson's Terrific Tuesday column about the flu.