How do you know if your toddler has flu or cold?

Flu vs cold: Flu causes a cold that is more severe with more fever, body ache, chills, poor appetite, vomiting headache etc, a flu test can sometime used to make the diagnosis, A common cold or flu , either can make a child quiet sick, but flu is more severe and causes more complication. if child is not feeling well, should be evaluated regardless .

Evaluation: The flu tends to come on quickly, have higher initial fever, but a pre-verbal kid will not be able to describe any muscle pains,etc. I will generally test any toddler that comes in with high (>103) temp during peaks in local flu activity,or if they have a known exposure. Colds have variable symptoms but rarely exceed 101.5 temp.