 [ Symptoms ] how can you tell a child has strep [ Disease ] when your child has a sore throat it is important to find out if it is strep throat or not ever wonder why strep officially called group a streptococcus is a bacterial infection that needs to be treated with antibiotics and all the other sore throats caused by the virus of the week just need time and tlc to resolve why does strep need to be treated while many people clear the throat infection on their own untreated strep can do some pretty serious damage in other body parts untreated strep can infect the heart brain and joints that is called rheumatic fever and it is why we need to know if that sore throat is due to strep bacteria doctors have always known that strep prefers to infect school aged kids instead of babies toddlers or preschoolers but a recent study in the journal pediatrics confirmed this about 37 of school aged children who see their docs for a sore throat will have a strep infection but only 24 of children under five years of age have strep when they have a throat infection bottom line little kids usually get viral sore throats big kids are more likely to have strep so how do docs know when it is strep throat besides doing a strep test of course here are 10 things that make me think of strep 1 5 years of age or older 2 sore throat without runny nose or cough 3 sore throat with headache andor stomachache 4 sore throat and fine pinpoint sandpaperyrough feeling rash called “scarlet fever” 5 sore throat and raised dots on the tongue called “strawberry tongue” 6 sore throat and a persistent fever for more than a couple of days 7 for girls sore throat and a really red vaginal area 8 sore throat and really red skin around hisher anus 9 strep going around your child is school childcare or your house late fall winter spring 10 a history of getting strep throat before if you think your child has strep do not panic even if your child has had the illness for a few days antibiotics will do the trick to clear the infection and prevent rheumatic fever just make an appointment to see your child is doctor