Is it usual practice to NOT send kids home from guide/scout camp when they are sick?

[sandyballs]

Just reading the letter from our guide unit and, I quote:

"If your daughter is taken ill whilst we are away the units policy is that any major illnesses or injuries are reported to the relevant parent immediately, i.e. broken bones, serious bleeding, burns etc. The first aider will deal with minor issues such as temperatures, vomiting, diahorrea, sore throats, sprains, cuts, bruises, headaches etc with the relevant medication available to her as agreed on the health form that will be issued closer to the date. If your daughter?s symptoms persist, for example it appears it may develop to tonsillitis or gastric flu you will be contacted and given the option to pick her up"

I'm just not sure that vomiting and diahorrea is 'minor' to be honest. DD is just 10 and has been at guides about 3 weeks. This is the longest stretch of time she will have been away from home - 7 nights. She's very confident about going and I wouldn't dream of conveying my fears to her but I hate the thought of her throwing up in a tent, and suffering from diarrhoea in a little dug hole in the ground, wanting to come home but no-one ringing me. I get the impression that this group think it is some kind of 'failure' to send a kid home.

Interested in others views/experiences seeing as this is a new thing to me.

[timetosmile]

Our local groups are very sensible tbh. Most of the leaders are also parents and know the difference between a far-too-much-chocolate-and-excitement vomit and a gastric bug.
I wonder if it is just a way for them to be legally safe to administer basic first aid and calpol?
I don't think the Guiders would be particularly looking forward to anyone throwing up in the tent, either!
btw, I worried all through dd's Brownie camp last holiday too, and she had a great time!

[meditrina]

Agree the wording is probably to differentiate between a D&V bug ("gastric flu") and the after effects of an over-enthusiastic midnight feast.

Guiders are much more comprehensively trained than in my day, and they will look after the girls properly.

And even back in the dark ages when I were a lass, we had proper loos or good latrines!

[sandyballs]

Thank you, I'm being a bit of a pansy aren't I. A PFB? And to think I was strolling around Amsterdam alone on a school trip at 11!!

[sandyballs]

I've been told the loo is a hole in the ground!! With a tent round it

[Georgimama]

would it be too obvious to suggest you contact the Guider in charge and say that if your daughter is taken ill you are to be contacted so you can make the call on whether she needs to come home or not?

[madwomanintheattic]

at the last (regional) cub camp i went to, they trialled a new form of 'mug up' (last drink and snack before bed) on a sort of put luck basis. only every group bought something sweet. so there were quite a few boys who managed to over-indulge and spent the first hour or two of the night throwing up chocolate.

to attempt to send thirty or so over-excited boys home at midnight because they'd eaten too much choc would have been daft.

at the last guide camp i was at, we had a girl who threw up at about 9pm. we watched her for an hour ot two, doing the mummy thing (is it a bug, is it excitement, is it food poisoning -eek) - it became clear after a few hours (and a few more episodes of vomiting) that it was indeed a bug, and she duly despatched home in the middle of the night to recuperate in ther own bed.

the last thing any guider/ scouter needs is an entire camp of kids goin down with the lergy, so believe me, if there is any chance that it's anyhting other other than over-indulgence or giddyness, you will be summoned post-haste to remove the infectious one.

the idea of 30 kids barfing and me cleaning it all up? ew. no.

[meditrina]

sandyballs: that might fall under the definition of a good latrine - depending on what they have to sit on.....

Some of the girls may be menstruating - there are standards they just mustn't fall below.

< remembers my mother giving "the talk" to a 10 year old me in the run up to my first Guide camp >

[peanutbutterkid]

They will send her home, and they will be privately cheesed off if they suspect you knowingly sent her along with the bug, too (heard all this last night at pack hol meeting!)

[create]

Sandy - the loo with be a bucket with a tent round it! And your DD will have a fab time.

They will send her home if needed, but IME there are lots of headaches and tummyaches around bedtime and if the weather's really bad, which the girls will get over as soon as they have something to take their minds off it.