Would you send DD to school tomorrow?

[EvilTwins]

DD's school called me at work - DD had been sick. DH went to pick her up.

DD has always had mild-medium bowel issues -laxatives when she was a toddler, but still withholds her poos far too much. On two or three occasions in the last 2 years, she has withheld poos to the point that her system is so backed up she has been sick. This is what happened today - once we got her home, she did a massive (sorry - TMI) poo, and afterwards was absolutely fine - ate her dinner, was totally herself. I am not after help with the constipation issue - we do have laxatives for her, but are trying to control it through her diet, and through encouraging her to go more often - thing is, she's 6 now, and knows that it might hurt to poo, so she holds it in (sorry sorry - TMI) to the point that it does hurt, and then we start the cycle again.

So, would you send her in tomorrow? Her sickness was nothing anyone else can catch, but the school does say, as do most I guess, that DC must be kept home for 24 hours after sickness.

DH is prepared to stay home if needs be, but we don't want this to add to the issue (ie not doing a poo is rewarded by having a day at home with Daddy)

No. Keep her off, as per school rules. Hope she is better soon.

The school won't let her there if they were the ones who sent her home with sickness.

It's a tough one(no pun intended!)
I was previously a manager at a nursery with similar policy which also covered diarrhoea.
It was difficult to pin point whether it was a genuine bug or it was just milk changes/issues with bowel movements like you describe above.
Have you spoken to the school in depth about the issue, maybe a doctors note would help, obviously not this time though.
My ds is 2 and is having trouble with constipation at the minute and this often results in an "explosion" after a few days.
Luckily ds's nursery are fab and tend to not stick religiously to policy of 24hrs exclusion.
If you feel she is well enough and has no temp or other symptoms its a nightmare having to take time off but the school may insist on this occasion.
I would ring the school first thing and ask for a chat with the head teacher to explain the situation, perhaps then your dh could take dd in a little later??

We're going to keep her at home. She's exhausted anyway after the monumental effort of her mahoosive poo.

I would probably get a doctors letter or at least speak to school about this, so that in future you don't have to keep her off unless necessary

Our school would consider taking her back if you explained. Ds1 is sometimes sick when he has a temp - it is totally different to a tummy bug - and they were quite sensible about me using my judgement.

My friend's dd had a similar issue and her cons advised them to give her laxatives every day for quite a long time so that she simply couldn't "hold it in". This was to allow the bowel to recover and shrink back to normal size apart from anything else. Perhaps if your dd is holding it in until she's sick then you need to review how you are managing it?