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Original poster

Have all schools changed the 48hr rule?

49 replies

Binforky · 13/10/2019 09:14

My children's school sent home a letter a few months ago saying that not all cases of sick need to be kept off for 48 hours and stated that if a child has just eaten something that disagreed with them or they have been sick from over excitement then they can still come in that day and if they have been ill once the night before they will be fine.

Is it just me or does this seem ridiculous and probably the cause of more bugs going round the school? I know they are worried about their attendance record but this just seems ridiculous. Does anyone elses schools have these rules?

OP posts:

HPandTheNeverEndingBedtime · 13/10/2019 10:09

@missyB1 she had been off with bronchitis it can last up to 3 weeks, Dr said she was fine to go back and had been given a ventolin inhaler to be used in the case of a coughing fit, which the school did not do, had they given it to her she would have been fine.

Ambidexte · 13/10/2019 10:10

It'll probably lead to worse attendance rates overall, as some parents will abuse the rule and send kids in with stomach bugs. Then they'll infect other kids.

Mind you, I'm sure some parents don't stick to the 48-hour rule anyway.

To be fair, I was another parent like MissNorma with a kid who would vomit at the drop of a hat if the food was the wrong texture etc. These 'mechanical' pukes don't count as far as I'm concerned and I would just feed DS a second breakfast and send him in. Obviously when he had an actual bug I would keep him off school for ages. So there is a difference.

Original poster

Binforky · 13/10/2019 10:14

I agree about the reaction to eating but what I feel is how do you know if they just ate something dodgy or it's a bug. One of my DC used to shove their fingers down their throat for attention the school used to be the opposite to what it is now and made him stay off for 48 hrs which meant he just went in and did it again.

Then again the school tried to get me to bring my DC 6 at the time in after being in hospital all night on a drip for dehydration with the promise that they would look after him. Needless to say I told them where to go.

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wibdib · 13/10/2019 11:15

I think schools should keep the 48 hour rule but have the power to overrule it in individual cases where there is a good reason - so where a child has worked out that it’s a quick way to get a couple of days off or where a child always vomits if they have to eat custard or whatever.

I’ve experienced it once - when ds was sick at exactly the same time 4 weeks in a row. Investigating we discovered that it was after ds had done football club at school, come out really hot and chugged back a really long cold drink. We also figured out that ds hadn’t been eating his full lunch, just the cheese and the jelly. So when he got all hot and ran around lots, adding a whol load of cold water into the mix meant that 5 minutes later the hot melted cheese turned into a big claggy lump and hey presto - vomit.

Talking it through with the school they were happy for him to have 1 day off to check he wasn’t sick again and then go back the next day - but they still made him check for a day. Seemed a sensible compromise and the next week I also made sure ds realised he needed to eat his packed lunch better - and no more vomiting after football.

But definitely need to keep the 48 hour rule - but to have a bit of discretion when there are clear cut cases too!

Crunchymum · 13/10/2019 11:22

@Andsoltbegins

Do you mean you keep your child who is not poorly off if there is a sickness bug going round?

That is very extreme and I say this as an emetophobe!!

Crunchymum · 13/10/2019 11:25

@Andsoltbegins

Sorry, just saw your updated about your DC other condition!!

Buyitinbamboo · 13/10/2019 12:24

I agree with wibdib. We are not school age yet but our nursery had a policy of no attendance for 48 hours after vomiting but it was a 30 min drive away and my DD gets car sick so there were many many times we would drive there, she would throw up just as we pulled into the car park then we go home. She also has a strong gag reflex and is sick when she has a minor cough so we spend a lot of time off!

KipperTheFrog · 13/10/2019 12:26

They tried to do this at DD’s school. I, and other parents, emailed in and they kept the 48 hour rule.

Quartz2208 · 13/10/2019 12:27

DD gets car sick I have never thought to implement the 48 hr rule after thst

icebearforpresident · 13/10/2019 12:45

Seems I’m going against the grain here but I use my judgement in these things. If it’s clearly been a tummy bug of course I wait 48 hours, longer if they still don’t seem right. However, if I can put it done to something like what they’ve ate, spinning too much (I’ve honestly had the argument with my dd’s nursery that vomiting after she’s been been spinning round in the playground for ages is not a sign of a tummy bug) or similar then no, I don’t. And never has she been sent home from school or passed anything on to anyone else.

And if 48hrs later is 9.30am in a school day I’m not waiting until the next day either.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 13/10/2019 12:48

Before preschool one morning my DD drank a cup of milk, had a coughing fit then brought it straight back up. Cleaned her up, chucked her in pram toget her sister to school, and popped head round preschool classroom door to explain. They said she could stay under the circumstances, but would call me if she showed any signs of sickness. She was fine.

Same DD a few years later, got a bad sickness bug. 48hrs after the last bout she went back to school... And was sick all over the lunch room floor. I kept her home 72 hrs after the second round.

namechangedforthis1980 · 13/10/2019 13:45

I believe our school has always said if I child is sick just once and is fine in themselves then they can go back in the next day.

Abibranning · 13/10/2019 15:30

Ours is reduced to 24hours for sickness. But they are now suggesting providing evidence of illness. Dr appt card, txt message screen shot etc. If no appt needed receipt for treatment even if just Calpol etc, no treatment they should be in. All appts are to be unauthorised unless consultant level with a letter. It's ridiculous, I get some are missing ridiculous levels of time off, but these are not the people who will care. (I'm looking at you mum in DSs class who has all the kids off for each other's birthday and has 4 kids)

LoyaltyBonus · 13/10/2019 15:39

The NHS have changed their advice to schools (sorry, can't work out how to post just the PDF but it's doing the rounds in all schools locally here. I have no connection to this particular school!

www.noakbridgeschool.co.uk/nhs-information-leaflet-about-childhood-illnesses/

But weirdly, not their advice to parents

www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/

MitziK · 13/10/2019 15:59

The 48 hour 'rule' is why teenagers who don't want to be in school will tell staff they've been sick in the toilets, just so they get sent home and conveniently miss their scheduled detention for not handing homework in. They've had years of being told it's vital they stay off, even when it's been as the result of jumping around straight after ice cream, sweets and fizzy drinks, so they learn that 'I've been sick' gets an instant 2.5 days off school watching TV.

Of course, I fell foul of this a couple of times - DD would inevitably not want to go to school the following morning because it was raining, I'd drop her off, knowing that she wasn't ill, she'd just been overexcited at a party, then as soon as I got to work, I'd get a call saying she'd told them she'd been sick and I had to come and get her. Not great before the days of unpaid parental leave and even worse in these days of ZHCs.

Pippapotomus · 13/10/2019 16:15

I'm in the same boat as AndsoItbegins. Type 1 diabetic child who we've had to call an ambulance for as he was unable to keep down hypo treatments after some inconsiderate arseholes sent in their sick kids as they didn't want their Xmas shopping trip interrupted. He spent a week at Christmas on a glucose drip.

SimonJT · 13/10/2019 16:24

@Pippapotomus I’m a type 1 and I get absolutely everything going, my parents sometimes kept me off to avoid bad bugs. Even as an adult a tummy but can land me in hospital.

My sons school has a 24 hour policy for vomiting and 48 for the other end. My son vomits when he is upset, if we had to use the 48 hour rule it would be absolutely bonkers.

Arrowfanatic · 13/10/2019 16:30

I have a medical condition which makes me burp violently & i can often be sick with it (although as an adult now i tend to be able to tell when its one of those burps brewing & vacate to the loo) and i can imagine had this rule been so virulently applied in the 80s and 90s i would have never been at school.

As a parent i have been spectacularly lucky that my kids have all had a sick bug just once and all at the same time & all in the xmas holidays which thankfully cleared up before xmas day.

Andsoltbegins · 13/10/2019 16:37

It’s terrifying isn’t it @pippapotomus
We have looked into mini glucagon and got some mini syringes for if it happens again as last time had to wait over an hour for an ambulance after calling 999 and things got scary apparently mini glucagon can work well and doesn’t cause even more vomiting till you get to a hospital

Rockbird · 13/10/2019 16:46

Dd2's school is 48 hours even if it was caused by eating like Mr Creosote. The school that I work at has a huge problem with attendance and if the vomiting was caused by coughing, overeating etc then they are expected to be at school.

Pippapotomus · 13/10/2019 17:03

@AndsoItbegins ah I will ask about mini glucagon at next clinic.

JayDot500 · 13/10/2019 17:23

My 3 year old vomited at school and the teacher witnessed it. She called me to ask if I had any suspicions that he was ill. Honestly, I knew he wasn't ill. She suspected that he'd just got excited and vomited a little after chugging some water too quickly, which caused some coughing. He didn't look unwell and had the same amount of energy as always after vomiting. They kept him in, but would call back for me to pick him up if he vomited again for any reason. Seems fair, especially since he was fine afterwards and hasn't vomited since. To think he'd have been off for 2 days because of that episode seems a bit excessive.

However, it is probably wise to keep the 48hour rule, and make exceptions for cases where the vomiting was obviously due to a known cause/situation. Sick children will present as poorly otherwise, or sometimes one cannot reason why they'd have vomited; the last thing that child would need is parents pushing them into school when unwell, or vomiting for no known cause.

Drogosnextwife · 13/10/2019 17:27

I’m a childminder and you wouldn’t believe the amount of parents that blame EVERYTHING on teething. And the amount of times I or my children have caught ‘teething’.

Yup me too! Everything gets blamed on teething.

FreezerBird · 13/10/2019 17:42

I think the 48 hr rule is sound but there does have to be room for parents and schools to be aware of other issues.

My dd is tube fed and has fairly severe reflux. This is pretty well controlled now but I would say that she vomited every day until the age of about six. (I know that sound like an exaggeration but really honestly it isn't). Obviously had we strictly enforced the 48hr rule she would never have been in school.

School were aware (couldn't not be as she often vomited after lunch) and trusted me to make the call on whether to send her in. They also made sure I was aware if there was a bug going around so I could take that into account when deciding whether the vomiting was reflux or a bug.

It worked pretty well. If there had been a child in her class with immune system problems it would have been a different kettle of fish but we never had to cross that bridge.

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