Kids " sick" days

[RubySquid]

I read on so many threads about sharing of parenting and who has to look after kids on " sick" days as though it's a regular thing.

But in reality how much time do kids actually have off sick to make it a big deal to worry about. For example DS had 2 days off nursery with conjunctivitis, a couple of weeks off school with chickenpox in ks1 and 2 days with a sickness bug at about 8. He's visited the GP 3 times in his life and hands now graduated from uni

Similar stories with DDs, id say apart from the pox less than a week off for other sickness during school time

Yet the way people go on about covering sick days it seems that it's scents happening every couple of weeks. So we're my kids unusual in not getting constantly ill

Some children get more sick than others. That’s hardly surprising…

A friend of mine, her daughter barely got sick.

Another friend, her son gets a fever that lasts a week every time he has the smallest bug.

My kids can get really unwell with simple colds. DS missed 3 days of nursery last week, and another 6 days over September and October.

So every child is different.

Some children get more sick than others, surely that's not surprising.

One of mine is off ill all the time because she is asthmatic and picks up every respiratory thing going, the other hardly gets ill at all.

DC had quite a lot of time off in reception. Looking back, I think this might have been because she hadn’t been exposed to as many viruses in the pre-school years due to COVID so was catching up on those.

Other years, it’s been the odd day here and there if she’s had an awful cold/flu type illness, or a couple of days for stomach bug. Not had CP yet.

Can’t for the life of me think why anyone’s boss would want them in the office knowing there’s been an outbreak of D&V at home 😆

This school year, I think she’s had two days off so far. Both bosses are fine with us WFH - so we both stay home and take turns tending to DC.

Oh dear I suspect schools will be a bit " off" with you if your kids are off school 9 days in less than 3 months.

Your children never had a heavy cold which caused a fever that required a day off school, EVER? Or you're the parent who sent their kids in dosed on Calpol, coughing their heads off and spreading their germs. One or the other.

I think I’ve had to collect my dc three times in the last 8 years. But my dc are very rarely ill, I’m well aware that other dc are ill a lot more.

See that's the thing Rarely have any of us ( me included) had D&V bugs. It's not as though it's a commplace thing

Random thread.

We all have different immune systems, different schools with different policies and different employers with different policies.

You’re lucky! Last year I think we had 3… And on two of those either me or DH ended up with it. Hopefully was just a bad year 😆

What age did your child go to nursery and jow many days, @RubySquid ? My toddler has had 3 days out this winter already due to illness.

2 days in the whole of nursery sounds amazing

Mine are never ill. I don’t mean that to sound flippant but it really is very rare. Ds was sick in the night when we came back from holiday at Easter and had a day off nursery. That’s been it: before that, his last day off was when we thought he had chickenpox in 2023 (he didn’t.)

But some people and their children permanently have fevers, sickness and
viruses. Honestly it does surprise me how often some people are ill.

I agree OP. One of mine has refused Calpol all his life so I'm definitely not dosing him up. Now in Y1 and Y3 there have been a handful of sick days between them (not counting being forced to isolate for COVID because someone in their class had it). Easily less than 10 between the two over 7 years and probably closer to 5.

Some children have chronic conditions so are off a lot and some are definitely more prone to catching things but there are also parents who are very quick to keep them off.

My sister would have the same opinion as the op. However she also sent her DD to school with a raging temperature when she was 10 and my niece had a seizure. My sister didn't have a themometre and for three days she sent her to school with a bottle of 7up. My niece had pneumonia. I was disgusted my this.

Previous to this she also visited me when I was 7 months pregnant with my niece who it then turned out had swine flu. Obviously I got it and was hospitalised for 7 days.

On these two occasions my sister refused to accept her daughter was very unwell, just a little under the weather. Sister will proudly say my kids were never sick or missed school. Total nonsense, she never acknowledged how unwell they were as it would have been an inconvenience to her.

The rule in our house is if you’re vomiting or got diahorrea then you can stay off, otherwise you go in. Kids have maybe 1-2 days off school in a year in secondary, in primary there’s the 48 hr rule so more likely 2 days.

That usually accounted for the odd day that added up. And Xmas holidays was when they seemed to get colds. But the schools didn't want you keeping them off with a cold.

Every child and parent is different (ie why they are kept off school). Like, OP, DD rarely went to GP, but there were times she couldn't go in, ie a couple of times I felt she needed the day off with a bad cold, had an accident immediately on being left at school (hit head and wouldn't communicate), chicken pox. Also, we went through a phase where she'd get a sickness bug literally every month - funnily enough this stopped when she had to have her appendix out - four days with her in hospital (badly infected appendix, wouldn't eat and had a rash), then advised to keep her off school for two weeks.

Luckily work were quite flexible in those days, so I could work around this - also, there were times when DH could WFH/use extra hours he had worked up.

3DC here, all in nursery since they turned 1. From then until they hit Reception they were each off sick about 20% of the time. Virtually every cold went with a fever that lasted 3-4 days. No underlying conditions. When they hit Reception they suddenly turned a corner and had virtually no days off sick from school. But the nursery years were massively stressful for me and DH.

Eldest was at nursery from 13 weeks full time, DD2 from 2 ( had childminder also) DS from 6 months 4 full days

It doesn’t matter what the school wants. If the child is too ill to go, they’re too ill to go.

That is subjective though.

I would keep off for fever, sickness (ofc) and so on. But a cold? That is a bit precious and would result in a very low attendance given most colds linger for a while!

Yeah this is what prompted the thread. I don't know any kids IRL apart from my grandchildren (so constantly surprised to hear how often peoples kids seem to be needing to take " sick " days

My oldest was off at least 1 or 2 days per month in nursery, it got a bit better in the primary school years (about 10 to 15 days a year, some obviously during holidays so around 8- 10 days absent per school year). Now in secondary its about 2-3 days.
Reason: tonsillitis, ear infections (all requiring antibiotics), D&V bugs.
youngest - a day per year if that.
Different immune systems

I’m astounded by people saying they send them in for everything except D&V.

You’d send them in with bad flu symptoms?

I used to get a heavy cold - like a flu-like, want to die kind of cold- every eight weeks except in the summer. Most of the time I worked through and sometimes would have the odd day off. It was like this since my childhood.

Recently family members had some genetic tests and discovered there's a lack of some specific thing that we all have. Now we have treatment for it. I haven't had a cold for two years.

Don't you think some people's immune systems are just better than others for reasons they don't necessarily know about?

Also, some places and environments are just dirtier than others. It's the Broad Street Pump Cholera theory - if everyone in a road uses the same Tesco/everyone gets on the same bus that isn't cleaned properly, D&V bugs will live on the handles of the fridge and everyone in the road is more at risk. or if in your daily life 30% of the people you come into contact with are transient travellers, like you work near a station, there's more bugs in the pool around you. If you drive to work in your own car and your office has decent cleaners you might avoid D&V always and so might your kids.

OPs son has graduated, that means its 20years since he was at nursery, i dont think schools were as bothered back then by attendance. (well obviously bothered but not like it has been the last few years!)