To wish some mums would just think a bit more?

[newbeemummy]

I'm rather cross about this, but will try not to rant too much.

DD has recently been diagonsed with Impetigo, when we first noticed the spots we thought it may be Chicken Pox so we texted all the mums of the babies we'd seen that week to let them know, so once she was diagnosed with impetigo, we then texted them all again, to let them know.

It now turns out that one of the mums who attends one of the play groups didn't bother to tell anyone that her DS had imetigo (which she knew about at the time), and thinks it's such a coincidence that our DD caught it the same week as her DS (she was playing with him a few days before her spots started to show - when he already had it).

Anyway I get home last night and DD now has conjunctivitis, again another mum has decided to take her DD to a party with loads of other children, some as young as 4 weeks and let them spread this.

I appreciate kids will get ill and will pick things up from each other, I know it's all part opf growing up and developing their immune system.

But FFS how about either making the sensible choice and saying "my DD has XYZ, so we won't be attending" or at least tell the other parents so they can make the choice as to whether or not to expose their kids to it.

YANBU. My aunty brought her young dd to our house shortly after I was born.

Her daughter had a strange whooping sounding cough (get my drift).

I was 7 weeks old. My dm had to nurse me (eventually went to hospital). I was resusitated 3 times.

Don't think mum spoke to aunty for years afterwards.

YANBU.
It comes down to a basic lack of hand hygiene. If every body washed thier hands better and more often D&V bugs would not get passed on. The same for Impetigo and conjuctivitus.
I dont understand why people would want to take a chid who is ill out. Not very fair on the child in the first place, let alone anyone else.

I agree with keeping children away with infectious diseases. Vomiting can be a tricky one though. My DS vomits frequently, not because he's infectious but because he just has a tendency to vomit when he's tired / excited / been in the car etc. etc. I'm aware that other people seeing it may think he's ill, but he's not. Been to paediatrician for tests etc. and it appears it's just something he does. I'm hoping he'll grow out of it.

Wolfhound, if I am honest I was at first a bit hesitant to actually judge why the child had been sick, as you say there could have been other reasons (but still, lack of cleanliness after the incident was bad), but believe me it was obvious this child was poorly. She was lethargic, she was very pale, glassy eyed ect and there is a nasty DV bug going around our area, we have all had it the week before last, I spent all week in with the children (with the exception of school runs for ds1 when he had recovered).

Not sure if it makes any difference, but just thought I would mention it as there are a number of comments about schools.

DD is just 15 months, and the group we tend to spend the most time with has babies ranging from 9 months to 18 months.

imo there is always somethign going round

sickness, .. etc.,

This really annoys me also, I like ds to socialise, I do, but he has a condition that when he gets what is a slight cold to another child is like the plague to him, I wish people with poorly kids would keep them off school/nursery/play groups, so they are not passing on their germs.
I know this sounds presious, but if you have to sit with your child on a hospital ward night after night having various chemicals pumped into his already fragile body you'd get where I'm coming from!

A while back when there was a bug around I was walking to school with DD and a mother and son were infront. The boy threw up on the side of the pavement and the mother just looked at me and said its just nerves and took him in school!

I just turned round and walked my DD home then the school called and I told them why. Said it not right to keep her home if she not unwell! Stuck to my guns tho and said when I get a call to say the boy had gone hom (he was in her class) then I would bring her to school by all means.

I think a lot of it is because we are endlessly bombarded with attendence stats letters here commenting on the percentage of absences as a whole in the school and praising kids for 100% attendence and giving them certificates. Stating that they need to concentrate on attendance and the importance of education and on and on and on. This is sent to every parent about 3 times year. A child with 100% attendance continuously is either one hell of a healthy child or is one of those sent in sick because of stats!

coff33pot this used to drive me mad too!!
My DDs friend was sent to school regardless of snot, diarrhoea, coughs and sore throats.
Both her parents were teachers and probably had no child care back when she was sick, but her class mates dropped like flies around her!!
used to make me soo mad, and sorry for her.

My dd had impetigo following a very nasty virus. It was not caused by a lack of hygiene and I would prefer that we didn't return to the days when you were to stay away from the dirty children please. We were not advised to isolate her and I am always careful to ask the gp as they don't always give advice. I am fastidious about sticking to quarantine rules, I have had d and v when at the worst possible times and hate it when children are sent back to school too early. I think isolating for colds is too extreme and we have to be careful to separate what's bad for your child and others and what is inconvenient.

Slartybartfast, of course there is always something going around, but does that really justify taking a child with dv to socialise with other children and pass it on, when all that is required is a couple of days at home and then normal life resumes? If mine have a common cold, then yes, life continues as normal, we have had letters home from the school clearly stating that if it is just a cold then send them in, only keep them absent if they are very poorly with it, such as having a tempereature ect. I have always kept mine in for the duration of a high temp and more often than not for 24 hrs after the temp has gone.

I do have to take ds2 out now, even when poorly, for the school runs but usually put the raincover on and keep away from others in the playground as much as possible.

Okay, so have checked Nhs direct and it says impetig stops being infectious two days after treatment commences. It also says the blisters have to be leaking fluid to be contagious which I guess means that two days of antibiotics will cause this to happen. It says at that point they can return to school, fir which I read normal contact with other children.

I should add that dd was isolated for that long anyway-she was still too poorly to go anywhere. Maybe, just maybe the other mother had had the same advice I had? Unfortunate, but how much further can you be expected to go if you've consulted a gp?

As far as impetigo and conjunctavitis ,i would avoid areas with free play and lots of kids and tell relatives/friends and let them make their own choices ,but with D&V i would stay at home .

newbeemummy FWIW, She may not have caught conjunctivitis - if you have conjunctivitis and are not strict with hand washing and touch your eyes, the infection can spread.

I agree that anything this horrible and the child shouldn't be at a toddler group or similar. Normal mild cold/bugs etc though are different though. I don't know anybody who would keep their kids at home if they were a bit snotty - I certainly wouldn't.

yanbu

this really annoys me as it displays an utter lack of considerations for other mums and their children.

a good friend of mine does this to me and the dc a lot. don't know how to approach her about it.

YANBU to think she should have mentioned it, but then again DS2 has had conjunctivitis many times and also got impetigo. As we got treatment right away, both the GP and nursery were happy to have him still attending nursery (we obviously told them).

Their policy is that so long as they have the medicine to be treating it, the child can still go to nursery. I would therefore hhave been quite happy to take him out in public with either condition, although if another child was playing closely with him I would have told the parents.

When DS1 had chicken pox we went to the local pub on a weekday (just to get out of the house!) which has a play area and is very quiet in the lunchtimes. That day however there was a little girl that came into the garden with her parents and started to go over to the slide with DS1 was playing - I immediately told her Dad that he has chickenpox and is still oozing so if I was happy to keep him away from her if he felt it necessary. In fact, he didn't as she had already had it but he seemed appreciative of being told before it was too late!

Hassled - the parents may have been advised to bring the child backto class by the school. DS was sick in class and when I picked him up I asked about the exclusion period. The response was to bring him back next day if he wasn't ill again. I kept him off for 48 hours because I thought it would be unfair to send him in but the school did want me to!