Would IBU? Conjunctivitis and school. ..

[lborgia]

It's 7 am here and I have a conundrum.

Ds arrived home from school yesterday and an hour later had a bit of gunk in his eye. It was clearly bacterial conjunctivitis. This didn't really surprise me as he had a bad cold earlier in the week and still has a bit of a cough despite bouncing around like tigger's bouncier brother.

I had some chlorsig (antibiotic eye drops used for conjunctivitis and by the surgeon off script for my ear problems) in the fridge and put drops in his eyes. Another dose before bed.

He's woken up with very slightly sticky eyes. He had another dose of drops. Now looks fine. No redness or gunk. So. According to the cdc (USA centerfordiseasecontrol) website he can go to school because there's no gunk and he is old enough that he's not in close contact with others and sharing toys etc. But I feel uneasy.

If I was a WOHM I'm pretty sure I would be packing him off and hoping for the best, but because I'm "only" at home and only doing paperwork/physio/doctors myself I'm wondering more.

He seems genuinely very well but. ..

WIBU to keep him home?

I would be extremely unpopular with parents and teachers if they knew I had sent my child to school with conjunctivitis knowingly.

Can you keep him off Friday? He'll be fine for Monday.

If the cdc say it's fine and he's well in himself I'm not sure why you'd keep him off to be honest.

At my children's school conjunctivitis is not a reason to stay off school unless they are unwell.
Just as an aside chloramphenicol drops have a 4 week expiry date once opened

Are you in the US or UK? Public Health England advises that you don't need to stay off work or school with conjunctivitis unless you are physically unwell and you would only be advised to stay off school if there was a particular outbreak.

Also most conjunctivitis is viral anyway and doesn't need any treatment. A bit of gunk doesn't necessarily = bacterial.

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Conjunctivitis-infective/Pages/Treatment.aspx

www.nhs.uk/conditions/conjunctivitis-infective/Pages/Introduction.aspx

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Conjunctivitis-infective/Pages/Introduction.aspx

No need to stay off school or work unless unwell.

Thanks Mad, the drops were a sealed bottle I keep for emergencies.

I've been known to throw them out for bring date expired having not needed them for two years or something. But the law is that if I don't have them in the fridge I will get a massive infection that very weekend

Thanks Wolpert, I'm confident in my diagnosis so am happy to work from the premise that it's bacterial.

Thanks everyone, I'm in Oz. .but happy to take my Google advice from anywhere!

I take it you are a fully qualified doctor then because even they can't tell just by looking at it

It's difficult to tell if bacterial or viral. There is one caused by adenovirus but you are usually quite systemically unwell with this. Still no reason to stay off school though. Most respond to bathing and antibiotics not always needed.

You're going to run out of eyebrows Wolpert .

I could talk about the fact that it's come hot on the heels of a nasty snotty cold and that it's more likely to have tracked from that than a brand new infection, or more specifics about exactly how it looked, or a few other points, but that's OK. I don't feel the need. Unless you need something to be unreasonable as I posted in AIBU?

Thanks everyone for your input, really helped.

My doctor advised to carry on as normal with conjunctivitis.

At my ds nursery they have a policy to stay off for 3 days with conjunctivitis

I work in early years and our policy is that they are ok to come in once they have had one dose of the drops

At my DS nursery they let them in with it and will even do their drops for you if they have it.

For those of you working at nurseries with policies that refer to drops: were those policies written with reference to the advice of Public Health England? What do you do with children who are assessed by their GP as not requiring drops? - do you insist on them having unnecessary antibiotics or them having unnecessary time off nursery?