To want to scrub DS's school down with dettol *mostly lighthearted*

[mumonashoestring]

as well as the kids in his class

I know it's normal, I know it's important for his immune system to be challenged, but I am completely fed up with my lovely cheerful little chap coming home with colds, coughs, viruses and now cold sores and spending his weekends poorly and sad.

Bloody plague-ridden miniature savages...

[Tomorrowillbeachicken]

Our school was very quiet this morning. Hardly anyone around and I am wondering how many people the bug took out.

[mumonashoestring]

Gingernaut oh yuk, hope all that stayed with you was the smell

ellie oh that's so unfair on the poor little chap :( At least we haven't had to put anything like that off for our little plague-vector

Rubberduck hehe YANBU also, what a time that would be for a cold! And yes, tissues do seem to be considered a bit of a luxury item by some. Ew.

[elliejjtiny]

YANBU

My 3 year old is going to have yet another operation cancelled (3rd time this year) because once again he has a cold.

[Gingernaut]

Yesterday morning, a small child on the way to church with his mother decided to come over all 'Exorcist' on the bus as it was pulling into the bus station.

I was three sets of seats ahead and the other side of the bus from him, but wherever I went in town afterwards, I could smell vomit.

We told the bus driver and he took the bus out of service.

Great. I've already had colds (with the accompanying wheezies and labyrinthitis) and nits (no children of my own).

I could really do without a close up view of the toilet bowl....

[Ericaequites]

I'm in the United States. State schools have closed for a deep clean after d & v bugs sent more than half the school home. It makes too much sense to have this occur every half term/bank holiday in primary school.

[Tomorrowillbeachicken]

All the kids in the school nursery had chickenpox last year at same time too. Lovely little virus carriers.

[Tomorrowillbeachicken]

Can you do my DS' too? There is a sickness bug going around that is pretty nasty atm.

[2fat2care]

No kids get immunity from "dirt" i.e. mud, or eating things of the floor, or being in the garden and licking snails. They don't even get ill from stuff like that. The likelihood of bacteria being in the kind of numbers on things like that to make them ill is very small.

Viruses (cold, stomach bug, flu etc) exist in normal environments where other people are. and on things that other people have touched. and on food that other people eat.

This seems to be a fundamental difference that many people don't understand.

And OP YANBU!

[LBOCS2]

My delicious, lovely, snot ridden germ monster has so far this year given me scarlet fever, hand foot and mouth and no less than three really heavy, disgusting colds. She does a particularly good line in coming in for a cuddle and doing a really big cough in my face.

She doesn't start school until next September. I'm not looking forward to it...

[Justwhy]

I had ringworm in my class for many many weeks. I got it on my arm.

In the 4 years I worked in the school not once was it deep cleaned. Nor the carpets cleaned. I'm surprised I'm not dead.

[fieldofschemes]

I work as a cleaner at a Primary school and it's very true, as a pp said, I leave the school spotless in the evening and by the following afternoon it's back to square one. I'm very careful about cross-contamination and sneak in bottles of bleach though.

[swizzlestar]

Ah yes, the year R rite of passage..... We're going through this with ds. Unfortunately he has glue ear and enlarged adenoids to add into the mix, so really hasn't been well since he started in September. He's been coughing for 6 weeks I worked out this morning!

Dd on the other hand, has the constitution of an ox!! Rarely gets ill.

[blankmind]

For all the parents who catch everything going, try strengthening your own immune system, Vogels Echinacea tincture works for me, around Sept, take it for a few days, then only take it at the onset of symptoms. Also try and have something regularly which contains good gut bacteria, I use Fage yogurt, active miso and homemade sauerkraut, use whatever you find palatable.

For the littlies, I found using antibac gel hand-cleaner as soon as they got into the car then once at home changing out of uniform seemed to help a lot in stopping bug transference, throughout school years, dc (allergic and reactive to 'everything') had D+V twice, I caught it once at a different time to them.

[grandmainmypocket]

Walking past the children's toilets alone makes me want to vomit. I think teachers are saints.

[SittingDrinkingTea]

My DD spent her time between the ages of two and four being continually ill, but once she turned five it all stopped and she has a constitution of iron.

However she's got a slightly upset stomach today, and I'm rather worried that her slightly upset stomach will be raging norovirus in me 😭.

[Matchingbluesocks]

Thank you! I can stop reading annoying forest school blogs now

[Crunchymum]

We had a letter advising us Norovirus was doing the rounds at end of last week. As an emetophobe I've been anxious for days as almost everyone I've spoken to from DS's class (preschool) has it!!!

I hope they hired a bloody cleaning company to blitz the school over the weekend.

Oh and we have the class bear this weekend. I wasn't best pleased about that. It's probably harbouring all sorts.

[PberryT]

Twinkle

In fairness, you don't have to use chemicals on nits and the majority of the chemicals aren't as effective as combing.

Combing done properly is the best way to get rid of them.

[PinkSwimGoggles]

going outside is great.
the viral load in the air outside also is lower than inside. (that's an important reason to ventilate your home as well).

[mumonashoestring]

Matching here y'go: www.nbcnews.com/id/18082129/ns/health-livescience/t/soil-bacteria-can-boost-immune-system/ We have a microbes/immunity theme where I work as well with lots of cleverer-than-me types looking into this. Quite apart from anything else the more time DS is outside getting filthy, the less time he's climbing onto my lap to cough at me!

Teal I wouldn't blame any teacher (especially primary) who came in to work in full HazMat

[TealGiraffe]

Yanbu! I work in primary and while our cleaning team is fantastic and we start every day in a spotless school, by the end of the day it is disgusting...

Everything (including me) is covered in sweat / spit / snot / food

We constantly tell kids to get their hands out of their bums! And boys do like to fiddle with their bits! Luckily every classroom has a handwash sink and a hand gel dispenser on the wall.

Joy of joys we currently have:
A vomiting bug blazing through year 3
Nits in all years
Chickenpox in year 4,5,6
Plus all the usual winter coughs and colds.

I regularly get a wet cough in the face......

Staff did wonder about creating some sort of sheep dip system at the entrance

[LittleBooInABox]

YANBU this time of year I bathe in the stuff!

I have a fear of vomit though so... I'm totally irrational with it and that's ok with me.

I told the PTA woman in the office the other day she was a moron when she boasted her child had finished being sick at 1am the night before and was still in!!!

[Namechangeemergency]

I think earth is a micro system or something
Return with your findings

[DandelionAndBedrock]

We have hand sanitiser in our classrooms (primary). My children get pretty good at cleaning their hands after sneezing, which I hope helps.

Our cleaners are good, but I keep packs of antibac wipes for during particularly grotty times of the year when I go over door handles, my computer/desk, and the children's tables. We also had an enlightening lesson after I caught a few of them chewing/sucking on communal pens and pencils.

I don't really remember bugs ever going round my secondary school when I was a pupil.