Why can nobody adhere to the 48hr sick bug rule?!

[Toughtips]

I understand people have jobs to go to but why bring your poor child back into school when he was only sick and sent home yesterday? Just seen one who got sent home back doing his school nativity looking pasty as anything. Someone commented underneath the photo "is he better now" to the reply of yeah he really wanted to go in. AIBU to be annoyed that school allow this?

[Enwi]

Certainly work and non-understanding bosses account for a lot of sick children being sent to school/childcare regardless, but a shocking amount of parents do it whether they are in work or not. I’m a childminder and the amount of times I’ve cared for a sick child only to discover that the parent wasn’t at work anyway due to being part time/annual leave/plans with friends and they’ve chosen to endanger me and every other child in the setting for entirely selfish reasons is shocking.

[curryforbreakfast]

It’s selfish but I do get that some people are under pressure to get back to work

That's why it's not selfish. Do you think people want to send sick kids to school because they are scared of losing their jobs? Do they do it for themselves? No.
You might also want to speak to school s that expect you to keep your child home for 48 hours for everything but also expect them to have 100% attendance #

[littleducks]

Last time I sent ds back in after being ill then 48 hours off school informed me they had reduced time to 24 hours ( sure Ofsted attendance targets).

So I just go with what seems right now based on his symptoms and don't consider the clock anymore as Dr colleagues at work say 24 hours is pretty pointless and a one boy protest against school policy isn't going to affect illness across the school

[TheCrossKeys]

I'm also a CM and twice had a mindee arrive wheezing and rattling only for it to emerge that this child had been at A&E all night with bronchitis. Parents were at home sleeping because they were "tired from being at hospital until 3am" and weren't best pleased when I told them to come collect their child who was quite obviously too ill to be at my setting.

I've had minders who, almost as soon as their parents car has vanished around the corner, will announce "I was sick allllllllllllll last night but mummy/daddy said not to tell you that" or who will go to the loo and then tell me they've got "a runny poo AGAIN".

When people send their poorly child to the CM they don't seem to realise that when that child infects me and my DC, my business would close and they'd have no childcare until I re-opened. I got so fed up of it that my policies stated if you knowingly sent your child in when they were poorly and I then had to close as a result of my DC/me catching it then you would still be billed as if I'd been open and I will not assist with finding alternative childcare (I know other CMs on the area and if I had to close I could usually see who had temp spaces available).

[MeganBacon]

Isn't it mostly due to people being worried they will lose their jobs if their attendance depends on their kids? Mine are older now but when I was single and knew all the money had to come from me, and only had 26 days holiday per year which had to be carefully managed to cover times when nursery or nannies were not available, it was very hard to keep them off. Wrong I know, but that's life for many people.

[Jengnr]

I don’t think our school have a 48 hr rule. My son is in reception and was sick in class one day. I was there in 10 minutes and I asked if I needed to keep him off. They said, ‘see how he is’

The next morning he sprang out of bed at 4.30am, full of beans, ate two breakfasts and demanded to go to school. I rang them and they said bring him in, so I did.

[Tanith]

"Its because I think a lot of employers dont like people taking time off whatever the reason. Many people are in insecure employment so it can cause a problem for them."

That doesn't explain why, when I turn up for babysitting bookings, I am handed a bottle of Calpol because they've had a raging temperature, or informed that they've been sick all day so they're probably very tired. Heaven forbid they should forgo their night out to look after a tiresome ill child!
Or the SAHM who has dosed her child up with Calpol because "she's been looking forward to the Christmas party".

I've been childminding for many years and this has always been a problem. "Drop and run" kids, we used to call them, where the parent would drop the child as fast as possible and disappear before awkward questions could be asked. It's thanks to their selfishness and cowardice that the culture of leaving sick children in childcare and in school is now so prevalent.

[m0therofdragons]

The 48 hour rule is a rather arbitrary number. It depends on the type of virus so 48 hours covers most. Norovirus is 72 hours clear in a hospital setting. Our school was fairly loose about it until a few years back when 52% of the school was off sick, including teachers. They had to merge classes, which was fine as the two they combined only had 20 dc between them as opposed to 60!

I'm really strict with dds re hand washing before every meal and using soap. Whenever friends come to play they're always confused why when I say I'm dishing up dinner my dc rush to wash their hands. It doesn't seem like children do that any more.

[Nicketynac]

My work has a 48hr rule for D&V but 24 for vomiting only. Apparently pukey bugs are less contagious than poopy ones. Not sure what to type into Google to see if this is true.

[oblada]

If it is a sickness bug yes but vomiting or diarrhoea as individual one offs could be caused by other factors which wouldnt be contagious. It's down to common sense as well.

[CazM2012]

We adhered to the rule when the sickness bug swept our house a couple of weeks ago, only to have the EWO at my doorstep the week afterwards to threaten me with court proceedings if she carries on being off (chicken pox & sickness bug since September) I felt like I should have sent her in a day earlier which would have been below the threshold for a visit, then realised how stupid and selfish that would have been. We just can’t win!

[elliejjtiny]

I always follow the 48 hour rule. My 4 year old is in and out of hospital a lot and a bug or cold for him can mean surgery being postponed and him getting really ill. My 11 year old has a classmate who has diabetes and cf and I wouldn't want my child to make another child really ill. I get really cross when we get letters moaning about attendance. If they were well enough for school I would send them.

[Itchytights]

I’m with BigKingdom on this. I always pull up the fucking twats on it.


This is one of my pet hates about school life. Some parents are just selfish cunts and that’s all there is to it. Utterly fucking selfish.

[Itchytights]

I’m also fastidious about my children washing their hands.

Seems many parents aren’t though which is scary.

[Eeyit]

My 2 dds pick up every bug going. Dd6 had d&v so I called the school, convo went like this

Me "Dd has d&v so won't be in today"
Receptionist " Oh, ok, but will she be in tomorrow because we need to keep attendance up"
Me "No she will be back 48 hours after last episode" hangs up

I have never and will never send them in when unwell. It's unfair on everyone and maybe if more people followed the rules it would mean less lost work days for everyone!

[BubblesBubblesBubbles]

I don’t know but it drives me batty!

My poor dc2 ended up in hospital because of some arsehole parent taking their child to school the morning after they’d been sick at 2am (gotta love Facebook sharing) even when I called them out on it they didn’t even say sorry! Some people are just wankers.

[gingerh4ir]

eyjit

does this convo go equally smooth with your line manager????

[woofmiaowwoof]

I remember my last job had a rule that after one day off sick for child sickness, I was supposed to have back up childcare in place for any subsequent days. So what backup childcare can you access when your kid is sick? Good luck with that!

Yes, it’s pressure on parents to keep their jobs. Snarky remarks about ‘you have the sickest children in the world’, ‘not another cold’. Most people aren’t lazy and dishonest.

[BelligerentGardenPixies]

Last year a parent sent their child on the class trip after they had already already vomited that morning. Poor girl vomited at the lunch table (all over other kids) and again on the tube.

This parent didn't work, they just didn't want to be bothered with a sick child. Tried to send her in the following day citing the fact that she was now over the worst if it. The school sent her home but of course half the class came down with it over the course of the following week including myself and all four of my kids.

[SylviaTietjens]

My ds was sick at school twice last term. I followed procedure and kept him off for 48 hours after both times. Dh works away Monday-Friday, I started a new job in July and boss is already unhappy that I’ve taken this time off. To top it all I then got a shitty letter from the school asking me how they can support me as my child is persistently absent (5 days in one term due to being sent home twice and following procedure). If it happens again and he is otherwise fine I will take him back to school the next day. Luckily it’s a tiny school, I know the 25 kids in the infant school and none have any serious health conditions. I simply can’t afford to lose my job.

[woofmiaowwoof]

They get sick so much - I was at dc2’s Christmas party last week and one of the kids vomited all over the floor - I feel like half the time I go in, at least 40% of the kids are snotty.

[IvorBiggun]

There was a post the other day that explained why keeping the 48 hour rule for D&V actually helps improve attendance. I’ll see if I can find it.

Public Health England guidelines are 48 hour exclusion for D&V and are based on medical evidence. They define diarrhoea as “3 or more liquid or semi-liquid stools in a 24 hour period”.

[IvorBiggun]

Found it:

Assuming a class of 30 children:

1 child off for 48 hours = 98.67% attendance for the class.

4 children off for 48 hours and 1 for 24 hours (because he came back to school early while infectious) = 94% attendance for the class.

Yanbu op.

[missadasmith]

There was a post the other day that explained why keeping the 48 hour rule for D&V actually helps improve attendance. I’ll see if I can find it.

that may be the case but managers are not interested esp if you are a lone parent without support network who has massive pressure to make sure they do not lose their job.

I would not send an ill/vomitting child into school but I have huge pressure from work, one of my DC is severely disabled and I am more seen as a liability than an asset. I just wouldn't be able to keep them at home every time they are unwell unless I am happy to risk the roof over our head. I go to work poorly as well unless I am really really unwell as I am on SSP and wouldn't survive a week on it.

some people here are really smug about it. I'd hazard the guess that they are either not having to earn a living, having support or an understanding employer. not everybody is so lucky.

[IvorBiggun]

I was referring to schools getting rid of the 48 hour rule when it is demonstrably in their interest to keep it. Ofsted measure overall attendance for the whole school.

Managers and other people are not relevant to my point in any way at all.