AIBU if you have a cold, stay at home...

[kateskates]

... and don't bring tour germs into work. Everyone at my DHs office has caught a cold and are sneezing and coughing. My three month old DS has caught it. :(

Your son could have caught it from a stranger at the grocery store or bus or wherever it is that you go OP - so ridiculous

If people would just bloody cough or sneeze INTO A TISSUE OR HANKY, it wouldn't be a problem. But they way people splutter over others, their own hand, anyone standing near, really annoys me. Keep your germs to yourself please and wash your hands too.

Everyone is taking this very seriously.

You’ve posted on AIBU!

If people would just bloody cough or sneeze INTO A TISSUE OR HANKY

or their elbow... basically anything but the hands or freeflowing into the room

Ok well the next time you get a cold you'll be taking three days off school for it won't you?
Course you will.

Tbh, OP, my DDs have had so many colds that I no longer worry about them. They're adopted and they were both placed with us aged 1. DD1 used to cough and splutter most nights during her first year with us. But she really hardly has colds now. They honestly do develop immunity through having colds and coping with them.

It's horrible at the time but it doesn't actually hurt them. They don't even remember what they went through as babies and toddlers.

YABU Totally U! I teach and am exposed to 120+ little treasures' germs every day. I have a cold more often than I don't. I would be fired - quite rightly so - if I took all that time off.

Sorry but YABU, and I say that as someone whos child has Cystic Fibrosis, so can get really unwell with a cold.

Its frustrating, but just a part of life and at this time of year the germs are everywhere, so your DS could have picked it up anywhere.

If everyone took time off work and school with a cold then buisnesses just couldn't function.

Totally. Every cold I’ve got in the last 6 months has led to an asthma attack and weeks off work.

Where the fuck do people work where you can take time off for a fucking cold? I’ve had doozy for about six weeks now, do people seriously think six weeks off work with a COLD is acceptable?

I just has a cough and cold that lasted 10 weeks in the run up to Christmas and I'm still not fully recovered. If I had taken that time off I would now be jobless and homeless.

I possibly will lose my job or need to quit.

YABU

I presume you don't work in an office with a draconian sickness policy, or who deduct money for non-attendance at work. A local authority near me doesn't pay sick pay for the first two days of sick. Another sets up a disciplinary panel if you have more than 3 days sick in a 3 month period, or 3 incidences within 6 months. Struggling in with a cold is probably understandable in such circumstances.

Awful when they are so little and struggling - I understand the lashing out, OP.

Watch out for bronchiolitis in your little one. Mine got it at 4 months and ended up in hospital I’ve Christmas. I almost didn’t take him to the GP because you just think, it’s a cold. What can they do? Watch for the tummy going in under the ribs when they breathe, rapid breathing (50-60 a minute), grunting or wheezing, dry nappies and reduced appetite. I stupidly assumed much of this was just cos he had a cold. The opposite of precious first time mum...

I would not take a sick day from work for a common cold.

The common cold can, in most cases, be avoided through good hygiene.

People don't need to stay home but they DO need to have consideration and be more careful so as to minimise spreading.

If your OH knee people at work had colds he should have practised better hygiene and carried an alcohol gel with him, similarly once he had it there are things you could have done to minimise the chances of passing it on to your baby.

You and your DH have to take some responsibility too, you can't just blame others, common colds happen.

I have no commercial interest but if you keep in a bottle of "First Defence" and use it - and keep it up - at the first slight tickle or sneeze, it really does work! I have not had a proper cold since I discovered it. This year "everyone" had a really nasty cold but I kept it at bay and had no real symptoms with this product.

Most people would go to work with a cold, only those with a poor work ethic wouldn't. There'd be few workers in winter if that were the case.

My DH was advised to take regular exercise because of high cholesterol. He now goes for a half hour walk at lunchtime 3 days a week. As a result, he hasn't been off work with a cold for over a year. (He gets colds badly because of his asthma.)

Yellowmakesmesmile - that is a sweeping generalisation! Let’s put it this way - the norovirus went though our family! DD2 and DS d & v more than 30x in 12 hours. DS asked for euthanasia! DD1 had a bit of nausea and stopped eating - as she has epilepsy, in fact she was more alert and well in herself, than she had been for years. She could have told the other two, who could not move without vomiting that they could not work due to a poor work ethic!

Just because you can work does not mean that everybody experiences colds the way you do!

Anything classed as a cold you should be at work. Conjunctivitis, flu, vomiting...stay at home.

To be honest I think YANBU. In jobs that are office based. Like you DH's I think working from home should be encouraged when unwell. My work followed this until recently when HR decided that those genuinely too sick to work may feel pressured to work from home so now people either take days off sick when really they can still function or they go into work and infect all and sundry.

You are being ridiculious. Babies get loads of colds.

YANBU. If people actually did stay at home and not being their germs to work, nurseries and schools, we wouldn't be sick anywhere near as often, so lost working hours wouldn't be anywhere near as much of an issue, would they?

I have a slightly different perspective though - what's a normal cold for many people is likely to mean a hospital admission for my son. He has an illness that's exacerbated by simple bugs, and there are kids who have it far worse than he does who basically spend the entirety of winter in either their local hospital or transferred to GOSH. Employers and schools should encourage people to stay away when they have a contagious illness, even if it's "just a cold" as overall it would increase productivity and lost working days.

Hope your little one is okay. When your tiny baby is struggling to breathe and feed its so scary. Totally agree to look out for signs of bronchiolitis - my twins developed it at 9 weeks old, one admitted to HDU but turned out to be whooping cough. They both get bronchiolitis every time they have a cold now, and one of the babies we met in there has been admitted for it more than 10 times in the last year (he has an older sister who attends nursery so brings all the bugs home). So no, it's not U to think that people should try to keep bugs at home, and that employers and schools would see less absence overall if they did.