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. :(

Quite apart from anything else, colds can be contagious up to 24 hours before any symptoms show.

So perhaps we should all stay home just in case

Quite apart from anything else, colds can be contagious up to 24 hoursbeforeany symptoms show
Exactly!

If you get a really bad cold then stay off because you are genuinely too unwell to go to school or work.

If you have the common cold then yes it feels a bit crap, sneezy, coughy, achey, runny nose but you just get on with life.

I think some people are wanting validation for being off when they just aren't 100% and would prefer to have a duvey day.

My place of work 3 absences in a year triggers a meeting. If you're really ill theb you're ill and they aren't arsey but they do keep an eye on people who take odd days here and there.

You mean your baby caught a cold from your DH which he might have caught anywhere! (Unless your baby went into work too!)

I don't get colds often due to a strong immunity, but when I do they're quite spectacular. I wouldn't go off sick with ''sniffles'' (ie mild sore throat and slight runny nose/sneezing) as with me it doesn't normally develop into something worse. But if it does get worse, I'm neither use nor ornament and do sometimes end up with bronchitis, and hell yeah, I'll go off sick with that.

spidey66
With you on that. Some colds can be really nasty and do warrant being off sick. I don't get them often (sometimes I think working in a school boosts your immune system!) but when I'm ill, i'm ill.

But like you, I'm not a fan of the 'if you have a cough and the sniffles stay away because there might be icky germs'

D has a chronic illness which makes her very vulnerable to colds so I'm more aware of it than most. I have a bottle of anti-bac gel on my desk to protect me from picking up a cold from my colleagues and bringing it home.

Colds are caused by a virus, anti bac gel doesn’t work on viruses. You’re better off just washing your hands lots of there is Illness in the place.

In fact those bloody gels should be binned off for the false security they give.

OP sometimes colds are unavoidable if someone sneezes in your vicinity but personally I’d be giving your husband the hard stare over his hand washing practises if he’s constantly bringing colds home.

I wish that was possible sometimes. My 4 year old has had so many operations cancelled because of colds.

Hospital staff can’t work with patients when they have colds though

Not true. Sounds nice in principle, but I just had surgery a couple of months ago, and one of the nurses dealing with the recovery ward had a terrible cold.It did make me feel a bit uneasy to be fair, but what can you do?

An idiot at work came in with ‘minor flu’ symptoms. Not only did he have to leave early, he gave it to me and now I’m on the 4th week of a horrible flu / chest infection

You don’t know who gave it to you. The guy streaming with the cold next to you may have a strain that you’ve already head thus making you immune to that cold.

However the lady behind you on the bus with the dainty cough may have been spreading a different version around and it’s hit you for six.

The bottom line is this: you can guess who “gives you a cold” but if you consider all the other humans we interact with, all the doorknobs we touch, all the coins handled by unwashed hands it’s much more likely to be that that ONE specific source.

Hospital staff can’t work with patients when they have colds though

Not so. The midwife that I had twice in my induction process had a massive steaming cold. It made me edgy but I didn’t come down with anything.

Hospital staff can’t work with patients when they have colds though

Best tell that to the person I saw over Christmas then.

I used to say you shouldn’t miss work/school due to colds etc... until I had a son that a simple cold could end up spiralling for the rest of his life, if it attacks his lungs then his lungs can’t repair so then comes the oxygen forever and so on. So those who say “it’s just a cold” or “it’s not so bad in the long run” - this is true, if you and your children are fortunate enough not to have a condition like my sons. I feel massively appreciative and grateful for those who keep their children home from school when they’re ill, as they’re essentially letting my child live longer without help!

My son does have a condition whereby a simple cold can make him very ill. However I also live in the real world!

BigBaboonBum
I would love to stay home when I have a cold, or worst, truly. No one goes to work ill because they enjoy it. No one has a choice unfortunately.

I would love to keep my kids home when they have a cold. Do you know in how much trouble I would get with the school for keeping them off though? We should make Ofsted change their stupid attendance requirement, at least to leave the head teachers in charge of that aspect. That we could do if we all get together. I haven't met one single person thinking the attendance records are a positive things, so why do we have to put up with them?

I seem to always have a cold. If I took time off for them, I'd have been off about 5 weeks since September. I'm a teacher so there would probably be a thread in the Education section of MN "My child's teacher has been off for 5 weeks, this is not good enough!"

I think everybody would love it if they could have time off when they have a cold. I think the reaon I have so many is because I never get the chance to recover and am still weak when the next germ comes along. And also because children sneeze in my face!

Out of a workforce of 10 people I'd say at any given time one person will have a cold. I'd roll my eyes if someone rang in sick with a common or garden cold.

I did have to frogmarch someone from the building last year who had been diagnosed with shingles but decided to soldier on in to work anyway. Don't martyr yourself for me, you contagious numpty.

unfortunately, in many work places it's better to be sent home than calling off sick, so many people just pop in the office to show their sick face, then go home.

I have asthma and every cold results in a chest infection and antibiotics. I try and work from home when I’m unwell but loads of people can’t or they lose pay.

It’s a rubbish world we have created when people have to go into work unwell or risk being sacked.

I have a cold now but I had to come in today. I’m not doing much at work though!

I've had a cold this week and chosen to work from home, to try and reduce spreading it further round the office. I am lucky in that I am able to do so. I wouldn't have taken time off sick for it, though.

Happily stay at home with a cold OP. Shall I PM you my address so you can send me the money for DDs nursery fees, my mortgage and other expenses?

@sirzy It doesn’t just make him ill, it can kill him or put him on oxygen for the rest of his life.
I’m not sure why me being grateful when people stay off is me not living in the real world either? I took him out recently to home school for this reason, as advised to me. Maybe you see this as not living in the real world, it certainly wasn’t how I saw us living our life, but unfortunately it could be the difference between him dying as a child and dying as an adult. So this is our real world.

And @llangollen yes I totally understand that, I remember the hassle I had keeping my eldest off when he was incredibly ill and couldn’t stand up right at school - it’s ridiculous to be honest!

I understand people can't miss work and that there are consequences for time off but for someone like me who has a heart condition and asthma a cold can be serious. They knock me right off my feet and I nearly always end up having time off sick. I'm very lucky to have a work place that understands, plus I work with vulnerable people with eating disorders so a cold can make them really poorly as well.

OP, before you had DS, did you religiously call in sick with every cold? because, you know, some colleagues could have caught and cold and passed it on to children at home.

I would really like to hear your response to that!

kateskates - my only advice when babies are sick with colds...

1. Saline spray up the nose (helps break down the mucus) before a feed so they can nurse/drink (and use it as often as you need); and
2. Vicks on the soles of your baby's feet (quite a decent layer), then pair of socks and sleepsuit.

The above 2, coupled with calpol (or ibuprofen if untouchable temperature) is what got me through both my babies' colds/flu. Don't ask me how the vicks thing works, it just does, plenty on google about it.

I do both for myself if I have a cold and relied on the vicks trick when I had pneumonia so that I could sleep without hacking myself into a vomiting cycle.

Don't ask me how the vicks thing works, it just does,

I'll try. Really hard

But how is that better than snuffle babe (baby Vicks) applied closer to the respiratory system?

This does my head on everything time someone says it 😂 I mean, feet!? 😄