About 48 hour rule?

[jenniferl1983]

DD4 was sick in bed Tuesday night. Cleaned up her and she went back to sleep. I phoned school Wednesday morning saying she was ill due to sickness. She has been completely fine since, no diarrhoea, has eaten and kept all food down etc.

Although I can't be 100 percent sure I think she was sick due to drinking some milk that had been left out overnight Monday. DP put it back in the fridge and I had given it to DD 2 hours before she was sick (I thought it was fresh). She has been sick due to dodgy milk before and when I sniffed it it smelt a bit funny.

As DD had been fine I took her to school this morning. Her teacher said she wasn't allowed in until 48 hours later. I stupidly lied and said she hadn't been sick and so she went in. Half an hour later the headteacher rang and said I had to collect her (explained about milk, no diarrhoea etc).

AIBU to think 48 hours for one bout of explainable sickness is a bit much? DD has already missed about 7 days already due to coughs and colds so didn't want her to miss anymore. I know I was BU to lie to the teacher (am dreading drop off tomorrow!) but surely 34 hours is enough time to have passed?

Wow. Then my DC's school IBU.

OP, I feel your pain. Anything which is a rule without the possibility of exceptions is bound to be stupid in certain circumstances.

The law of unintended consequences means that some parents lie about D&V (as you did), making it difficult for a school nurse to fully support the child when they are at school.

On the flip-side, children who want to avoid school can tell the Nurse that they have had a bout of D&V. Alternatively, if you wanted to take your child on a holiday during term time, ... well you get my drift.

I am told by the school nurse that schools do not have a discretion about the 48 hour rule as it is a government guideline. But she is a parent herself and exercises discretion at times ...

How that works out in practice is a mystery to me.

Sorry yes YWBU. Bugs affect everyone differently and you don't know if it was a bug or not. When the 4 of us have had tummy bug we've reacted differently. DD threw up only once and we all caught it. DS and DH threw up about 6 times, I was camped out in the bathroom throwing up every 20mins for about 12 hours solid.

Every day is a school day! (well not for DD but for me at least) as I genuinely didn't know someone could have a tummy bug and get rid of it by being sick once. I didn't think a virus could pass through so quickly (always repeated bouts of d and v for me) so I will have that in mind for future.

My dd has been off this week. Monday she complained of tummy ache and really didn't look OK, by midday she was sick.
But she is constipated and I've put the being sick down to that.
But I still kept her off till today ( had Tuesday and Wednesday clear) because it's impossible to tell bug/ side effect of constipation.

Last month we had 30 children and 5 teachers out of the school off with a bug. And still people aren't following the 48hr rule.

So no, school aren't BU.

In the school where I used to work, we had so many kids with d&v bugs coming back to school too soon, the situation got out of hand as more and more children and staff went down with it.

The school had to be closed down for 2 days while it was deep cleaned, which cost the school an arm and a leg, deprived all the children of 2 days' education, and inconvenienced all the parents.

The 48 rule was enforced very strictly after that. If any child mentioned they had been sick the night before, they were sent home immediately.

YABU. Its a pain but people Have to start following the 48hr rule.

None of the school my kids have gone to (4 in total between the two of them between 2 towns) had that rule. From what was reported, their absence ratio to illness was not in anyway higher than average, never had to close down.

Keeping kids out of school is a waste of time as kids will get together at parties, after school activities, or just going to each other's house and that might be hours before being sick and therefore when they are most likely to pass on the bug without knowing anyway.

I am told by the school nurse that schools do not have a discretion about the 48 hour rule as it is a government guideline.
The attendance officer phoned from school to inform me that they were knew that dd was off school because she was vomiting but wanted to make me aware that the 48 hour rule did not apply!

This could be a rule that only exists for primary school but I was assured that dd could come back to school as soon as she felt well enough.

Yabu!!! You don't know it was the milk and sickness bugs effects different people differently.

My dd was sick and few months back. She was sick once and seemed fine after. I kept her off the 48 hrs anyway just in case. A few days after my ds started been sick. That was confirmation that it had been a bug! He was sick for days!!

I was floored by a bug on Tuesday, spent the whole day lying down. Yesterday I felt fine and was up and about and although hungry again I made myself wait until about 6pm until I ate. By late last night I was starting to feel sick again and today I've had to phone in sick to work as I have about 3 seconds warning before I have to go to the loo. It's grim, but I thought yesterday that I was better!

Got my dd off at the moment with a bug, vomming all night Tuesday, fine all day Wednesday so would normally have sent her back today, however she was sick again this morning so that's it for this week.
Our school asked us to follow the 48 hr rule from September as they had a child with a compromised immune system starting, But before that it was 24 hrs

I would not count travel sickness or if they have overeaten.

But you can be sick once and fine with a stomach bug. DD got it first, was literally sick once and fine, DS got it was sick 4 or 5 times over a 6 hour period, I was sick every 15 minutes for 12 hours and then felt ill for 4 days. DH was not sick but felt ill for 4/5 days. It absolutely can be

I expect their rule is a based on doctors’ advice and on keeping everyone else’s kids healthy. What is your opinion based on? Are you a doctor? Have you done any research?

Thought not.

Not every institution, expert and educated person in the country is wrong every time it inconveniences you, you know.

I am a lier myself!

Dd is like me and has a very strong gag reflex, I am talking being sick because of laughing too hard, coughing or brushing teeth for ex.
She is also sick during car or sometimes train journeys.
You can't just apply a 48h rule to a child like this - she would be stuck at home every other week!

I had this when my DD who was then 6 secretly ate all of her Easter Eggs in one afternoon.

School was starting back the next day but she vomited chocolate just before bed. I stupidly mentioned that she had been sick because of the chocolate but that she had been fine overnight ( I was worried that she would tell someone that she had been sick so I thought it best to mention the reason for it)

But she had to have two days off because rules are rules. We had two lovely days at the beach instead.

I have an exemption from this role for my kids because of a medical corruption, but it is agreed in advance with the school on the basis that we can tell the cause, and if there are any other signs of a bug at all that we will apply the rule. Unfortunately my daughter was missing roughly 30-40% of school before we discussed the exemption.

They've since changed to another school but they were happy to agree to the same thing.

YABU

Just stick to the rule, totally selfish not to.

I'm impressed with the school for being so black and white with it. A parent at my child's school sent their kid in after being sick just the once and the next thing you know the class are dropping like flies and the teacher ended up ill as well. Totally irresponsible.