Sending vomiting kids to school / nursery.

[prideofaberdeen]

It's been a bad year for bugs, D&V has been pretty rife. I've had chats with two different mums in the last few weeks who told me they'd sent their kids to school and nursery, after they'd vomited the night before. Both kids then developed full-on D&V and needed to be collected after an hour or so. It makes me so mad!

I know that vomiting isn't always because of a bug, both of them said "I know it was naughty to send them in but, oops). There are 24hr / 48rules for a reason. I also think it's relevant that in these cases, the parents are not in zero hours / precarious employment, and though obviously I may never know exactly what's going on, as far as I know one day off would not have left them on the breadline or losing their job. I totally get having a day off for childcare is not easy, but sometimes there really is no option.
So, would you have judged these parents as I did? (Dons hard hat!!!!)

I would.

Yes. As a Nursery Practitioner and TA, this is so annoying. Parents will soon have something to moan about if Nursery or school has no staff because they've all caught it.

I hate this too. It's sad that many parents feel their work needs come first therefore just put them in nursery and hope for the best

I would definitely judge them as shit parents and negligent tbh.
Some people aren't prepared to put their kids first and shouldn't have them.
there you go

So selfish.

Obviously puts all other children and staff at risk of catching their bugs. People can have all sorts of complications.

There’s just not the staff to deal with a sick child plus all the rest of the children. So it’s to the detriment of the others who need the attention of staff especially if the parents have known that sickness was likely.

But also how horrible for the sick child. To be made to go to school or nursery when poorly like that is awful for them when they should be at home being cared for.

Makes me 😠

As an emetophobe, you bet your bottom dollar I would have judged them, and, if caught on the wrong day, I would have said so to their faces too. Even without the emetophobia, sickness is such an unpleasant thing to experience and deal with, why would anyone be so selfish as to spread it around? And how can parents leave their children, knowing they are feeling so poorly and simply need their bed and home comforts?

No you are not being unreasonable BUT as a working parent I can also see why parents take chances. I wouldn t knowingly send my child to nursery if they were ill but for example if they were ill on Sat night and absolutely fine all day Sunday I probably would send them to nursery on Monday because I have work commitments and it is not always possible to just take time off without getting into trouble with your employer. As for the poster saying people shouldn't had children if they don't put them first you are being unreasonable you obviously don't know the first thing about being a working parent.

Plus also to add 99% of the bugs were probably picked up at nursery so all the staff and other children will already have been exposed.

Fermers I may do the same. One off vomit, 24hrs no other symptoms. I admit that.

Fermerswife - 150% agree, could not have said it better myself

Fermerswife thanks to someone who did exactly this to us recently, my entire childminding setting went down with it, all of whom were violently sick in my house.

I had to close for 2 days while I deep cleaned and disinfected, further inconveniencing parents and losing my own income.

Two parents also caught it from their children, including a pregnant mum who was very ill indeed.

There is no excuse for not following the rules that are put in place for everyone's safety and health. It's 48 hours for a very good reason.

Why do your work commitments take priority over everyone else's?

Apart from being a biohazard, how anyone could be so mean to their own child is beyond me.

Putting them in a situation where they’ll almost certainly be sick at school. Heartless.

I agree it should be 36 rather than 48 hours.

Really fucks me off this.

I over heard a mum telling someone else that her dc had been gagging like they were to be sick all morning but wasnt sick and sent them to school.
Child was sent home as he was sick.
My middle child caught it, plus a handful of other kids in that class.

I started with it and still havent fucking recovered. Having HG during pregnancy was hard enough (been controlled with meds prior) I'm on day 5 now. Its not the virus its the after effects of it for me.

My youngest child caught it and my eldest did too.
Again hes taken longer to recover as hes got health problems and has lost some weight as hes not been tolerating his feeds properly since.

1 day off is all it took to prevent 1 child spreading it.

Yes my kids were kept off.

D&V is annoying, but people who send their kids in with colds are worse!
I say this as someone who has spent 2 lots of 3 weeks plus hospital admissions when DS got a cold and then pneumonia from someone at school who came in with a cold, so that plus a huge irreversible dent in his lung function we have to cope with. It's fucking selfish, some children can't fight off illness like most.

YANBU. If there's an obvious non-contagious cause (my DD always gets travel sick if she doesn't look out of the window) I won't keep her off but otherwise I still to the rules.

One time my DS had a slightly dodgy tummy - I thought it was nothing but kept him off anyway; about 40 hours later he had explosive D&V and we all ended up catching it. He'd been absolutely fine in between.

Even if you don't care about infecting other families and staff imagine how humiliating it would be for a young child to be sick or have diarrhoea at school in front of their friends.

TitsalinaBumSquash Surely a slight cold is OK though? My DD would have lost an entire term if I kept her off every time she had a sniffle. (There are no immunocompromised kids in her school).

Yanbu. I work and my employer just has to lump it on the few occasions I need to take time off. I do try to make time up where I can as it's unpaid

I live in Eastern Europe. Kids get sent home at the slightest sniffle. No attendance permitted with a cold and a fitness note is required to return. It makes absolutely NO difference whatsoever to the volume of colds that children catch - totally pointless and annoying and DC3 in particular (my youngest) is in and out like a yoyo which is very destabilising.

D&V is an entirely different matter however.

Actually no, I wouldn't judge. Not for a one off. I've certainly had to make a judgement call in the past. Most of the times I've got it right and a few times I've got it wrong and had to collect.

I would definitely judge them as shit parents and negligent tbh.
Some people aren't prepared to put their kids first and shouldn't have them.
there you go grin
I do put my child first. I have to provide a roof over his head and put food in his tummy. I don't call that negligent.

It's sad that many parents feel their work needs come first therefore just put them in nursery and hope for the best

People forget that a lot of people are in precarious work positions, they don't all have nice safe permanent jobs that let them take as much time off as they need to for sick children.

I remember many years ago dosing up my small child with calpol and sending him to creche, not because I was feckless or selfish but because he had got so many minor illnesses since starting that I was on my final warning in my badly paid job, and would have been fired if I had rung in again. I was also on a final warning for rent arrears and would soon have lost our home if I had lost that job.

I had no family to help me out. I didn't want to send him in, but what would you have had me do?

That is really unfortunate Tanith it really is. As i say I wouldn t knowingly send my child in if they could infect others and if clearly they had been very unwell and it obviously a bug rather than a once off upset tummy I wouldnt do it. Perhaps the issue comes from the fact that in a nursery setting children take sick so often and so much that it becomes almost impossible to hold down a job - this winter we have had 3 sick bugs, Scarlett fever, hand foot and mouth and flu. I have taken my child out of nursery for a total of 4 weeks in the last 4 months and then had to take time off sick myself and have had an inefficiency warning at work. Perhaps the issue is education for employers and rights for working parents. Then it would be more possible for all parents to keep their children at home without fear of being disciplined.

I have to say I was guilty of this.

She was sick once with absolutely no other symptoms so I assumed it wasn't a bug and sent her to nursery 12 hours later.

If she'd been sick more than once or had any other symptoms I'd have kept her off.

I don't know if anyone at nursery caught it but I did, then DH, then SIL. Each of us was just sick once (but also generally unwell with it).

She's my first and only 18 months, I'll know better next time.

I still disregard the 'stay off for 24 hours after calpol' rule if I've only given it because she's teething though!

I personally think 48 hours is a bit too long.

Ds had a one off puke last Tuesday night. He was as tight as rain all Wednesday and I sent him in on Thursday (he was fine).

It’s really hard when both parents work, or if you are a lone parent.

Thoracentisis that's why I said in my OP that these parents are not in that position. I don't think kids with D&V should be sent in, but I do understand that if it's that or lose your job then you'll probably have to chose that.