To think all schools should enforce 48hr rule after sickness?

[bobstersmum]

I know the NHS advises at least 48hrs absence from work or school after sickness or diarrhea. Some schools say the same. But some, like ours, which has over 600 pupils, say 24. Which leads the slack parents to think that probably 12 hours is OK and send their child after being sick the afternoon before. We all had what I believe was norovirus at the end of November and it was awful. The school was overrun with it. But it seems to be back again. I have been really poorly this last week with a chest infection and double ear infection and I am only getting by on loads of meds. I am absolutely dreading the dc bringing it home again. I know you can be immune for some time but that will definitely have lapsed now.
Why on earth do schools not enforce the full 48 hrs!

You can tell from the majority of replies on here why sick bugs are rife in schools, because most parents obviously think fuck it and send their kids to school regardless.

Last year, after leaving a voice mail with the school explaining that my dc was being sick and wouldn't be going in, the attendance officer called to let me know that the school did not have a 48 hr rule and when my dc was feeling better they were expected to return to school and they should not wait 48 hrs before returning.

I complained to my school office about this once. I was running in to school to drop one child off and then go back home to look after my son who had been sick in the night following a birthday party. I saw one of my son's friends Mums in the playground and she said "was your ds ok in the night? mine threw up a few times!" - she was taking him in to bloody school! I was so shocked I didn't know what to say. And I wanted to get home to my son.

So I contacted the office and asked if all parents to be reminded about the 48 hour rule. Their reply? no, they wouldn't do that as they were trying to get their attendance figures up!

I feel for parents who have to get back to work, but school isn't childcare and it's not fair on everyone else to willfully spread illness. I feel a lot less sorry for those parents when it's my child throwing up because some selfish twat has knowingly sent their sick child into school.
Admittedly schools don't help themselves with their full on push for high attendance above all other considerations. My child's school really upset her when they sent home an attendance letter - she'd been off with a vomiting bug, which she wouldn't have had if they enforced the 48 hour rule.

I haven't always kept to 48 hour rule as DH and I have had work commitments and nobody to look after DD. She has been better in herself but possibly still contagious. She has gone to school. Bills need to be paid.

I have assumed that my daughter was probably contagious the day before sickness started, when she was in school. Also I think it's inevitable these bugs will eventually make it around the class. If I could afford to be a SAHM then I would stick to it. Or if I had willing and local grandparents to look after her.

Depends why they were sick, if it was food related no need to stay off.

Also many parents are getting lambasted by their employer for having time off - or won't get paid so can't pay their rent!

They can't enforce it, but not having explicit or implicit 24 hour policies would be a start.

Tummy bugs aren't contagious before symptoms start to show - they are spread entirely through particles of v or d being ingested (eaten) by other people - this could be particles flying through the air when someone is sick or left on hands, surfaces etc when people don't wash their hands well enough.

It's a false economy for schools not to enforce a 48 hour policy. If people stay at home when sick and recovering there will be fewer bugs going around!

The Drs I know say the 48 hour rule isn’t really necessary. They say the majority of illnesses have been contagious before the onset of symptoms anyway.

These are consultants paediatricians involved in research not GP’s.

My DD works for the NHS and has been threatened with a disciplinary because she had three 48-hr absences after catching sickness bugs brought home by the DGC.
If she'd had a day off as carer's leave each time, sent them to school and gone back without mentioning that she'd been sick herself, that would have been okay - despite her working with elderly people... Go figure 🙄

I work for the NHS in a front-line area. Our occupational health guidelines are 24 hours after last episode of D or V. To be fair, if you're washing your hands properly then you're unlikely to spread it if you're not symptomatic.

Blame the ridiculous attendance insanity that schools are now subjected to.

My eldest throws up very easily so the 48 hour rule has cost us quite a few school days off. Mostly my son turned out to be fine and could have gone in. On one occasion the entire family came down with an awful norovirus or similar about a day after my son was sick. I'm so glad I was diligent or my son would have ended up infecting the entire class.

Yes lots of the time it turns out to be unnecessary but you do it as a precaution.

Little children are fuckers for not washing hands properly though. The amount of time I spend on it with mine, but one of them if at all distracted just cant be trusted to do it properly. I appreciate that this shouldn't be a problem with the older ones, but the infants yes.

Depends on why

Diarhoerra and vomiting - absolutely stay off for 48 hours after last episode

Just one off vomiting which you can put down to a non contagious reason, mine would be back in - otherwise my youngest would have been off a few days most weeks as he used to get travel sick

Don't get me wrong I'd err on the side of caution

I'm not in the UK.
We have 24hrs post D or V rules that people ignore.
But they are actually tougher on temperatures. They want the kids to be fever free, unmedicated, for 24hrs before returning to school. So, if the school nurse (yes, we have one permanently at school) has to administer paracetamol for raised temp, that is also 24hrs off school as a minimum.

My DS has thrown up about 3 or 4 times this school year, in school. On all occasions he has been fine afterwards, bouncing off the walls, eating fine. He has a number of emotional issues including anxiety and after the first two times when I did keep him off (with help from my parents as I had to work) I sent him back in the next day. His stomach was fine, no temp, no repeat of the sickness - I am. 100% certain it is not caused by a contagious bug. I am a working single parent with A level and GCSE students 2 months away from exams. If I stayed off for two days each time there would be posts on here complaining about that. Having said that, in the circumstances of my DS, even I was a SAHM I would have sent him back in after the first two occasions. We need to exercise some common sense.

It is absolutely disgusting that schools are made to feel so fearful at being judged for their absence figures that they a) harangue parents with genuinely ill children b) give totally unfair awards for attendance and c) ignore sickness guidelines that are in place to stop other children falling ill.

but calling parents "slack" for sending them in sooner is a bit presumptuous. Childcare and work commitments may be the reason for this.

It doesn't matter what the reason is! Why do the work commitments of the parent of the ill child trump the work commitments of the parents of the umpteen children that child might infect by going back early fgs?

I know for a fact that my DGD's secondary school enforce this policy,as did her primary school. But... It is really annoying when she is sick because she has a migraine. She gets sent home and told not to go in for two days,when she is fine 8 hours later. All because she was sick. Being sick from a migraine is NOT contagious,FFS!

I suffer from migraine, the projectile vomiting kind. After a sleep I am right as rain the next day. Luckily my parents and my schools were reasonable and agreed that if it was migraine I would be back in school the next day, my parents never took the piss and sent me back if the sickness wasn't due to migraine so everyone was happy......apart from me, I could have been having and extra 4-5 days off each month if they'd stuck to the 48 hr rule with me.

I have a dd now (luckily no migraine yet) but she does have form for making herself sick coughing (when food or drink has gone down the wrong way for instance). Luckily she's done this at nursery......they've seen she's right as rain and so been happy to take her back the next day.

I think the problem is mainly parents who (for what ever reason) send in their dc with a raging temp / active diarrhoea / very recent vomiting with no known reason

@bobster absolutely agree with you. It properly pisses me off when people send their kids in when they are clearly unwell or too soon after they have been unwell (in cases of d+v) My poor dc gets everything going, and will be off AGAIN tomorrow now. Work and childcare issues are poor excuses. Your children come first.