Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To take DS to stay and play?

51 replies

TinyMystery · 01/10/2019 07:10

DS has a cold. Very snotty, coughing, but still full of beans. We’ve got to walk into the village to go to the post office anyway (30 min walk) so seems mad not to also go to group and see our friends. Am I being ‘that mum’ if I take a child full of cold to a baby group though?

OP posts:
ZogorElmer · 01/10/2019 07:11

I wouldn’t be too impressed if he was snotting and coughing all over the place to be honest. You often get young babies at those sort of groups who don’t really need to be catching it.

Shoxfordian · 01/10/2019 07:11

Do you have to go to the post office? Stay home instead and don't spread your child's germs around

InDubiousBattle · 01/10/2019 07:15

Well, yes you would. No one's going to be that thrilled to catch a cold off your baby are they!

LionelRitchieStoleMyNotebook · 01/10/2019 07:16

Keep him at home, if he reacts some fresh air, wrap him up and run around in the garden with him. My baby was hospitalised with a virus and a very high temperature, a couple of months ago, after going to a baby group with two clearly very unwell toddlers. Don't be that parent.

FlowerTink · 01/10/2019 07:18

My baby was prem and I hated it when people turned up with their child coughing and snotting . You could always go out for a walk or the park but I wouldn't go where there would be small babies

MrsDrSpencerReid · 01/10/2019 07:19

Don’t take him.

My DD has a cold at the moment, we cancelled a sleepover the other night and a cinema trip with a friend today because of it. She’s disappointed but understands no one wants her germs.

Amanduh · 01/10/2019 07:19

Ew, yabu

WaynettaSlobOnTheSchoolRun · 01/10/2019 07:20

I'm torn about this one. On the one hand, DD had what we thought was a cold and sneezed over then 3 week old DS. He ended up admitted to hospital with severe bronchiolitis. OTOH, same DS (Now 2) has had a cold and been snotty since mid August so he has to leave the house at some point.

Yabbers · 01/10/2019 07:23

Don't take him.

I'm sure plenty of people will be along to tell you it's fine and we should be making sure kids are dowsed in illness every day, snowflakes blah blah blah, but I would be livid if I were the other parents there. Such a selfish thing to do.

A friend's immunity suppressed child wouldn't be too happy with it either.

Original poster
TinyMystery · 01/10/2019 07:26

Post office and popping into drs surgery to drop off a sample (unrelated to cold) are 100% necessary. He’ll be in the pushchair, likely with the rain cover on anyway!

It’s fairly unanimous so I think we’ll steer clear, unless he makes a miraculous recovery in the next hour or two!

OP posts:
ohmysoul · 01/10/2019 07:30

There are always children at the stay and play we go to with snotty noses and coughs. If they don't catch the cold from there they'll catch one from somewhere else. It wouldn't bother me if your snotty child played next to my child at all. You won't be able to keep them off school for every cold in a couple of years! I'm going against general opinion here and think you should just go for it.

taytosandwich · 01/10/2019 07:34

Realistically if one child in the village has a cold, the rest of them either have it or will probably get it. It is selfish to take a child with contagious viruses out and about but if you didn't take a toddler with a cold out they'd probably have to stay in the house all winter.

Original poster
TinyMystery · 01/10/2019 07:40

I’m pretty sure he picked it up there last week to be fair! 😂

OP posts:
ohmysoul · 01/10/2019 07:42

Exactly. If he had a temperature or had been sick or was on antibiotics I'd keep him away, but for just a cold seems a bit over the top.

Moominfan · 01/10/2019 07:44

I'd go it's just a cold 🤷🏾‍♀️ wouldn't think twice

Apolloanddaphne · 01/10/2019 07:47

Depends how I'll he is. If it is just a bit of a runny nose then take him. One of mine had a permanent runny nose as a child. We would never have gone anywhere if I had waited for it to clear up.

Apolloanddaphne · 01/10/2019 07:49

Not I'll I meant ill. Auto correct does not like ill.

DappledThings · 01/10/2019 07:50

I wouldn't think there was anything wrong or unusual seeing a child with a cold at playgroup. Snotty noses are par for the course.

Sowingbees · 01/10/2019 07:54

It's a cold, people go to work with them, ie doctors, teachers, stay and play workers if you didn't go out with a cold lots of people would be stuck at home all year.

I have a 26weeker who picked up everything regardless of how little we mixed with the general public.
Stay and plays are full of bugs not least because often the time a kid is most contagious is before they get ill.

Instatwat · 01/10/2019 08:01

MN sometimes boggles me. Kids catch colds, you can’t isolate children from the outside world just for some snot Confused if he had a vomiting bug or measles then yep, of course keep him home. But a cold? No, if he’s happy to go to the group I wouldn’t think twice, nor would I judge anyone else in the group for bringing a snotty baby. Just try not to let him lick any of the other children.

Amyxx7 · 01/10/2019 08:04

I wouldn't take him. Like others have said there will likely be young babies there, and you don't know the situation they may be in. When my little girl wouldn't sleep without being fed to sleep I would dread her getting a cold as it would mean no sleep for the whole house for the duration. To say it was bad would be an understatement. I avoided baby groups she would have loved as she just kept getting sick because parents brought their sick children in. All children react differently to viruses and just because your child is coping well doesn't mean it would go so well for another child.

averythinline · 01/10/2019 08:11

how old/ mobile is he? If he could just 'be in a cornerish' bit of the group so you can catch up with your friends but then wipe down what he plays with ...probably ok . if he's a toddler and will be roaming around probably not......
if he's a toddler then just get him to walk with you to the gps etc

Loopydizzylove · 01/10/2019 08:13

As long as its not a cough which could result in problems for other kids if they catch it, I wouldn't mind. But it depends really on how little one is feeling in the self, as an adult, if I've got an awful cold, the last thing I'd feel like doing is going out and socialising with people

Original poster
TinyMystery · 01/10/2019 08:17

He’s very mobile (and independent!) but not walking yet so not easy to confine to one place! Could definitely keep him away from the ‘baby corner’ though.

OP posts:
WhiffOfBath · 01/10/2019 08:39

Vomiting, diarrhoea, (even one-off D&V), temperatures, contagious diseases (MMR type things): stay at home, and emerge in about a month's time.

Colds, coughs, snottiness: normal routine.

Swipe left for the next trending thread