Coughing child at gymnastics

[academicallyblonde]

Just picked me DD up from gymnastics. Another child was escorted out by the coach as she said she needed to talk to her mother. The mother straightaway says, “Is is about her cough?”

My DD tells me that the child was coughing the whole time. They apparently tried to call the mother to pick her up but no answer. Sounds like they managed to keep the girl as far away as possible from the others. It sounds as though she spent the whole hour sat on the side watching, which can’t have been very nice for the poor thing.
AIBU to think this mother was totally out of order for knowingly sending a coughing child to a gym class at this time? Not to mention then being uncontactable? (Only saving grace is the child can’t have had a temperature as they checked them all on the way in).

@vanillandhoney

Not all coughs are because of COVID

As a schoolteacher how the hell are we going to know which ones are and which ones aren't (apart from knowing about the dry cough thing). I'm sorry but if a kid starts coughing repeatedly in my classroom in a couple of weeks time there will be a chair outside the classroom to sit on before they are taken away by SLT.

My toddler has a condition that causes a permanent dry cough (TOF/OA). It is categorically not infectious. Everywhere he goes I inform people about this, and did so even before covid. If he was old enough to be at gymnastics, I would have already spoken to the coach about this and sent over medical information.

If the coach knew about something like this, they surely wouldn’t have made the child sit out and the mother wouldn’t have said “is this about her cough?”.

So YANBU at all.

monkey

I’m also a teacher and I would expect to be told about any child with a condition where a noticeable cough is a regular feature for them. And would expect the school to contact the parents for more information regarding the specific case.

As a parent of a child with a condition like this who is disabled, I would be quite angry if they were then excluded from something because of it, despite me making all their medical info available.

If every child with a cough was not allowed in school, mine will never be able to attend if Covid is around when he is old enough. His cough is loud, barking and year round.

@monkeytennis97

before they are taken away by SLT.

You sound like a very caring teacher 🙄

Frankly if my child had a persistent non Covid cough I would want a gp’s letter that I would give to school / any adult in charge of child while I wasn’t there explaining this to spare the poor kid this drama.

@MsTSwift

Frankly if my child had a persistent non Covid cough I would want a gp’s letter that I would give to school / any adult in charge of child while I wasn’t there explaining this to spare the poor kid this drama.

I think that’s a very good idea. I am worried about this because I have a ds with a persistent cough most winters and my experience is that even if you explain things to teachers or childcare staff they don’t necessarily remember. I don’t understand why so many people on this thread are certain the mum hadn’t said anything to the coach at any point rather than, say, she explains it at time of booking, someone else took the booking and assured her it would be fine and they would pass on the message but forgot etc etc - lots of possible scenarios, we don’t know.

When my other ds was at nursery a good few years ago he was forever getting sent home with suspected chicken pox because he used to get heat rashes and very mithered by the temperature at nursery which was much warmer than home. Dh would get called out of work to pick him up immediately and he’d be fine half an hour later. Naturally we explained this till we were blue in the face but they never took it on board. (And it was generally a fab nursery.) So I am seriously worried about something like this happening at school with younger ds and his cough only much worse because it would be really upsetting to be treated like you’ve got the plague and have people around you genuinely scared. So the moment he starts his winter cough I will be getting him a Covid test and if negative will see what I can do about a doctor’s note.

It depends. If the child has a chronic cough (e.g. from asthma) then she does not need to be kept at home, but the mother should have made it clear to the coach in advance. If it's a new cough, then the mother should not have brought her to gym, especially not in these pandemic days.

I do wonder how working parents are going to cope this winter. Lots of young children cough for months on end, don’t they? Mine certainly does (he’s got a cough right now and has done for weeks but I’ve still been sending him to nursery since a negative Covid test).

I'm sorry but if a kid starts coughing repeatedly in my classroom in a couple of weeks time there will be a chair outside the classroom to sit on before they are taken away by SLT

I suspect you’re going to need about 30-odd chairs.

@MsTSwift

Frankly if my child had a persistent non Covid cough I would want a gp’s letter that I would give to school / any adult in charge of child while I wasn’t there explaining this to spare the poor kid this drama.

Yes exactly. We have this for our son from his surgeon and I’m happy to share where needed.