My one year caught a cold or something in nursery

[Alison421e]

Doing a settling in for my one year old last week and supposed to do next week too. I’m back to work very soon. Monday and Tuesday of last week were fab but on Wednesday another child came in for settling too and was visibly ill. This child was sneezing and coughing with thick green mucus coming out of nose which mum was constantly cleaning. This child took an interest in my little one and sneezed over him a couple of times, came very close to me and tried sitting on my lap which I obviously let happen as what else do you do! Mother was just sitting there not intervening. I could see snot dripping down it’s face. I asked mum if child okay and she replied “yes just teething”. This child also kept taking my little ones bottle and drank from it.

I’ve got 3 kids and it was obviously not teething it was a full blown cold! Woken up yesterday and both me and little one are ill. I’m fuming. I don’t know what if anything I should do like should I speak to nursery? Just for context I’m very quiet and reserved and not quick to anger so completely out of character for me. I’m annoyed now as I am going back to work and have no one to help settle my LO. Mil will have other 2 kids and DH working, I have no idea what to do.

LO seems a little better now. No cough just occasionally and less runny nose. What shall I do? Still take him in like this mother did as I have no option or speak to nursery but then I can’t take him in obviously as manager will say not too, but they obviously said nothing to this mother as she was in for rest of week.

Any advice? I’ve also seen no hand washing at all going on. Kids given snacks without washing hands. My eldest 2 never went nursery just straight to reception school. Any advice please?

If we stay in bed all day today I’m hoping we’ll be better. I’ve had de-humidifier running all night with vapour oil. I’m so bloody annoyed we were all so careful all these months not going anywhere. It’s a new job too so they not going to understand.

I know it's a bit different atm due to Covid .... but realistically, it's a nursery. Most the kids will be snotty, particularly in the 12months - 2yr age range. Teething can cause snot unfortunately, so some kids will be permanently snotty.

I'd book a covid test if you're coughing, but otherwise I wouldn't give the nursery a hard time about it. This is going to happen A LOT!

Why did you allow the toddler to climb on your lap and drink out of your child’s cup ? Nursery workers would rely on a bit of common sense from you . Definitely brace yourself for regular coughs and colds from nursery. Toddlers will not socially distance and it would be awful to try forcing it ....it comes with toddler territory!!

Why did you allow the toddler to climb on your lap and drink out of your child’s cup

Come on. It’s hardly like I was cradling this child singing nursery songs and offering it my kids cup! I couldn’t exactly push her off! Realistically it was probably a couple of seconds (but felt like ages) I moved along the carpet pretending to make room for mum as it was song time. As soon as I saw the kid with cup I took it away nicely but at this point she had drank from it. I put it in my bag and forgot about it till my son took it out of my bag himself and had a quick drink before I had time to take it off him, which I did then I took it off him and washed and sterilised twice when we got home.

It’s so easy to say “I would have done this or that” but in that moment you kind of don’t immediately react. I expected the child’s mum to at least keep an eye what she was doing. If my son went to sit on someone’s lap I would be aware of him and quickly grab him. How could I keep my eyes on 14 other kids, I was just looking at mine mostly. I completely forgot she drank from cup till I saw him drinking, I thought nothing of him going into my bag. Gosh this feels like an interrogation lol! I know it’s not I’m just joking but don’t u think I’ve been blaming myself for reacting faster or just walking out with an excuse. It’s horrible seeing him so poorly and not even eating

Do you use the Zoe Covid app? If I entered those symptoms into that I would be invited to take a Covid test as a result.

It's not true that the only symptoms that warrant a test are the 3 main ones. Many others may trigger it.

Tbh as it's a very easy and quick to do, and results come back very quickly, I'd just do it to set your own mind at rest, as well as nurseries.

Ordinarily a cold wouldn't bother me when I'm at school. However, what I don't want when I'm teaching in a weeks time is kids coughing and sneezing with a cold over and near me. Even if it's just a cold (and there's never any definite guarantee right now especially as many younger children can be asymptotic) I don't want that cold. It will make me feel ill. I'm clinically vulnerable when it comes to Covid, but also the same medication means that I do pick up colds and they can hit me hard. But obviously feeling rubbish with a cold is going to pull my defences down more at a time when we don't need them to be.

I think this year we will have to get used to avoiding contact even with general coughs and colds as much as we can, and increasing our hand washing hygiene etc even more,

And for the sake of a few minutes test if there's any chance at all - then get it done and checked,

^^Going to be a lot of parents out of work soon. If you are seriously going to take time off every time your child coughs or sneezes and wait for the Covid result then don't moan when you loose your jib.

It’s not just nursery policy as stated by a PP, it’s government advice that the household or anyone with a temperature, loss of sense of smell or a new continuous cough (not a dry cough or a ‘covid cough’ ANY cough!) needs to isolate for 14 days or until they have a negative cough.
As an employer I would be much more annoyed if an employee came to work in this situation than if they had to take time off work (likely to only be 1or2 days anyway as the turnaround on tests is pretty quick)!

It massively sucks but you’re going to make yourself very stressed and worked up if you let it get to you in such a dramatic way. I’m sure the test will be negative and fingers crossed work will go smoothly.

Hate to say it but if your kid is going to nursery they are going to get colds. My DD was sick pretty much constantly for 3 months after starting nursery. It's just basic immune science; new environment, lots of germs (mostly colds), and now with kids having spent most of lockdown inside and away from others, their immune systems are going to be susceptible to more viruses. It's just life really. I am not really sure what you expect a nursery to do about it. When they go to school it will be the exact same. I am a teacher, and believe me, schools are germ infested holes. Your kid will 100% be sneezed and coughed on on a daily basis.

Even with coronavirus now, if you put your kid in nursery you take the risk of infection. The only other option is a childminder with maybe 2 other kids.

All kids get sick when they start nursery. And you'll get it too. We were all ill on and off for about eight months when DD started. It's inevitable.

It's not true that the only symptoms that warrant a test are the 3 main ones

It is according to the NHS test booking website, and the government website.

Meh.

It's good for the immune system. Wait till he gets nits!

In the current climate I don’t see how it’s possible for even a cold to spread if everybody’s following the correct procedures,

Colds spread easily at nursery where there isn’t any social distancing and they all share toys.

I think the kids should wash their hands/younger ones should have their hands washed before food.

I am surprised if the nursery isnt getting them to wash their hands. My DD is now obsessed with washing her hands. She is 21 months and stands at her play kitchen and pretends to wash her hands, she wants to do it whenever she sees us doing it, and I have had to hide the hand sanitizer at home because she keeps wanting to use it. I would have thought most nurseries would be on the ball with hand hygiene.

Even then though, it wont stop a kid sneezing or coughing on another kid. My girl got viral tonsillitis from nursery 2 weeks ago. We kept her off, but it's just part of nursery that we expect her to come home with everything and anything.

But you CAN be asked (advised/suggested obviously told told you have to), via the Zoe app, to legitimately take a test with other symptoms, and not those three.
So you can have a test with other symptoms

Whilst the app isn't an nhs one it is widely used, and created by scientists and doctors, plus used by university research groups. It advises on Covid tests based on daily symptoms. The nhs doesn't stop you taking a test via this app if your symptoms don't match the top 3 listed ones.

I don't think you are overreacting. I would be annoyed too. I'd make some suggestions to nursery about temp checks and unwell kids not being admitted.

I’m also surprised you were allowed inside to do a settling in session and at the same time as another adult. We were only allowed to do one outside in the garden, and they did a home visit in our garden... then off he went inside on his own!!

Another one who’s surprised you were allowed inside with another parent to do settling in. I actually cancelled my son’s place at a nursery because they weren’t allowing any settling in at all - just expected you to hand your baby over to a masked stranger at the gate. No thanks.

You will probably get your Covid test back before you even wake up tomorrow. I had one done at 11am and had the results by email in the early hours of the next morning. But as it clearly isn’t Covid that doesn’t really matter.

Just to prepare you - this is probably going to happen to you non-stop over the next few months. Nurseries are disgusting germ-filled pits and the younger kids have even lower immunity than usual because they’ve been locked up for six months. My son started nursery 8 weeks ago and has spent just under 4 weeks of that at home with various coughs and colds. I’ve taken him for 3 Covid tests in that time.

In answer to what you should do, I haven’t seen a start date for your work, sorry if I’ve missed it? But you can’t moan about another parent sending an ill child in and then send yours in. I empathise because it’s so so frustrating when your child can’t go to nursery because of something they picked up AT NURSERY (my son’s been off nursery for a week with a cough he picked up from another child while the child he got it from has been attending the whole time!) but it’s part and parcel of having a child in nursery unfortunately.

Kids picking up bugs at nursery = extremely common, annoying but a constant side effect of nursery I’m afraid. So in that sense yes YABU to be annoyed that your child caught a bug.

However you’re not unreasonable to be annoyed by their poor hygiene processes. It IS hard with very small children but they should be trying as much as possible to wash hands and keep areas clean and using all the right anti bac cleanser etc.

If they are not doing any of that then I’d be pissed off by that - however even with the best hygiene practices, kids will pass on bugs. So it’s going to happen.

Hope ur DC is better soon!

"Which countries are advising a test on the basis of a 'sneeze' or a 'snotty nose'? Out of interest. "

USA and New Zealand e.g.

"Congestion or Runny Nose"

www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html

COVID aside as PP have said your child will catch many a cold, and I would send my DC into nursery with just a cold.

It's naughty of the mum to send them in with a cough though in the current climate, just a runny nose is different as it's not a symptom. I suppose she may have had a COVID test for her little one, but still she shouldn't have let them climb over you nor take your DC's bottle. That sounds grim on the hygiene front and I would ask nursery to limit sharing items like that. Also familiarise yourself with their policy for COVID. I've had a (negative) test for my baby because he was really hot from teething one night - even though I knew it was teething. I have also collected him from nursery early as his temperature was creeping up (it didn't go higher than 37.5 but I didn't want it to get any higher at nursery and for them to say he couldn't attend until he had another negative test!).

Snot, chewing shared toys and even licking each other seem normal nursery pastimes! One of the advantages of nursery is catching everything going and building an immune system. Mine were constantly bumping into cold for 6 months or so when they first went. Introduction to nursery is a tough time for parents more so than children. OP try to relax it's natural to be anxious but it does get better.

My son has just started nursery 2 weeks ago but adults aren't allowed in at all. Settling in was 2 hours day 1, 4 hours day 2, 6 hours day 3 but we had to leave ds at the front door after his temp was taken and hands sanitised. We have never even seen inside the nursery but it's them keeping everyone safe. I'm surprised yours is getting additional adults in for settling for such a long period!
Sneezing head cold on its own is allowed to come to nursery providing happy enough in himself but any sign of a cough or temp and they are not allowed in and not allowed back until confirmation of a negative test.

I completely sympathize with the OP. My son went to his first couple settling in sessions where we saw children clearly red hot and cold like, coughing and sneezing. Yes children will children but that doesn't mean you need to be ignorant. My 1 year old son now has a cold or possibly worse Covid-19.

I very much dislike when parents say, "oh they will get all sorts of bugs from nursery"..

Washing hands is a first mitigation step to stopping infection. You don't get a medal of honour because your child is I'll nor should you be proud of that.

Sickness and Diarrhea, well that is likely e-coli picked up from outside. Do I need to go into detail? Dogs, cats, foxes - fecal matter. I rest my case.

Foot and mouth - once again, those of you with pets, you let your dog trample and lick what it wants, do you have strict infection protocal once the dog is back home? Or do you allow it to pick your hands, face, child, child's toys, sofa?

Has Covid-19 not taught any of you anything?

In today's climate, if someone coughs on you or spreads infection, they can be prosecuted, (eg, Covid-19, I think HIV too) ... If a child does that to another, even by accident, what are the ramifications?

The fact that nursery let snotty kids in and don't do temperature checks at the door tells you how unregulated they are. Ignorance at its finest.