To be annoyed that we already have a sickness bug from school

[Flamingolingo]

Only been back at school 5 minutes, after 5 months of education disruption, and eldest child has spent most of today vomiting. He hasn’t been anywhere else all week, so it must have come from school which means that someone has probably sent a child in after sickness (I checked with child that nobody was sent home sick this week).

So now I’m feeling dizzy and sprawled on the sofa, and I’ve got DC1 here with me on Monday now missing a day of school. I mean obviously kids get sick but seriously? Already?

Thanks @KatieB55 I did consider that. But we are in an area of very low covid infection at the moment, so I don’t think it’s likely. I think there were 4 in the whole city last week, and I assume they wouldn’t be in school. But all the more reason to be wary of vomit this winter

We got a letter home saying there are headlice in the school🤔🤔

You'd think that if the coronavirus prevention measures were working then we wouldn't pick up any other illnesses.

@Sailorsgirl44 surely they should have been eradicated too?!

I imagine having barely socialised for 6months, most children’s immune systems will be useless and they’ll go down with everything going. Children aren’t SD within their ‘bubble’ so things will spread. The idea is they’re not mixing bubbles so theoretically things shouldn’t spread between bubbles.

Parents always have flouted the d&v rules. Same as they will with covid.

It terrifies me to be honest.

I had a child in my class who projectile vomited on Wednesday (luckily I'd already sent him to sit in the practical bay with a TA and she managed to catch it in a sick bowl). Another child was off school the next day after vomiting at home that evening.

We genuinely can't do any more than we are doing in terms of hygiene. Children wash or use hand sanitiser at least 6 times a day. More if they go to another part of the school eg computer room or Hall. Children wash their hands if they sneeze, touch their face etc.

We have new lidded bins for tissues and paper towels. We have extra cleaning of classrooms and toilets during the day.

Children have their own pack with pens, pencils etc so they don't share resources that are used frequently. Resources used less often are only shared within class bubbles. P. E. resources are thoroughly cleaned between classes.

Apart from building a new school to halve class sizes and spread children out, there's not much more we can do!

They've just spent 6 months with barely any contact with anyone else's germs, so I'm not surprised they're picking stuff up. My usually very healthy and robust children have both got snotty noses and so have I and I NEVER get ill. I was half expecting it to be honest.

No bugs or sickness here touch wood but dd seems to have managed to hurt her knee and she has no idea how she did it

It’s swollen and she keeps limping

We are on the sofa too with sore throats, no temp, nasty cold I think. AAARGH DS off on Friday and is loving school but will keep him off Monday too if not better.

@KatieB55

www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3484

Vomiting can be a symptom of Covid in children - see this BMJ article

Trouble is that tons of kids will say they feel sick when they're anxious, are having to exercise for the first time in six months (PE) or just don't want to do something because they've spent six months watching TV and playing on their consoles. And some will outright lie that they have been sick in the toilets when they haven't done anything of the sort.

Of course, if they actually do vomit, then they should be at home. But most don't. You can't send every child home that says they feel sick or the total would be in hundreds or thousands, depending upon the size of the school concerned - especially when a) it not an accepted reason for SI according to the government and b) you could be making somebody who has only kept their job by the skin of their teeth take the next fortnight off, as they can't get a test without the fever/cough/loss of smell or taste.

I'm a KS1 teacher.

I've never known a September like this one - they're so snotty! There really is nothing more that schools can do. The reality is the kids haven't been in large groups for such a long time that they don't have their normal immunity.

Obviously D&V is another issue and those kids should have been off but blaming schools for not preventing colds is ridiculous. Nobody surely believes that the measures in place are going to prevent CV if somebody has it?

The choice has been made (had to be made) to return to education and get people back to work but schools will never be Covid, cold, flu, D&V, nit or worm 'secure'.

I think instead is saying the schools’ measures aren’t working we need to think of it in terms of how much worse it would be without them. They’ll slow some transmission, but kids haven’t seen each other for six months - that means they haven’t seen each other’s bugs either. Their immune systems are going to be working overtime for the next few weeks as they exchange the contents of their noses.

Sending kids in with vomiting bugs is inexcusable though.

@Soubriquet

No bugs or sickness here touch wood but dd seems to have managed to hurt her knee and she has no idea how she did it

It’s swollen and she keeps limping

First PE lessons/running around?

New shoes?

I think ours came from oldest DS at secondary school, with a bubble of the whole of Y9 there will be a few colds going round I'd have thought

I think you have to remember that after a long time, mostly stuck indoors around family, they're immune system is going to be shot to bits. It's another reason why I think rushing every year group back to school all at once full time is a huge recipe for disaster.
One of mine already had a day off this week, he was shattered. Not covid shattered, just has underlying health issues and was shielding until August so is not used to early mornings/walking round a huge school all on different levels shattered.
At one local school though, even a slight snuffle means they chuck the kid out until they have a negative test,and considering we are in Berks and people are told to go as far as Wales or Scotland for a test here, there are a lot of parents already sick of school and the rules and the pandemic within a week.

Jesus - get over yourself!

Every single term going back it happens. No-one's fault.

Oh God, Noro. I'd rather catch Covid a thousand times over.

People are coming down with all these things now because we have spent the past five months hiding away and gaining no immunity to anything at all. All the focus is on sodding Covid.

It's a bit like when children first start nursery or school, after being at home for long periods. They catch every single thing going, because they haven't gained immunity. We have all been put back in this 'low immunity' state, so we're now going to spend the next six months catching everything in the universe. Except Covid. So that's alright, then.

Meanwhile, we can say that absolutely everything is a symptom of Covid. My broken finger is definitely a symptom of Covid. So are my migraines. My 19 yr old's symptoms after a night out were also, obviously, Covid.

It's a complete clusterfuck.

BTW, the only thing that helps with noro is endless hand washing with soap and water. Using hand sanitiser against noro is no better than not washing your hands at all (take it from an emetophobe!)

@Soubriquet

No bugs or sickness here touch wood but dd seems to have managed to hurt her knee and she has no idea how she did it

It’s swollen and she keeps limping

It's a symptom of Covid, Soubriquet. Or is in Mumsnet Land.

How did these bugs survive during the 6 months though? Did no bug get eradicated this whole time?

@MitziK I had a (year 3) class who were like this a few years ago - the girls kept very convincingly saying they felt sick, and I kept sending them home only to hear the next day that they were fine. Come December, one day three girls who were very close friends insisted that they felt sick so I sat them at the back of the room near the sick bucket, thinking no way are you going home. Well, ten minutes later one puked in the bucket and while I was clearing that up a second projectiled over another poor child’s shoulder and I sent the third down to the loos as a precaution - she made it to the photocopier before throwing up all over the floor 🤦🏻‍♀️

We had a BIG talk about crying wolf after that 😂

@KatieB55

www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3484

Vomiting can be a symptom of Covid in children - see this BMJ article

Thats exactly what I was thinking, in fact its one of the common ways it represents in children. Hope you feel better soon

You don’t ‘know’ that anyone flouted anything. The 48 hour rule doesn’t always mean the bug has completely gone, one of the kids might have picked it up from someone in their home before coming down with it in the evening so been brewing it all day. Most bugs are contagious before there are symptoms and that’s how they spread, it is what it is. No point getting angry when you don’t even know there is anything to be angry about.

Norovirus is incredibly contagious. And the 48 hour rule isn't as much of a catch-all as we're led to believe. You could have everybody sticking to that religiously (I don't they don't, but still) and some would still come back to school and spread it around.

It sucks though.

the school are trying their best but they need to realise that their measures are not working.

I’m sure schools ‘realised’ months ago that the measures in the government guidelines would be utterly useless.

What do you expect them to do about it though?!