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?

There's nothing teachers can do! The kids will all be okay - it's the older staff I worry for, and family members.

Kids should be either in school with no hygiene measures (they clearly don't work for toffee and must be a right pain to try and implement) or off school altogether.

Inevitable

One thing you can do to help though is give them all a decent amount of Vitamin D3. It improves immunity against all respiratory infections and will reduce symptoms if they do get it.

Get the drops, no real taste and nothing to swallow.

YABU, there are probably plenty of kids at school infectious with something before they get any outward symptoms.

It was always a given that schools could only reduce infection risk slightly. Schools are NOT covid-safe. It's just not possible. Jeez, if they can't control it in hospitals where hygiene is paramount then how do you think schools are going to manage it with the high numbers of pupils they have?

I'm resigned to the fact that I'm just going catch covid, if I haven't already had it in Feb (I possibly did). (work in a school and it's a bloody nightmare)

I'm a TA. I've been back at work just over a week.
My 1 to 1 charge had a cold by Wednesday. The girl who stis next to him was sneezing by Thursday.
I currently have a head filled with cotton wool and a nose like a dripping tap.
We are making kids wash hands with soap and water a minimum of 6 times a day. I am cleaning tables, door handles light switches etc, hands are washed every time they sneeze, cough or blow their noses.
I am washing my hands a millionty times a day.
We make sure they have their own pens, pencils etc.
I have my own pens etc and mine look totally different to the kids' ones so I can't get confused.
We also have kids dropping like flies with a vomiting bug.
It's going to be a looooong winter.

Two words. Aerosol transmission. We can wipe and sanitise all we like but we can't disinfect the air. Honestly, I feel like homeschooling and withdrawing my children. Covid is going to be rife before we know it.

Yep, 1 week in and 2 of my children have colds (no temp or coughing thankfully!). And on the 3rd day in the school sent an email about headlice being found in the class 😯

We’ve all had colds and a letter has gone round saying not to keep children at home for a snotty nose.

I’d also rather my children has Covid v noro. (But wouldn’t say the same for me). My eldest had noro when she was 2 and she couldn’t sit, talk, walk etc. One day she was sick 30 times. It was horrid and I can now see how sickness bugs can kill vulnerable people.

DS was at school for 3 days. On day 3, he just had a very snotty nose. Day 4, he woke up coughing. We're waiting for a test result.

I don't blame the school, it seems somewhat inevitable. It's bloody annoying though.

DD managed TWO days at pre-school before catching a cold, she got over it within 24/36 hours so I kept her off for one day as she really wasn't well enough to be in.

She then passed it to her baby brother who has never had a cold (as he has spent much of his young life in lockdown with his sister not at school) and I am sitting here today feeling like absolutely shit with a horrendous cold and sinus infection.....

So clearly no amount of hand washing, anti bad gel and disinfecting the pre-school is making much difference

Noro is fearsomely infectious.
Studies show it to be airborne/ aerosol If someone vomits in the vicinity.
Parents DO send DC to school I was sent to school by working parents despite vomiting in the car en route.
Turned out to be Measles.
It was sweeping round the school like wildfire- Measles and Noro are about the most infectious viruses there are.
Norovirus lives on surfaces for a long time, door handles, hand rails..and food prep.

DH has a client who runs a few care homes. They have been lucky to avoid COVID. With restricted visitors etc they have also avoided other viruses/bugs too so their death rate is lower than usual.

I had to miss my Nan’s 100th birthday celebrations as I was still in the 48 hour quarantine period after a bout of norovirus. There was no way I was risking her health or the rest of the residents at her nursing home.

Ps A PP mentioned head lice transmission- if kids are that close, it shows the utter futility of social distancing.
😐

@Flamingolingo

See I’m not so fussed about snot, though I agree that it’s not ideal. It’s the sickness, clearly someone didn’t do their 48 hours!

Or your child didn’t wash Theo hands properly after going to the toilet. Or someone was carrying but not feeling sick. Not everything is down to another parents failure

Sick bugs already doing the rounds. Parents like to send in their kids who are already ill, hoping they will 'improve' (but end up throwing up everywhere and spreading it.

Or they don't do the 48 hour rule and get then back as soon as they've had an hours break from vomiting.

Does my fucking head in. Selfish middle class parents. Who then don't answer the phone to collect them! Or when they do answer say 'can't you just keep him/her there, I'm busy' or 'are you sure he's been sick?' (Yes it's all over the floor).

@oakleaffy

Ps A PP mentioned head lice transmission- if kids are that close, it shows the utter futility of social distancing. 😐

They aren’t told to socially distance in primary school bubbles.

DD8 vomited all over the classroom on Monday.

She was (almost) as right as rain at home that morning. She said she had a slight sore throat, but I couldn't and wouldn't keep her off for that. She ate a normal breakfast and was in good spirits.

She hadn't left the house/garden all previous weekend so must have been incubating it since school the previous week.

She took 48 hours off school. I resent the idea that vomiting bugs are solely caused by feckless parents. We had no idea until we got the call from school to pick her up.

Children have not mixed for over 5 months, resistance to the normal round of bugs and virus will be low. It is also the season for respiratory viruses. Would be a problem even without covid. Exposure to viruses builds resistance.
Look at what happens when they start nursery they pick up every bug going

No sickness bug but all 3 of my kids that are at school have bad colds after having nothing for 5 months... that's school for you!

The problem is because of all the hand sanitiser use I reckon people are washing their hands less because they are relying on handsanitiser. Hand sanitiser should only be a stop gap between actual washing

Hand sanitiser doesnt kill noro or rotavirus, we also dont develop immunity to noro or rotavirus

It is perfectly possible a child was sick for the first time between 9 and 3.30, it doesnt mean someone has flouted the 48hr rule.

But children have mixed in schools. They returned in June/July and key worker children never stopped going.

My DC was in school June/July, but still caught a cold in he second week of sept term. This happens each sept.

Dear god, ‘norovirus doesn’t kill’?! It does, mostly exactly the same people as Covid would. Having had Covid and norovirus, I’d take Covid too. Norovirus is unpleasant for everyone Who gets it it, unlike Covid which which a minor irritation for most, but catastrophic for a very small minority.

@DobbyTheHouseElk

But children have mixed in schools. They returned in June/July and key worker children never stopped going.

My DC was in school June/July, but still caught a cold in he second week of sept term. This happens each sept.

The majority of children haven’t been in school.

My 8yo was awake every 2 hours last night saying she feels sick, I feel unwell just at the thought of telling my boss I can't come in after 7 weeks off to cover the summer holidays.

It's shit ☹️

Yep, DD1 came home and threw up yesterday. Urgh.

If that can get through hand sanitiser and social distance pretty sure corona will manage.

You seem under the misapprehension that social distancing is happening/possible in school. It isn't.

Noro does kill thousands each year too. Corona isn't the only deadly virus.