To not like the covid shaming playground politics.

[Conair]

I appreciate that this is a very stressful, confusing and worrying time for everyone but since my children have gone back to school I have witnessed the following.

Another parent having a go at someone who's child had a minor cold stating he should be tested and not brought into school.

A few parents including one who is a GP putting a message in a class Facebook group stating her child has a snotty nose and a mild cough so is getting her tested ( isolating the family) and others should do the same and keep their kids off with cold symptoms.

I feel that this is going to make some parents very paranoid and could result in a lot of children being off school or getting unnecessarily tested, due to the very nature of being back at school a lot of children have developed colds etc and if we kept them off for every minor symptom there wouldn't be any children ( or staff!) at school.

Am I right in thinking that there is a lot of scaremongering going on or should we all be far
more cautious and keep our children off with every minor symptom.

Am I right in thinking that there is a lot of scaremongering going on

How can we possibly know?

I kept my DD off last week as she had a cold and slight temp. By the end of day one she had a fever so then I kept her brother off, got her tested and we all stayed at home until the negative result came. Headteacher has now clarified that if it seems like a cold and the temp lasts only 1 day, by all means keep off school until well but no need to test or self isolate. Which is good pragmatic advice in my view.
However I am glad I kept her off even though it was probably not necessary,,because if she spread her cold then there are several other parents who are put in that position too.

I’m not sure what the issue is with the parents saying they are following government guidelines and getting their child with a cough test and isolating the rest of the family. What am I missing here?

@ceeveebee

I kept my DD off last week as she had a cold and slight temp. By the end of day one she had a fever so then I kept her brother off, got her tested and we all stayed at home until the negative result came. Headteacher has now clarified that if it seems like a cold and the temp lasts only 1 day, by all means keep off school until well but no need to test or self isolate. Which is good pragmatic advice in my view. However I am glad I kept her off even though it was probably not necessary,,because if she spread her cold then there are several other parents who are put in that position too.

That is not government guidelines and the headteacher should not be giving out advice she has just made up.

I'm not saying a cough and temp. I am saying a snotty nose or sneezing.

And we wonder why there are no tests available...

@Conair

I'm not saying a cough and temp. I am saying a snotty nose or sneezing.

Your first message says a snotty nose and a cough...Is this not what the Mum said?

Sorry to clarify

First parent had a go at a parent who's mum was wiping her child's nose.

Second one stated that her child had minor cold symptoms and very recent cough ( no temp)

First instance was not on.

The second situation the Mum was following government guidelines and doing the right thing.

I can't believe the selfish fuckers sending in their ill kids. No-one knows if they have covid or not. There are no tests available round here, and no postal tests.
Someone has clearly decided in the 8 days school has been open so far to send a kid in with a cough and a temperature, now loads have it, and we're all scrambling round for tests and struggling with work. If that one parent had kept their child at home, the rest of us wouldn't have this. Colds/coughs/covid 19 doesn't magically appear - they come from someone.

Surely colds are to be expected though especially after so long in lockdown.

Um, yeah, if your kid is showing cold symptoms then get them tested.

My two have colds. Been told to keep off for a day or two to see if things progress. They don't have a cough or fever. If that stays the same I will be sending them back Wednesday hopefully. Thing is normal colds, viruses and bugs are still going around. It's going to be a long winter questioning whether we should test our kids or not.

Official guidelines say if children only have a head type cold they should go in if they don't have a fever or cough..

If every child with a cold stayed off half the school would be off 😬😬

This time last year the vast majority of us wouldn't have bat an eyelid at a snotty kid going to school!!

And no I'm not testing my children with cold symptoms unless they have have at least one of the main symptoms.. no wonder there isn't any tests. A runny nose does not need a test!! My daughter has had a runny nose since March with hayfever!

Yes colds are expected but colds are a corona virus and the symptoms of a regular cold have a huge cross over with covid 19 so without a test it’s impossible to know if a temperature, or a cough or loss of taste or smell is a common cold or covid 19.

YANBU. DS and I have both had a bit of a snotty cold the past couple of days. No cough, no sore throats, no fever so we are going into school and work. Not getting tested either, it's a waste of resources when we clearly just have colds.

That is not government guidelines and the headteacher should not be giving out advice she has just made up.

I should have said that she had consulted with Public Health in a head teachers meeting, and this was their advice.

A teacher at our school had a cough - just an ordinary phlegmy - she rang for a test. She was told that, as she could speak to the person at 111 for the 10 minutes she was on the phone without coughing, she didn't have the persistent cough so didn't need a test. She has a cold. That's all. She was back at work the next day.

The three things to watch for are a high temperature (71.8 or above), a persistent new cough - like the dry 'dog barking' coughs kids often get but it doesn't stop, or a loss of taste/smell. None of which the teacher concerned had. And neither do some of those people the OP mentioned. Every time a panicking parent does a test for a snotty little kid, someone who genuinely has it can't get one.

If we test every child who has a snotty nose or a phlegmy cough rather than a dry one, we'll be hard pushed to cover everyone and our kids will never be in school. Which means parents won't be in work much until Christmas. If that's OK, carry on. Otherwise we're all going to have to get a grip and work with the current symptom sheet. Kids get colds. A lot of them. We knew this was coming - it's called the autumn and winter term. If we carry on panic testing all the time then it'll become something akin to the boy who cried wolf - we'll get so tired of the constant testing that we won't do it when we really need to.

Half of my KS1 class had a cold within 5 days of starting back. We only send home children with a cough or temperature, as per the testing guidelines.

It’s not cough and temp, it’s any of those symptoms so a cough without temp still needs to be tested.

We’ve had 6 off today with either temp or cough or both.

We also have some in with colds but no temp or cough-that’s fine.

Useful

@AiryFairyMum I can't believe you're sending your kids to school at all if that is your attitude. What if your kids are asymptomatic? They could be killing 100s!

And for the record, DS has a cold. He started with a sore throat on Friday evening. Now, as the sore throat came on within an hour or so of getting home from school, chances are he's already spread it to other kids in his class - but he's not a fortune teller, he can't tell that he's about to go down with a cold.

Most colds are spread before the kids get properly ill - they may have a couple of sneezes or a small coughing fit but that's usually enough.

DS is currently resting up on the sofa as he felt tired. There's no temperature, no cough, no sneezes. Just a 'stuffed up' feeling. Once he feels well he'll be back at school. He's not coughing or sneezing so there's little chance of spreading the cold. My rule of thumb has always been if he has the energy to charge around the house, isn't coughing a lot or sneezing over everyone and there's no temperature, he can go to school.