5 year old with cold school or not?

[Icantrememebrtheartist]

Just wanting opinions....

5 year old DC had a nasty cold with a hacking cough so kept DC home for 3 days. Gone back to school now. Kept her home because she wasn’t well but also didn’t think it was fair to spread it to other children.

Anyway she went back but I was surprised at how full of cold some of the children in her class are, full on double snot candles, red and sore looking noses.

I’m new to having a child at school so my question is, Is it the norm to send young children to school with colds? For context most of the mums are SAHM’s so no work issue.

Oops thought I switched voting off

I'd only keep them off if they were unwell, so a fever, headaches, general aches, or a very broken night's sleep because of coughing would warrant a day off. If it's just a cold with a runny nose, in they go. My kids tended to get a lot of colds at that age, I wouldn't have kept them off every time.

Thanks Roland

I think it’s quite normal unless they’re feeling really unwell. If they stay off every time they have a cold then they’ll be off a lot.

Obviously with a cough you need to keep them off until their covid results are back. The government also says you need to keep them off until 48 hours after they last had a temperature.

As long as the above is done are they well enough in themselves then I would send my child in. I’m a sahm of a reception aged child.

I had to look this up for my DD with nursery - there's advice on the NHS website. From what I remember in terms of cold /flu, if they have a fever keep them off. Else we'd never be able to go to work!

Did you get them covid tested before you sent them back.

Generally if a child has a mild cold they are encouraged to go school but this year has made it difficult. As some schools say children with snotty noses cannot attend even though snot generally isn’t a sign of covid.

Putting covid aside. With mine if they are very snotty and congested and feeling miserable I may keep them off for a day or two. If it’s just a slight snotty nose, not constant and manageable for them they go in as the school encourages anyway.

Little kids get snotty a lot. DD has had 3 periods of snottiness since start of term. She’d never go if I kept her off. Thankfully DS manages to avoid to usually as every time he gets a cold he gets a hacking cough.

If they have no covid symptoms and were not feeling so unwell that they need to be in bed then yes I would send them in. That is what the school expects and otherwise they would be sending emails about attendance etc.

As for spreading a cold to other children - you may have a fair point but as long as the government puts such pressure on schools about attendance then neither we nor they can make that choice.

They had a hacking cough and you didn't test?? I despair.

They had a cough surely you got them tested?

She had a cough so should have been tested and kept off until the results came back, with the rest of you isolating as well.

You must know this?