To be pissed off at mothers who take their kids to toddlers full of the cold!!!!!

[elliemac]

Have just been to toddlers where one of the mothers was moaning that her DS had been up all night coughing. He was stood there with green snot all down his face poor little mite. He should have been indoors. Now its going to be passed round all the kids

not just disabled kids needmorecoffee. dh has a suppresse4d immune system and i am very aware of when people are ill around me, and move away from them, and tel lthem why if i am already chatting to them.

Anna8888
If parents kept their children inside and properly warm at the first sign of a cold, they wouldn't develop.

wrong. If you have caught a virus or a bacteria, that is what will develop.
What temperature you are or are in, will make bugger all difference to the development of the illness.

I turned up at nursery with ds the other day to hear grandmother saying 'I've given her some calpol at 7am this morning as she was coughing so much she was throwing up'... IMO if she was this bad she shouldn't have been there - not fair on her, not fair on other children and their parents when they get it....

DarellRivers - I'm afraid you are not right

Going out in the cold air does make a cough/cold develop. Keeping warm inside in a constant temperature helps the body fight infection.

There is study that shows that you are more likely to develop a cold if you are cold. I will look it up.

DD has had a couple of colds with bad cough this academic year. She has still gone to school though. She can't stay off every time she sneezes or spluuyters. Yes, her eyes looked a bit red and she was coughing, but there was no high temperature, she was well in herself and she wanted to go. So she went and she was perfectly fine. She got the cold from school anyway!

For a tummy bug - I'd keep off
If ill in themselves and unable to participate - I'd keep off
If high temperature - I'd keep off

For a cold, whether they look great or not, I'd take a judgement call on how she really was and chances are she'd be going in.

here
'if body heat is low, people have a higher risk of illnesses and infections.'

also:
here
'Scientists say they have the first proof that there really is a link between getting cold and catching one.'

"Folklore indicates that chilling such as getting your feet wet in winter and going out with wet hair may cause a common cold but until recently there has been no scientific research to support this idea. Recent research has demonstrated that chilling may cause the onset of common cold symptoms5. A study at the Common Cold Centre in Cardiff UK in 2005 took 90 students and chilled their feet in cold water for 20 minutes and showed that the chilled group had twice as many colds over the next 5 days as a control group of 90 students whose feet were not chilled. The authors propose that when colds are circulating in the community some persons carry the virus without symptoms and that chilling the feet causes a constriction of blood vessels in the nose and this inhibits the immune response and defences in the nose and allows the virus to replicate and cause cold symptoms. The chilled person believes they have caught a cold but in fact the virus was already present in the nose but not causing symptoms. "

From common cold centre at Cardiff

Just put some socks on them

There is a difference to being ill and having a cold. If we all stayed indoors at the first sign of a cold, or the possibility we were incubating the virus because another of the household had it, then we would hardly ever go out. It's a bit unrealistic to expect people to isolate themselves over a cold. The world would cease to function before long!

we're not talking about all people isolating themselves.
We're talking about toddlers. It just seems common sense to keep them at home if they have a cold, for their own comfort and to try and stop the cold being passed around any more then they are already, for the sake of small babies, pregnant women, child and adults with immunity problems (and anyone else i've missed).

and some colds make you feel very ill, and it is still only a cold.

GOH - obviously as adults we can't all stay inside at the first inkling of ill health .

But, if our parents did their utmost to prevent us getting ill as babies/children, we would be healthier, more resistant adults (contrary to some popular beliefs on this thread ).

This is because our respiratory and gastrointestinal systems are immature until we are around three. They will develop better and be stronger in later life if they have not been exposed to infection in those immature early years.

not read all of these but for me personally, if they just have a snotty nose, we go out

if they are not themselves and are generally miserable, a day on the sofa beckons

same for school, dd1 goes with 'just' a cold, is off if not herself

you can tell, you don't need to take their temp (not that I have a thermometer), you can see it in their eyes and general demeanor (sp?)

I've read that the immune system isn't fully deveoloped until the age of five or seven even.

My dd1's nursery school recently sent a letter out to all parents telling tem not to bring their children to school when they are ill. I think it's quite sad that parents need to be told this, and that parents feel that they don't have a choice other then to send their ill child to nursery school (I'm talking 2 -5 year old children at this nursery school)

if I followed that theory Anna, then how would I deal with a snotty nosed dd1 aged 22 months and full of germs with a newborn dd2?

keep them apart?

tell me how I would avoid a newborn getting ill, dd2 had a constant runny nose from the get go, all down to dd1 bringing (normal) germs into the house

oliveoil- i also find thermometers unnecessary. I only ever take my dd"s temperature when she's ill enough to need to see the GP - the GP always asks what her temperature is.

I have just been too lazy to buy one and get confused with the choice in Boots

I use the scientific Hand On The Forehead and Feel Of The Tummy And Back

Belgo - I'm sure you are right that the immune system isn't properly developed until around seven.

Anyway, I am firmly in the camp that babies/toddlers/children's health needs to be taken very good care of and that children require quite different considerations to adults.

Personally, I find children with green snotty noses totally gross and I don't understand parents who let their children walk around like that. Children's coldy noses can be cleaned very well by putting them in a hot bath in a well-heated bathroom for 30 minutes. The snot comes out with the steam.

oliveoil - the point is that some colds/germs are totally unavoidable. But taking an ill child to a toddler group is avoidable.

and not only does it look gross Anna, but leaving snot on a child's nose is very damaging for the skin, and nasty painful sores can develop.

oliveoil - x-posts. Put your toddler in a hot bath twice a day (or more) when he/she has a cold. And then keep him/her inside, well wrapped up.

well there is 'ill' and 'ill'

like I said, runny nose but child is fine in themselves, go out

ill and miserable, stay in

and I follow my children round with a tissue, they never have snot hanging over their faces like some I see, gross indeed

Kids are always getting colds, flu, whatever. It builds up their immune systems for adulthood. Babies, of course, and children with other health problems (asthma for example) need to be protected but for the others, getting ill is par for the course!

If dc are listless, feverish, etc then of course I keep them home.

oliveoil - and what about the other babies and toddlers your child (who is fine "in himself") encounters and who catches a cold and gets really ill because he/she is more sensitive?

Interesting, Anna. I cannot comment on the gastro/respiratory side of things.

But there are studies which show that children who go to nursery from a young age, grow up with pets and siblings end up with stronger immune systems than those who do not. That is the hygiene paradox.

A relative of a friend - a paediatrician who has researched this issue in relation to childhood leukemia, says that it is amazing how this research is bourne up time and again in relation to which children succumb to childhood leukemia, a function of the strength of the immune system.

So ironically, even if you are correct in saying that no colds is better before 3, this could be outweighed by the benefits of a stronger OVERALL immune system through constant exposure before 3.