To ask them to control the children?

[PyjamaMuddleduck]

I attend a specialist baby and toddler group for families. There’s a separate baby room with socially distant mats for each family and a bigger toddler/child room.
This week, a very snotty toddler came into the baby room and to the mat where we were, leaving a toy behind. Several other children also ran around the room close to the babies.
My baby now sounds snuffly and has a cough (covid test pending) - we’ve not been anywhere else this week.
WIBU to ask the organisers to remind parents to keep the older kids out of the baby room? And maybe not to bring their children if they’re clearly unwell?
I love going but not sure we’ll go back now

Did someone need to take their full of cold child to soft play? Of course they didn’t.

Their child may have had very mild symptoms. You might be far worse affected. This is one of the reasons rhinoviruses and adenoviruses and coronaviruses spread so easily, many people can be carrying them with little or no symptoms.

I wouldn't bother doing COVID test on a baby for cold. If I done a COVID test for my little one every time he has a cold I'll be doing them every other week.

I do get it OP, I remember when I had my PFB I thought toddlers were giant, ungainly things and they were so uncontrollable and annoying (awful awful awful I know!!). With DC2 I then had a (beautiful, cute, strong willed, gorgeous) toddler in tow. I used to see some new mums look at DC1 with the same annoyed look that I probably had and hated it!! At a baby and toddler group they’re all going to be there. Trying to keep toddlers out, especially if sibling/mum are in the baby room, is impossible. Embrace them! You’ll have one soon!

You will be surrounded by snotty toddlers for the next few years. In normal times my eldest basically had a cold and cough from October to March. You do have to crack on and can’t keep small children inside for every cold otherwise they’d never go anywhere.

But… if all the babies were on mats lying down, I don’t think toddlers should be running around in the room for safety reasons as they could step on the babies. You’d have more luck with that angle than snot I’d have thought.

Work on the assumption that you if you go to a soft play/baby group environment and DONT come away with a virus, a miracle has occurred.

Oh and OP please don't tell me you have taken a government Covid test for a baby with a snotty nose? They aren't free, they cost the government money.

You are only supposed to get one for actual Covid symptoms, which doesn't include snotty nose or mild coughs. Its fever, loss of smell, and new continuous cough.

@Staryflight445

‘ Welcome to world of parenting’ that is ridiculously patronising.

Op, sadly a lot of parents will take their unwell children absolutely everywhere and no shits are given by them. It’s ok to be annoyed about this. It’s probably the patronising ones on this thread that are the worst offending culprits.

I went to soft play on Monday and have got an absolutely terrible cold. I’m pissed off because I was finally overcoming my morning sickness and slowly gaining my appetite back and managing to brush my teeth without being sick/ not gagging at everything. This cold has knocked me right back to square one.
Did someone need to take their full of cold child to soft play? Of course they didn’t.

If I kept my child at home every time she had a sniffle we’d never go anywhere.

OP I feel your pain but catching colds does build their immunity and there has been research to show that catching infections in the first year of life helps prevent childhood leukaemia. My toddler has had a constant snotty nose since August and my baby caught his cold when she was 5 days old. I don’t think any parents are getting much sleep this winter.

@DeepaBeesKit

Oh and OP please don't tell me you have taken a government Covid test for a baby with a snotty nose? They aren't free, they cost the government money.

You are only supposed to get one for actual Covid symptoms, which doesn't include snotty nose or mild coughs. Its fever, loss of smell, and new continuous cough.

Not to mention actually putting a baby through the trauma of testing.

I’m not sure getting colds build their immune systems as the circulating bugs change every year - that’s why we all keep getting them!

No, the benefit isn’t to prevent them getting colds because they become immune to them. Early exposure to viruses helps strengthen the immune system in general.

Yabu. Babies and toddlers mix at a playgroup and both get collds What about those parents who one of each.

Thank goodness I didn't have my first baby during covid times, I'd have been utterly neurotic.

@DeepaBeesKit

Oh and OP please don't tell me you have taken a government Covid test for a baby with a snotty nose? They aren't free, they cost the government money.

You are only supposed to get one for actual Covid symptoms, which doesn't include snotty nose or mild coughs. Its fever, loss of smell, and new continuous cough.

Continuous cough for covid is three or more episodes in 24 hours, which we definitely meet, thanks

Babies need their immune system to be challenged in the first year. It reduces the risk of childhood leukaemia.

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/science/2018/dec/30/children-leukaemia-mel-greaves-microbes-protection-against-disease

"For an immune system to work properly, it needs to be confronted by an infection in the first year of life,” says Greaves. Without that confrontation with an infection, the system is left unprimed and will not work properly.”"

"In addition, there is less breast feeding of infants and a tendency for them to have fewer social contacts with other children. Both trends reduce babies’ contact with germs. This has benefits – but also comes with side effects. Because young children are not being exposed to bugs and infections as they once were, their immune systems are not being properly primed.
“When such a baby is eventually exposed to common infections, his or her unprimed immune system reacts in a grossly abnormal way,” says Greaves. “It over-reacts and triggers chronic inflammation.”
As this inflammation progresses, chemicals called cytokines are released into the blood and these can trigger a second mutation that results in leukaemia in children carrying the first mutation."

@Starcaller this is really interesting, thank you. I could have done with a slightly longer gap from the last month-long cold, but maybe this makes me feel slightly better!

Continuous cough for covid is three or more episodes in 24 hours, which we definitely meet, thanks

You're being so OTT.

Babies/people/humans do need their immune system challenged as explained by PP. I think perhaps you need to gain some perspective or the next few years are going to be tricky for you. Nursery/pre-school especially.

I’m not sure getting colds build their immune systems as the circulating bugs change every year - that’s why we all keep getting them!

This isn't how immunity works. One of the reasons we all have such bad colds now is because we didn't mix last winter and build immunity to the circulating virus groups.

@AsAMatterOfMyArse

Your first post really made me laugh. So true and very funny.

@londonrach

Yabu. Babies and toddlers mix at a playgroup and both get collds What about those parents who one of each.

That wasn’t the situation here. There were unsupervised toddlers/older children running around the (small!) baby room. Out of sight of their parents. I accept that I’m perhaps being unreasonable about the snot, but as another poster said, this is a safety issue.

Gosh reading some of these responses it’s not hard to see why covid rates are so high. I’m not sure that being called OTT for following the guidance is very fair. I have relatives who work in ITU and have seen the impact of it on them, I’m not taking the risk of contributing to the shitshow that is the pandemic in this country.

I accept that I’m perhaps being unreasonable about the snot, but as another poster said, this is a safety issue.

I think you could attack it from a safety issue, but be prepared to be told that it isnt practical to keep them separate as adults may be attending who have both babies and toddlers - which then defeats the point of having separate rooms. So you might just end up with everyone being mixed.

Whats the specialist bit about? Does it have bearing on why the children arent mixed?

@PyjamaMuddleduck

Gosh reading some of these responses it’s not hard to see why covid rates are so high. I’m not sure that being called OTT for following the guidance is very fair. I have relatives who work in ITU and have seen the impact of it on them, I’m not taking the risk of contributing to the shitshow that is the pandemic in this country.

3 coughing epsiodes in 24hrs for a baby is OTT.

So we should stay at home for 10 days instead then? Or just hope it isn’t covid and potentially blithely spread it around?

“ But… if all the babies were on mats lying down, I don’t think toddlers should be running around in the room for safety reasons as they could step on the babies. ”

I agree with this.

Some people seem to think Covid doesn't matter any more. They aren't very bright, sadly, and there's nothing you can do to raise their IQ.

Of course there shouldn't be a snotty toddler wandering around the baby room.