AIBU to send son to school?

[Blizy]

My 7 year old son has developed hand foot and mouth over the weekend, he is well in himself and I'm aware that there's no exclusion period for h f &m, I am/was planning on sending him to school as usual tomorrow but my sister is aghast at the idea of it. AIBU?

Because children should be at school?

Obviously it depends on the school policy for hfm but there was a thread on here recently where a child had a temperature of 37.7 (perfectly well otherwise) and all the pearl clutchers were advocating absence. Hysteria.

Dont send him as its contagious, its terribly unfair other kids.

Lmao

My son is immunosuppresed and doesn't have to be off school when hand foot and mouth is doing the rounds, like he would with other diseases.
As long as your son doesn't feel ill, send him in.

Yeah lets send the ill child to school so that they can pass it to the whole class. Weird thata you think its ok to go around making other ill. Awful behaviour

How many does he have

Its tricky because he is the most contagious now but could remain so for the remainder of the term!

If the NHS advice is as above, then follow that.

Or ask your sister to mind him for you, given she’s aghast at the prospect of him going to school and you can’t reasonable stay off work yourself.

Unfortunately we are not in a financial position where I can become a
Sahp.
@hamdden12 thanks for the advice regarding parental leave, I'll look into and check work policies.

I really am not the type of person to send their ill kids to school, I was just checking opinion on the matter given Nhs guidance is no exclusion and my ds is feeling well.
I'll keep him home tomorrow and seek advice from his school.
Thanks to you all for your opinions.

Is DH away at the moment or does he go away in the week?

@Quartz2208 he has a few blisters on his hands and feet, mouth is clear for now.
It really is a tricky one, nhs says it can remain contagious up to 3 months from start of symptoms! I guess that's why there is no exclusion period.

@girlmom21 he's away.

Honestly, send him in. I'm a stickler for kids not going to school with illnesses because my son can get seriously ill but for the vast majority, HFM is annoying but they are fine.
You can't keep him off till he isn't infectious, especially when he's not ill in himself.

Id be really pissed off if someone in my child's class knowingly sent them in with HFM.

The child can be infectious for 3 months. The NHS and schools say its fine for them to go in if they feel well. My immunosuppressed sons consultant says that it's fine for my son to attend school when children have HFM.
She's doing nothing wrong whatsoever.

Ring the school and check but I have a strong feeling they’ll say no

Nobthey won’t, they can’t exclude them so he should be in school. You can be as cross as you like but that’s the National Policy for this disease.

My kids went to school with it and no one batted an eyelid.

So despite you saying your piece on that thread, you never bothered to read the OP’s updates where her son came home from school with a temperature of 39, was struggling to breathe and her DH was taking him to A&E.

When my DS1 had hand foot and mouth his nursery actually contacted me to say he could come back as soon as he was feeling well in himself. They are infectious for around three months afterwards. They excrete it out in their poo. It isn’t like chicken pox where they are no longer infectious once the spots dry up.

Wow i didn't realise that! In that case my reply was incorrect and you can't keep him off until he's 100% not contagious. Imagine if half a class got it and were all off for 3 months, it's just not feasible is it.
I hope you don't all catch it and that your DS is fully better soon 💐

If he's feeling well, send him in. That's the official advice.

@Howabsolutelyfanfuckingtastic thanks,
Dd had it a while ago as did I, so hopefully we are safe this time around!

With this context, I’d send him in. When my DCs had HFM a few months ago, our doctor said that they can remain infectious for up to 2 months, even when symptoms have completely abated, so it’s rather pointless keeping them home. HFM completely tore through our daycare (thankfully we weren’t Patient Zero!), but all the kids were fine within a couple of days.

It's very contagious. I would give it a few days at least.

Have you done a covid test. We thought we had same and turned out to be covid

NHS says send them to nursery and school so I would.

There's policy and then there's being considerate.

Your employer sounds unfair for coming down hard on you when you have little children - everyone knows they get sick and it's a pain. But what about all the other parents who would potentially then have no choice but to keep their child off because they did pick up this highly contagious illness from your child and weren't "charging around the garden" but instead poorly in bed?

I have to pay my nursery fees whether I'm able to go to work and cover them or not so sickness is a real pain, but I accept it happens. If I found out she was sick because another parent had knowingly sent their contagious child in and spread it around I'd be fuming.