Would you take your child like this?

[Willbechristmasnext]

Dc, 3 has picked up a cold and chesty cough from nursery. She’s ok in herself, just coughing more at night. She has a Halloween party tomorrow she’s been waiting ages for, would you let your child go? Can they still pass things on, do you think other parents would be pissed off with her coughing everywhere and blame us if their kids get sick 😬

And considering a cough/cold can linger on for several weeks, would you really sit at home for 3-4 weeks until it cleared? If my DC have a cough/cold I keep them home if they have a fever or are actively unwell, once that's gone then we don't stay home and, in all coughs and colds, well enough to bounce around is well enough to be out/at school.

Can they still pass things on,

Well yes, obviously! I wouldn’t take my child no. Yes kids get coughs and colds this time of year but deliberately infecting others for the sake of a Halloween party when your child is poorly is still a crappy thing to do in my opinion. I realise it’s disappointing for your child though.

Seriously, people would be pissed off at a child coughing or having a cold? Isn't there a child with a cough/child just about anywhere you go?

Do you/intend to keep your child off school for every cough or cold? What do the council have to say about that?! My child's attendance would be very low!

My mind isn’t warped since covid, nor do I attempt to avoid all germs. But yeah it’s always been annoying if your friend brings their coughing, snotty full of a cold child to play in a crowded room with my own child without mentioning it first because I no that means my child is about to get sick now and the next week or so will be a wipe out for us, it’s a little inconsiderate. It’s normal to be annoyed at little things like this, if you don’t care then fine but other humans have different emotions. OP asked what others would do so here it is.

This isn’t school though

It’s not school, it’s a Halloween party and the kid isn’t even school age. I don’t think the council cares about poorly toddlers skipping Halloween parties.

I'd be in the pissed off camp - a) why deliberately pass illness on and make other parents/kids ill and b) my kids would miss out as if they catch it from your kid, I'm then not going to take them to parties etc when they're going to make others ill

Everywhere you go there are coughing children, it's the season! If she's well in herself OP I'd take her! Unless it's a party full of elderly people and chemo patients there's no need to keep away! You can guarantee your DD won't be the only one coughing!

Such divided opinions 🙈

I would if it's just that end of virus lingering cough thing. That can go weeks! You'd never go anywhere.

Not if she's actually unwell.

Unless it's excessive, take her, all kids have them through winter but maybe give her some cough medicine before you go.

Nobody do this!!!! Jesus... have you read the OP?! Never give a child cough pastilles!!!

Wouldn't even occur to me not to go if she's well in herself and no fever etc. In our house there's two small children who between them attend three different schools/childcare settings and an adult asthmatic. Someone is always coughing or sniffling. If everyone's well life carries on as normal.

The last two years, the answer was different as a cough meant a PCR test and isolation and all the disruption that brought but we're back to pre covid rules here.

Yes, I realise a party isn't school, silly me for crediting the MN germ phobes with the ability to draw comparisons or understand the word 'intend'.

I know, let's impose isolation upon people with colds!

I would not take her.

A coughing child is a contagious child. Other parents will be angry with you.

Whether its covid or a cold (and it’s impossible to tell from symptoms alone), no one wants to catch it.

Tell your child you’ll buy her a present instead.

This then: www.boots.com/bronchostop-junior-cough-syrup-120ml-10269742p

I understand perfectly well what intend means, I just have a different opinion to you. Not sure why you think that makes you more intelligent than others when you are talking like you aren’t able to comprehend the difference between sending a school child to school with a cold, and wondering if it may annoy your friends to take your poorly snotty child to play with other kids at a toddlers Halloween party that they just don’t need to be at.

Saying that would annoy me doesn’t make me a germ phobe, stupid, or think that people with colds should be isolated. It just means I’d be a little pissed off that my friend didn’t tell me their kid was infections and now my bonfire night plans were about to be wiped out as a result 🤷‍♀️ Not sure what’s so difficult to comprehend about that really.

If she is fine in herself and not unwell and its just a cough, then I'd take her.

Can't count the number of kids events I've been to and more than a few have snotty noses or a cough or something or other.

If she is obviously unwell in herself, thats different, but I wouldn't not go just because she has a bit of a leftover cough following a cold.

I also would not judge any parent whose child turned up with a cough.

Coughs and colds are fine as long as your child is well apart from that, if they are lethargic, whiny and unsettled then no don’t take them but a general cough and runny nose are fine.

I work as an early years practitioner and plenty of children get sent with coughs and colds.

Maybe ask the hosts, see what they think.

Of course i would take her. People here are being ridiculous. Its cough nd cold season and coughs can last for weeks after a virus so are people actually suggesting keeping a well child isolated for potentially weeks?

Depends how she is tomorrow

I would take my child if she was well otherwise, no fever etc... kids this age are just constantly struck down with colds and viruses, you'd never go anywhere if you didn't go out once they were feeling well in themselves.

I don't understand the parents that are really precious and saying they are going to be pissed off if someone brings a child with a cold to a gathering... unless they have a child/household member who is extremely vulnerable. Do they not realise that they will be infected with the cold at some point, that it is immunity building and if they keep their kids away from these viruses, that they will just get them in later childhood anyway? I do appreciate that for those who are clinically vulnerable that is so difficult to avoid infections particularly at this time of year, but this was the case pre covid where people were far less vigilant with hygiene than they are now.

The NHS guidelines are that they can go to school with minor coughs and colds as long as there is no fever... I know this is a nursery age child but same principle applies. She has likely caught it from there also so kids at the party may have already had it.

www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/

Please don't. I caught a bug off a couging child which put me out sick for three weeks. Child coughing over an art activity people were doing, no hand in front of mouth, sent all the craft items shooting across the table in a sea of germs. Please stay at home thank you.

No not at all, people suggested they wouldn’t take their own child to a Halloween party when full of a cough and cold. Not sure why so many posters insist on translating that to hysteria.