Would this concern you- DS school

[Hotchocolate101]

Sent DS to school yesterday, he seemed fine. Seemed tired but he had a school trip the day before and they had been outside in the rain all day. So put it down to that.
Got a call at 2.15pm asking to pick DS up as in the receptions words he had been flagging most of the day. When I picked him up in was in the corridor on 2 chairs asleep. His previous teacher was hoovering and seemed concerned. But no one was actually with him. He was boiling, barely able to stay awake, crying and whimpering saying his head was hurting so badly. I took him straight to the docs which is next door. The doctor saw him and he couldn't stay awake and the doctor seemed concerned so phoned a&e and got us bypassed straight to the assessment unit. He said it would be quicker for us to drive there. So I got a lift and sat in the back. He was throwing up and falling asleep and seemed confused. Got seen by the hospital doc said he was showing signs of flu. We are home now he seems alot better but still poorly.
Also we had picked a school meal for that day. He has a special menu due to allergies. He went into school thinking he was having pasta with a sauce. They refused to give it to him and gave him a plain jacket potato which he hates and so he didn't eat anything. We have had issues with his food previously where he was given his allergen twice. He could have been very ill. The head said I was over reacting when I stated if this was a child with anaphylaxis this could have resulted in a death. I had to get the governors involved.

Anyway back to yesterday aibu to think the school should have called me sooner. My DS has now made me aware he told a TA in the morning he had a really bad headache and felt ill. But nothing was done. I should have confidence in the school to look after my DS.

OP what's his allergy?

That sounds like a rely stressful day, for you as wl as your ds. I do think though that you are being a little unreasonable. The school did call you and I don't think they shpd necessarily send a child home the minute they say they have a headache. Watch and wait is reasonable imo.

Re the food - menus can change. If you want 100% certainty on what he's eating the packed lunch is the only way. My eldest had allergies and I would be furious if school had ever given him something he shouldn't have gad, but a change from 1 safe option to another, well that happens. And, tbh, with flu I doubt the poor boy would have fancied the pasta either.

The food has nothing to do with it, if was coming down with flu he wouldn't have wanted to eat. I'm amazed you got seen by a dr and then a and e for flu tbh. Cardiac arrest doesn't guarantee an ambulance here any more and go is still like Fort Knox.

I hope he gets better soon, fly is nasty, I had it at age 7 and still remember not being allowed in to the go and piling in a bucket in the back of the car while we waited for go to come out.

How did you get a same day Dr appointment. That's the only thing that strikes me as odd 🤣

The symptoms that OP's child had are all red flags for meningitis which is probably why they were seen by the GP same day (though ours does this too for children) and then sent to A and E, particularly if the child couldn't stay awake for the GP appointment.

I think you're overreacting here. If he was well enough to go for lunch, then I think it's fairly reasonable not to have called you until he got worse after that. Meals can change at short notice in schools for various reasons, none of the food issues are relevant to what happened today - he wasn't given an allergen.

I would be very stressed if I had a child that sick, but I can't really see that the school are at fault.

I think they potentially should have called you earlier. I can understand why you are loosing faith. I hope he is feeling better soon.

I'd be annoyed about the food but not so much the illness 🤷‍♀️kids are fine one minute bad the next.I've had it with my own child where in my opinion they should have phoned me earlier but didn't.

I'm a school receptionist, we are not medically trained, and can only make a judgement on what we see. If a pupil is visibly ill then I'll call home, so they've done the right thing.

I've had parents send kids in with broken fingers and they've been told to come up reception and they will strap it up. I had one child with a badly infected knee that made me gag, his dad told him we'd redress it. We are only level 3 first aid trained and its only for injuries in school, not those that happened days ago!

I don't understand why posts are being called nasty. They are just giving another point of view.

I also don't really understand the food issue. For whatever reason pasta wasn't available so he had a jacket potato. Unfortunately not all children like every meal. At many schools there is no choice at all so if a child doesn't like the dinner that day then yes they might be hungry that afternoon. You would probably be quite amazed by how little many children eat and the proportion of school dinners that end up in the bin. If they had given him a food he was allergic to, that would be totally different.

The speed of his decline seems quite obvious given you sent him into school in the morning knowing he was unwell to some degree. I don't think they did anything wrong here really.

The food is completely irrelevant to this. It could be that the pasta unexpectedly had his allergen in so he couldn't have it after all.

I hope your DS bounces back quickly.

I have him as my top priority thank you. As I mentioned he has improved a lot today. If he was extremely poorly still I would not be posting here and attending to my DS

I walked in and asked if he could be seen. We did have to wait 30 mins but I felt he needed to be seen. I was surprised to but I'm really grateful they checked him

OP I think the school did as much as they could. After all, you felt he was well enough to send him into school at 9am, so he must have gone downhill fast and they likely called you the moment he got worse, and had him lie down and rest as best he could until you turned up. It's a shame they don't have a sick bay but really, that is out of an individual teachers control.

I think you’re mixing up two issues. A baked potato for lunch is not something weird. He chose not to eat it, he wasn’t in shock or having a reaction he has flu. The baked potato didn’t cause it.

he was well enough you sent him in, it would be a surprise if flu came on that suddenly so he must have been unwell on the morning,you likely didn’t know . The school monitored him and then called you in. I am unsure what more you wish?

So it was like a 24 hour thing? Happened fast recovered fast? Did he have breakfast. The food thing is mot relevant unless he isn’t being fed at home. The teacher said he’d been flagging all day so since he arrived.

Sorry he wasn't well, but it sounds like he's getting better.

I was just a little concerned to read in your post that the teacher was hoovering.

He’s got the flu. Of course he’s not going to want to eat.

Mum's can be on mumsnet when their child is ill - just like they can do the cookin g/ cleaning / washing up / go to work - doesn't mean he's not ill because the OP is posting here...

Surely your DS eating pasta with a sauce would have him more sick than a plain jacket potato or nothing at all? Then ago if your DS was hungry for his pasta then he couldn’t have been feeling ill at lunchtime meaning that he must have deteriorated quite quickly. I find your post actually quite confusing. I mean you talk about allergies, but surely your DS wasn’t offered anything he was allergic to so what’s the relevance? You seem determined to blame the school for something-even when including a sly dig that they were out in the rain on a school trip. How the rain would make your DS extra tired the next morning I’m not quite sure?

I’m going to go against the majority here. If a child has genuine allergies, ‘not ana’can very easily be ‘not ana so far’. Allergies and a child becoming unexpectedly very sleepy /unresponsive should be a red flag to anyone looking after children.
OP, please don’t get bogged down in a baked potato saga, the point is your allergic child was Ill, loosing the ability to stay awake and not being closely monitored. That is a problem.

He was obviously well enough that you sent him to school. Teachers/school staff aren’t medically trained (out with first aid) and you were happy to send your son in… He deteriorated and you were called, the teacher waited probably because they were concerned which you already knew because they’d called you.

You got an instant GP apt followed by a hospital assessment.

I can’t see any issue.

The food issue isn’t relevant but just an add on moan.

He was throwing up, surely not having lunch was a good thing. Did you dose with paracetamol on pick up?

School did the right thing. He got poorlier as the day went on, obviously fairly quickly, and they called you to collect him.

The food thing is weird. You seem fixated on it. If they'd have fed him his allergen, I could understand, but they didn't.

I think you are worried and projecting it as anger/annoyance on to the school.

Hope he's better soon!