School sending child home no tights

[krj2608]

Aibu?

My daughter is 5. She has had a uti for around 2 weeks. She is on her second round of antibiotics. She was off school earlier in the week as she had been poorly with it.

She has wet herself at school twice this week. Both times she has come out in a dress with no socks or tights. I have provided a change of clothes and there were two pairs of tights in her bag. I asked her why she wasn't wearing them and she said she struggled to put them on and no teachers were there to help her. It was cold this afternoon and also with her being poorly earlier in the week, it's surely common sense.

I called the school and was told "They all change in the disabled toilet in the office and staff are there if they ask for help, your daughter needs to ask"
She is 5! She's very quiet and shy, and wouldn't ask for help. Surely an adult would pick up she has nothing on her legs and ask if she needs help.

I'm a teacher myself and wouldn't consider sending a child home without tights or socks. I would rather the school called me and asked me to bring tights.

My daughters still wearing long socks to school she hates tights and they always fall down, it wasn’t cold here today.

Useful lesson really: refuse to wear trousers = cold legs.

Did you mention there's spare clothes in her bag? There's a chance the class Ta didn't know. In our school we don't normally have tights in lost property/spare clothes cupboard. And if your dd doesn't wear trousers, they probably don't have anything to offer her
Ps. We don't have any spare socks atm either... After I gave out the last spare pair on Monday

Actually it's not that difficult and part of the job with littlies. (Ex infant/nursery teacher)

Aww bless your girl! M&S do childrens over the knee socks that come up quite high. My daughter prefers these to tights as she can get them on herself.

tights contribute to UTIs so…🤷🏾‍♀️

@insweetharmony so do trousers so ... 🤷🏻‍♀️

@Wildeheart thank you! I will take a look at these. She's really a really tiny build, so hopefully they would stay up.

very tight trousers yes but not to the same extent as tights. Are her school trousers very tight? perhaps avoid both tight trousers and tights and put her in socks?

OP just get some long Over the knee school socks.

Op this poster is right. She needs to be in loose clothing and pure cotton pants. So long socks, pinafore, cotton pants would be ideal.

I'm a TA in key stage 1 and it is not a safeguarding issue to help a child put on their tights! Young children often have accidents at school. If a child were to come out of the toilet with no socks or tights on after changing I would be checking their bag or seeing if we had some spares for them. At five years old they are still learning and should be supported to get changed and dress themselves appropriately.

Can she dress herself after PE?

I wouldn’t have thought it a good idea that a child on her second week of a uti serious enough to warrant 2 lots of antibiotics would be wearing tights! As a parent of girls who have suffered in the past, I would have sent trousers or a dress/skirt and socks. Long socks if it’s cold.

@CluelessAtClothing

As I have previously commented I have already ordered some more leggings and will look into the long socks. She wears cotton knickers and her tights are a size bigger. They are not tight on her at all. She is a very slim size so anything that would normally be tight isn't tight on her. Leggings look like baggy trousers. I'm fully aware of utis and the issues, I was exactly the same at her age and had utis.

Thank you for the suppprtive comments who understand!

@PottyDottyDotPot they wear pe kit to school so no changing involved.

@seasidegirl83 thank you for understanding!

Bit rubbish and quite odd teacher didn't check if she had socks, but i do think also bit rubbish she was given things she couldn't put on herself, maybe practise tights or provide long socks or trousers next time if she is too shy to ask for help.

Sorry just seen your next comments ! 🤐

Can I add that if she’s having lots of UTIs she needs to stop wearing tights all day. They increase the temperature and reduce the airflow around her genitals so can be conducive to developing more infections. Classrooms are generally very warm, so socks will suffice.

Anything like that, I would role play.

I would also explain the 'spare' clothes and we would practice. My youngest was also strange about trousers but eventually I found her some soft ones from Next and she will wear those if it's very cold.

She wore long socks but they have to be on straight, so we practiced putting them on. Lots of praise, lots of re-assurance- we call her spare stuff 'back up clothes.' She actually liked having back up clothes because she knew they were there if needed.

I would put her some socks (long or short) so she can just take off tights, change and pop socks on without too much issue. At the moment, the temperature isn't an issue.

On another note are the GPS taking recurring UTIs seriously? And doing some proper bloods and looking at kidney functions etc?

At 5 that needs some investigation not just antibiotics that aren't working, her poor body won't be able to cope with all of that.

I think someone mentioned tights are also not great for UTIs due to how warm she will be getting.

her poor body won't be able to cope with all of that

bit dramatic

I’m actually surprised you are putting her in tights if she has a UTI. No matter how loose they are, they’re still tights and sit close to the body. And most of them have some kind of polyester in them. I’d be opting for a dress with socks to get some airflow happening.

Tights are a blimming nightmare and I bet they’re the bane of primary teachers’ lives!! I wear tights for work most days and I struggle to get them right!! Often lots of re-doing so they’re not in a twisty uncomfortable tangle when in place! To be honest if there were a helpful adult around at that moment I’d be asking for assistance too! Ditto other OPs. Ditch the tights till she’s older and opt for something much easier. I wear leggings on non-work days. Wish I could just stick them on every day!! They’re so much simpler!