Illness advice from school (well.. NHS)

[WhimsicalMoth]

See attached photo ... Did anybody else get this from their childrens school? It came attached to the weekly newsletter on Friday.
It's supposedly the NHS advice, but it seems ludicrous to me that you would send your child to school with hand foot and mouth... and threadworms ???
I can just about understand tonsillitis if it is under control with antibiotics or glandular fever
If they are taking painkillers etc.
but even head lice, I would be inclined to keep my child off until treated for this.
Would you send your child to school with threadworms or hand foot and mouth disease?
And would you be happy for your child to socialise with other children that do have these without your knowledge, at school??

Threadworms of course I would send my child in. As with headlice. Neither make the child ill. HFM etc, if they were poorly I'd keep them home, but not if they were fine.

Understandable, everybody has their own opinion, but threadworm eggs can live on surfaces etc for 2 weeks, and can be passed person to person.. I'd be pretty annoyed if somebody sent their child into school knowing they could pass it to other people's children.
Personally I don't just think it's about being unwell, it's whether something is contagious or not.

We've never had threadworms so I don't know but I would have guessed they could go in.

The advice has always been that they can go to school or nursery with HFM. Mine have had it a few times, sometimes they've had to be home as they were unwell, others they were in nursery as usual.

I don't see anything in that sheet that's strange, it's all pretty common sense.

Definitely wouldn't be keeping them home because of head lice!

But threadworms are really pretty innocuous, as are headlice. Annoying, but that's all.

Same.

Both threadworms and headline are just unfortunately a part of having or working with children. Of course you don't keep them off. Imagine if the teacher took that stance?

I was hospitalised with Glandular Fever as a child so can't understand that advice at all. All sounds a bit random to me.

If you're ill with it, then you obviously get kept off school. But if you have very low level, minimal symptoms, then there is no need to stay off school is the point.

I would send my dc in with all that you've mentioned and that is the clinical guidance. There are children in my dc's school who literally constantly have headlice. They would have missed the best part of a year if they'd stayed home. My dc would have missed the best part of a year if she'd stayed home, because we literally combed her hair every 2 days for months and they'd be gone for 2 weeks and then back (head lice girl has very long hair and always worn it down, so they spread easily). Obviously, there is a whole lot more going on there at home for a child to have a constant headlice infection for an entire school year, so my guess is that the best place for her to have been was in school.

This is the version we have in NI, don't see anything different.

Whilst it is advice, it is up to parents to make decisions about their own children and whether they are well enough to attend school.

This is dependent on the child and their particular health limitations, how they are feeling at the time and other things such as home/family circumstances.

They are my children, not the governments, or the schools, - I make decisions about them.

If they’re unwell, keep them off.

You can’t actually think keeping a kid off for two weeks with threadworms is sensible?!

All looks very sensible to me, and is similar to the guidance we've had from nursery and school previously. It wouldn't have ever occurred to me to keep mine off when they had worms, just deworm and carry on.

Colds are contagious too, but you wouldn't keep your kid off school with one!

If they’re unwell then keep them off for things in the “no” list. You know when they’re too unwell to attend and this is indivual to every child.

What’s the point in sending them in poorly and prolonging their recovery as well as making others ill.

It's not saying you can't keep them off if they are unwell though. It's merely explaining that just because your child has something like glandular fever it doesn't automatically mean they can't go into school.

Many people wrongly think stuff like slapped cheek and HFM are exclusionary illnesses and this is clarifying that if your child has them but are feeling ok then there's no reason they can't go in.

Not for 2 weeks no. But presumably my child would have been infected due to another child having them.. where if the first infected child was not sent to school with them, other children wouldn't then get infected. If you see what I mean

As far as I'm aware the advice has always been that it's fine to go to school/nursery with HFM

And I definitely wouldn't keep a child off with nits.

It has been the advice in all the years I've been teaching but I think many settings such as nurseries/childmiders say keep them off despite the NHS saying it's ok so it muddies the water a bit.

I caught threadworms from a child at school. It was a nightmare, I had to get treatment for me and the rest of my family.

No I'd not keep a child off with headlice or threadworms! We've not had threadworms (touch wood!) but headlice are a bloody recurring nightmare and I'm sure some weeks there would be no girls in class to teach if kids were kept off with them.

That is part of my point, it doesn't just affect one person. And if the affected was kept off and treated, it would save hassle for other children and families!

I meant more or less just a couple of days whilst they are combed out and treated

Slapped cheek is very dangerous if someone who's pregnant contracts it.

Another reason why it confuses me