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??

Send to school with tonsillitis? My son was misdiagnosed with viral tonsillitis (it was bacterial) a few weeks ago (fucking pharmacy first, never use it again but the gp receptionist was insistent). Was told his temperature for days on end was perfectly normal, he was crashing badly in between painkillers. Not a chance he’d have managed school.

My son once vomited in the morning so rang school to inform them. They decided it was probably a ‘one off’ and asked to send him in - ‘if he vomits again we’ll call you’. I had to remind them that it was not only not worth the risk, his teacher was pregnant and probably wouldn’t appreciate having to deal with a vomiting child in her class 😡.

Just because the school say does not mean you have to follow their advice. Each case and each child is different and I will always do what I think is appropriate for MY child.

I used to get so ill with tonsillitis. They're overreaching, it's not up to them.

The whole thing has become very overbearing now. I had attendance officers at my door demanding to know where DS was on day 3 of his recent absence. He had a horrid chest infection and was in bed feeling really ill and on antibiotics. He has no history of inappropriate absence and I had let them know.

I’ll follow the NHS advice rather than yours, ta. 2 weeks off for threadworms? I don’t bloody think so. My child has never had HFM, if they had it and were well enough to go in, they’d go in. My niece had it and felt ill, so didn’t go in. Common sense.

Does my child feel ill? Keep them at home.
Does my child feel basically fine? Send them to school. All the rest is just window dressing.

This is NHS advice though not something that schools have come up with. How are the NHS overreaching by giving advice?

Tonsillitis, glandular fever, HFM and mouth can make children feel horrendous so I do t think it should just be a simple ‘they dont need to be off but let your school know’ as it can affect individuals differently.

All sensible and this is what I have followed - generally.

In addition to this I keep them home with a temp.

No it’s not up to them it’s up to you as a parent to determine whether your child is “so ill” and should therefore stay off, or if they’re alright and should go in. It’s just saying that for tonsillitis there is no compulsory stay at home period like the 48 hours after vomiting one. I don’t get why everyone takes this so personally.

When my DD saw a worm in her poo she was BESIDE herself.

(As were we to be fair but didn't show it)

Then googled and it turns out at any one time approx 40% of 5-10 year olds have threadworms.

That's how contagious and unnoticed they are.

We all took the medicine and I did laundry like an insane person but I didn't keep her off school she was in no way unwell. No itching etc.

So clearly if they’re in hospital they won’t be at school, ditto really unwell with other illnesses. It’s not black and white🙄

A big part of the problem has been the pandemic years when it was ll “protect others” etc, people have been told what to do by the state, amd particularly parents of younger children who were starting school during the pandemic, there has been no sense of “normal” childhood illnesses.

Parents of younger children, through no fault of their own, have not been allowed to rely on their own judgement, and it’s going to take a long time for parents to regain that confidence in themselves

Aside from the usual cold/stomach bugs (she was lucky enough to get chickenpox in the summer holidays), my daughter has only had tonsillitis from that list. There's no way I'd have sent her in, she had a fever, couldn't eat/drink properly and was generally floored. Once her antibiotics started taking effect, probably after 48 hours, I sent her back in. I think it's often common sense when your child is too ill to go to school.
She's never been kept off for a cold, I'm the daughter of a nurse and that just wouldn't happen in my family.

When I was a child in the 80s we had the nit nurse come round and check hair. Anyone with nits wasn’t allowed back to school until they had cleared them and passed a reinspection by the nit nurse, there was less nits

In my experience (15 years working in early years), parents will send their children in to nursery with all illnesses. D&V, chest infections, chicken pox!!

I'm with you on this. Makes me so mad.

If your kid is sick and has something contagious, please don't send them in.

My partner was on a oxygen mask this weekend, my three year old is on antibiotics, and my 5 month old has been to urgent care twice this weekend.. Why... Because kids are being sent to school sick...

Something from my eldest school has taken my whole family down but we've received an attendance letter because I keep him home when he's sick.

World has gone mad. No protection for those pregnant, newborn, or immune compromised.

Sorry for rant. One hell of a weekend. 😂🙏

But threadworms you don’t even notice necessarily straight away.

Then it’s a single dose to treat. Why on earth would you keep them home?

Well no, guidance is needed for specific illnesses. Children can feel perfectly fine with chickenpox, or 12 hours after projectile vomiting everywhere, it doesn't mean they should be in school.

I don't think the guidance OP posted is suggesting that you just drag ill children in if they have one of the illnesses listed, regardless of how unwell they are. Just that the illness itself doesn't automatically require an absence.

I'd keep my child off with a cold if I felt they were too ill for school. But I understand that a cold isn't an automatic absence, unlike something like chicken pox.

If my child had Threadworms or head lice I would treat them in the evening then send them in the next day, neither are serious conditions just a nuisance. As for anything else if they're well enough to be in then yes I would send them, apart from D&V when they should stay off for 48h. School is important and they can't miss days for every little thing, just like I can't miss work for every little thing and can't have my DCs home all the time when I'm trying to work

I think scabies you have to stay quarantined for until you've all been treated. I work in a school and one of the staff had to stay at home due to a shortage of the drug she needed to treat everyone with when her kids got scabies.

But I wouldn't keep a child at home with headlice or thread worms. I've kept a child home with HFM because he felt really unwell. But tbh the rash hadn't started by that point so I just thought it was some unknown virus.

I work in a secondary school and I know that attendance has been a problem since covid. Behaviour is awful too and I think poor attendance and poor behaviour often go hand in hand. But at the same time, I think the drive to improve attendance is going a bit nuts tbh. In my less charitable moments, I think schools are becoming childcare so that parents can go to work to boost the economy <adjusts tinfoil hat>

Edit to clarify: so they want kids in school as many days as possible

My child has never had a day off school

Me too! My daughter was in A+E this time last year with it too. Horrible illness

Who said I had suggested 2 weeks off for threadworms ?? 🤣

I work in childcare and really don’t agree with the hand foot and mouth rule- it can spread so so fast and make some children so poorly! But I guess there’s a few illnesses like that

As long as they wash their hands after wiping their bum then they shouldn't be on surfaces.