Would you send reception child to school today ? Illness related

[savetheday]

My threshold for illness and sending my child to nursery has always been very low. So any slight issue, I tend to keep her home.

She's started school now and her brother has had a fever for a few days. She woke up today and I took her temperature at 38. I told her she may not be able to go to school today and she was distraught because she's going to miss her friends, bless her.

Anyway, she's downstairs now and the temp seems to have come down on its own at around 37.4, some times 37.7.

In my opinion, she should not go in today.

What would you do ?

As I said, my usual threshold is low but I understand that now she's at school - she'll sometimes need to go in even with a sore throat or something but I draw the line at waking up with a fever ? To me that means she's not well and coming down with something.

She says she doesn't have pain anywhere.

Thanks, yeah that's what I'll do.

@savetheday I have only read your posts and it sounds like you had an unnecessarily hard time on here. Child waking up with raised temp, seeming a bit off colour when there is already illness in the house is one of those situations that is ‘borderline’ IMO. FWIW, I don’t think you would have been wrong to keep her off but I don’t think you were wrong to send her in, either. It’s a judgement call isn’t it.

It sounds like she's just had a lot of things, you can't help that! She'll probably get fewer things this year, it sounds like her class is small which will help.

If mine has a fever in the night it wakes him up so i'll tend to dose with Calpol or nurofen, so I don't send him in because it's probably just controlled by that and it's usually been a disturbed night. It doesn't seem fair on him or anyone else so I just let him sleep and call school. He's either thrown it off after a good sleep and goes in the next day or needs topping up with Calpol. I don't send him back until he's got through a night with no fever without needing medicine.

Just do what you think, you know your child. keep an eye on the situation, speak to her teacher when she's back from this and check that your approach is fine. If she seems to be having a lot of time off then review but don't worry about it yet!

As reassurance...
In one year, DD got..
A bad cold (1 day off)
A d&v virus (6 days off, it was nasty!)
Scarlet fever (2 days off)
Impetigo (3 days off)

Plus a weeks holiday (agreed by the school before the illnesses).
So 17 school days. We had no problem with any attendance monitoring as they were all authorised absences. It was just one of those things.

...I just meant it sounds like you have school anxiety? Jeez 😂

Our school said to send them unless really unwell as they tend to perk up.
As they said they will pick up loads of common colds and generally OK

D&v obviously is a stay home, as is other contagious things like chickenpox.

Can I send her in today ? She seems completely fine, wants to go to school, but still has a fever between 30-38.5.

Realistically I don't think I can send her but just wonder if anyone has sent a child under these circumstances ?

She didn't wake up last night at all. I touched her forehead a few times and she didn't seem warm and I was convinced I could just send her in today.

Then I decided to just double check her temp and realised she still has one. I guess I shouldn't have checked !

I assume there has been no sickness or diarrhoea? Has she eaten her breakfast? How is her appetite?
This is another judgment call I am afraid OP. Don’t think you would be wrong to do either. If it was me, I would probably keep DS off but that’s just me. Give her an extra day to recover? She clearly has a virus of some description and she is fighting it off heroically, bless her, but she does still have a virus and could potentially still pass it on I guess

NHS says don't if they have a fever, I'd keep her off but speak to gp today and see what they advise, fever with no other symptoms is odd.

@Errors no sickness or diarrhoea. I tried to give her some toast, which isn't he's favourite, she didn't want it. Then I said that maybe if she has some, she could potentially go to school. At this point she perked up and had a couple of bites.

I just found a bagel, which is what she likes. I will try that. But yeah realistically, she does need an extra day of just being cosy inside at home to get better. Maybe if I send her in, it will prolong things.

I went to the doc yesterday actually because I was a bit worried about that.

It seems she does have some phlegm in her throat on examination so it's most likely upper respiratory tract infection.

It's just not a very obvious one with lots of snot and coughing at the moment. She said her mouth hurts so maybe she has a sore throat as well.

I find if you get them up and about the temp often drops. I’d get dressed and breakfast down her. Bit of calpol and make the call just before you leave. I think I’d be sending her personally.

Yeah she doesn't want to eat anything. I am going to call it today and keep her at home again. She's also just sort of seeming a bit down now and wants to lie down. I think tomorrow she will be good to go in against

If she’s not eating and not happy in herself wouldn’t send in either.

well done for getting a GP appointment! ours is really good for seeing kids fast too, it really helps!

Poor thing, probably the same thing as turned into an ear infection for your son, hope she feels better soon! It's so hard when they're that little, they're not great at recognising that they feel a bit rough or communicating it and the draw of fun with friends is strong! It's fab that she's so keen to go into school though, I'd see if you can have a chat with her teacher when she goes back about absence and what they want you to send her in with - I suspect the teacher won't want to catch things either and isn't thrilled when parents dose with calpol and chuck them through the gates.

@savetheday hope you had an ok night and the kids are doing better today x

Thank you ! Kids are back at school and in nursery now.

Well all the pieces were there to make this an unsurprising development.