To send my DC to nursery with a cold?

[Cloudbow]

Nursery have told us that there’s a child in my DCs room that is vulnerable to respiratory illnesses and to think about it keeping children home if they have a respiratory infection. My Dd has a cold and a mild cough currently, aibu to send her in to nursery? No temperature or vomiting so usually she’d go in no question.

We don’t have any family back up and we can’t take time off work to look after children that are well enough to go to nursery so we’re going to have to send her in. Should I mention it to the staff tomorrow when I drop her off or just send her in and don't say anything?

Your child will probably get sniffles much less, because if children have to be off with sniffles then they won't pass them round. I imagine you will find nursery just refuses to accept your child if they have a sniffle, because they can say they won't, and then do so.

Well no because I also have a child in school, so they bring home colds and my dd catches them. I’m not sure the nursery can tell me to take dd home unless it’s in line with their policy, which is a temperature above a certain amount or D&V, if they changed their policy once colds then they’d probably lose most business. But they can make me feel guilty about it which I want to avoid.

they are a private business. There is no law saying they have to take sick kids, there is one saying they have to go a certain way to meet the needs of disabled children.

Wonder how it works if the vulnerable child is the only one left at the nursery as all the other parents need reliable childcare. They'd soon be out of business

They’re a business though, they won’t be able to run if everyone takes their DC to other settings instead. Which we will do if they enforce this.

Yes and how the nursery intends to meet the needs of a vulnerable child is for the nursery to manage, not the OP.

If your child is well enough to go to nursery then they should.

It depends how sick, if snot dripping down their face then no, obviously they'll make everyone sick. Mild cold, fine. And obviously if they're happy and not miserable. I cannot bear to see miserable, sick children who really should be at home with a parent, that's heartbreaking.

Tbh my child's nursery is quite strict on this and I find it works much better, kids are sick much less often because they aren't constantly spreading bugs around. My child has a few mild colds a year compared to other kids I know who always seem to be sick, and often with really nasty things. In saying that, if this child is vulnerable they probably aren't suited to a nursery setting at all.

As a parent of a child who is susceptible to respiratory illness (she was admitted to hospital 9 times during her first year of nursery with Brochilitus needing oxygen) I would say send your child in.

I asked doctors on multiple occasions if i should take my daughter out of nursery to give her a break from the constant viruses and their answer was no she needs to build her immune system.

There is no point in keeping your child off, I could guarantee other children will still be sent in, and staff will still attend.

As the parent of the sick child I know it’s awful, but they are the ones who should be questioning if they should be sending their child in if the medical situation is that precarious, not you.

Thank you for saving me a rather tedious job in explaining the obvious to deluberately obtuse posters

Exactly.

Nursery are being awful here, trying to be "inclusive" but protect all revenue by foisting all of the burden, risk and blame onto parents!!

Id be looking to move nurseries anyway op this feels underhand

YANBU Send your dc in.

The nursery may be short staffed, unfortunately I have known nurseries ‘advise’ parents how ‘it would probably help little Joey to have a day at home’ and then say- well let us know if you’re bringing him in as we need to call our bank staff to come in as he would tip us over ratio…

Send her in and don’t even say anything to them. There will always be at least one child who is sniffling and coughing. Always.
It really isn’t your problem op, If the child is that vulnerable then they need to be kept home, not everyone else.

Frankly if you keep them off with every snotty nose they’d never be in

That's not the same, a baby group is an hour or two and can easily be skipped without consequence, this is a formal childcare setting (which doesn't sounds as though it is suitable for the other child, sadly)

Some of the other mums have been messaging about it this morning and I’m they all have the same view too, and they won’t be keeping their DCs home either. I feel better about it now as it won’t just be my DC.

Small children in nursery get a lot of sniffles. It wouldn’t be feasible to keep them home for every single one- you’d likely lose your job as you’d never be there. Franky, the other child’s immune system isn’t your problem and I think it’s pretty selfish of the parents, presuming it’s coming from them and not the nursery trying it on to deal with staff shortages, to chose what is clearly an unsuitable childcare option (why not a nanny or a childminder with a smaller germ pool) and then expect nursery to revolve around them whilst everyone else risks their jobs. Nope. My child would be going in. But I would give nursery a heads up that they have a cold so they could inform the other family and they could decide what they wanted to do.

If it really is just a mild cold then I would just mention it to nursery so the parents of the vulnerable child can make the decision themselves.

It's really hard, my son went through cancer treatment last year which meant no immune system and infection after infection but they already miss out on so much and you want to protect them yet let them be a child at the same time.

I assume then the staff or off on full pay if they have a cold?!

There was a child in my kids class with CF. We were all extremely mindful to not send our children in sick.

No.

You're what's wrong with the world today.

Utter selfishness.

This. It’s upsetting now little people are thinking of the child.

I don't think you're being fair, the flu yesterday keep them off but you can't keep a child off nursery for sniffles. If the child is very vulnerable they are in a terrible setting as half the time it won't be obvious if a child is contagious

Are you sure it's not hay fever? The pollen levels seem very high (to me) right now.