To be annoyed that a mum who is ill with swine flu sent her son (7) over to our house to play?

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My youngest is 4, and was diagnosed with Asthma when he was one years old. He has been admitted to hospital on several occasions with breathing problems when he has a cold. Colds normally turn into pneumonia for my son.

I only got to know about it when I called her to let her know her son was at ours. We had been chatting for nearly 15 minutes when she casually told me she was on tamiflu as she had been in bed with swineflu since sunday.

I told her I would send her son out to play, as my youngest is in a risk group. But she knows this!

I think it affects people differently. I have a friend who works in the high dependency unit of a major kids hopital and when the families of kids with SF werew swabbed back in the summer some of them only had mild symptoms such as low grade fever and sore throat and yet tested positive.

This is why I think it's a nasty flu - noone knows for sue how you will react.

It's the thoughtlessness in this particular case.

OF course if the OPs ds is at school he will be meeting people every day who have been in close contact with somebody with swine flu- you can't expect schools to be closed indefinitely while the epidemic is doing the rounds.

But in this instance, the mum didn't have to send her son over to play without making a quick phone call first; it would have been the courteous thing to do.

Her son has not had it, yet.

Yes my son is in school, and most likely it will be him who brings it to our house. However, my oldest has been unaffected by any cold or tummy bug going for the last year and a half, he has been of very good health, and I am therefore not worried about him.

My youngest is in a small group in his preschool. There were 3 confirmed cases of swineflu in his school back in the beginning of September. It was contained in this one class, and it did not spread beyond those three children. The staff are very good at sending sick kids home. This automn, I have not seen even ONE runny nose.

I can assure you that I am not pfb-ish, but I am worried for my youngest son, as I have seen how bad it can get for him. He has had breathing problems since he was born, and was so bad with bronchiolitis at 6 months I had to take him to the doctors twice a day to sit on a nebulizer. The same again 3 months later, and at 1 year. The noises he made as he was trying to breathe put the fear of God in me. I dont want him to get swine flu.

Especially not now, as I have to be away for next week helping my sister face her ex husband in court over access. This is just another worry, my dh alone with two kids, in a country where he is not able to fully communicate as his Norwegian is quite rudimentary. I would not be so worried if I was here too. But as it is, 13 people have already died from SF here, and most of them kids, and this is a population of only 5 million. ...

Well it would honestly not have occored to me to check with anyone before sending my dc over to play, if the playdate had already been arranged.

If you knew someone's ds had serious asthma would you have checked though island of sodor?

No, it wouldn't have occured to me. I have serious asthma myself.

The playdate hadnt been arranged. The boy turned up surprisingly, as his mum had urged him to just go play at ours. He lives on our street.

islandofsodor, I find it strange that you have so little empathy for others who have young children with the same ailment as you yourself have. Maybe because you are so well with it? Maybe beause the illness does not terrify you, as you have lived with it so long. Maybe because you were never your own mum - and worried about a child?

Like my neighbours, they are in their late fourties, both smoke, both have asthma, and neither can be bothered to get the vaccine. Clearly not overly worried about their own health.

There are many reasons for not getting a vaccine other than not being bothered !!
I can understand why you are worried for your DS but lets hope that if he didn't succomb when it was in his preschool ,he isn't going to get it.
However I still don't think it is reasonable to contain a child who is showing no symptoms.