What's your criteria for a day off school/how ill do they have to be?!

[Justgivemeasoddingname]

DS 13 came home yesterday lunchtime with a head cold, sore throat, headache, blocked nose. Last night seemed a bit worse so I let him lie in this morning. He's been OK today but not done much, went out on his bike for 15 mins, read a book, played xbox and generally moaned but that's normal
My problem is he would always rather not go to school! He doesn't want to go tomorrow and I've told him I'll decide. The thing is, because he would rather be home and lounge around I think I should send him- it's only a cold after all, but is that too harsh? I appreciate he doesn't feel well but I'm not expecting him to run a marathon, and he is able to learn etc.
How do you decide??

If he's well enough to play on Xbox and have a bike ride I think he was well enough to be at school. I'd send him tomorrow. Mine spent the day in bed or lying on the sofa when ill.

If he was well enough to go out on his bike he should have been in school today...

My criteria is:
Temperature
D and V
Obvious signs of illness eg spots, swollen tonsils
Looking really pale and unwell
= a day off.
With a slight cold or cough or tummy ache they go to school otherwise they'd never go!

Not well enough for school means not well enough to be up in this house, so staying in bed with no devices, just a book.

I'd have sent him in at lunchtime if he was well enough to go out on his bike this afternoon!

yy I agree, up and dressed and riding his bike = well enough for school.

In my house you have to be throwing up or have a broken bone I guess. DD once came home cos she fainted and couldn't sit up without fainting again.

Sorry op he needs to go to school.

I think it depends on the child, as their parent you know them best.

With my two if they are really ill then they will try to get up as usual but complain and keep lying down, curling up, quiet. Usually they are hot to touch or shivering. Anything less then they are dosed up with paracetamol and sent in. They usually perk up once they are at school anyway.

At 13 our school is insistent that they come in unless it's very bad or D&V. Basically even if they are hospitalised they will moan about their attendance level.

Fever (37.5+) that would require repeated paracetamol to reduce; vomiting; diarrhoea; severe pain that isn't totally controlled by simple analgesia.

DD1 (12) has gone to school this week with a broken little toe. There is no treatment. She can't have 2 weeks off school while it heals. So she's gone to school in her trainers (she wears trainers for other physical reasons anyway) and is excused from PE/rough play/kept an eye on.

Bike ride deffo means ok. That takes energy!!

If off school ill there is no xbox or screens, no going out to activities or playing out with friends after school that day. He can read a book if bored.

He would be off with D&V, croupy cough, temperature etc. Not with a cold. He would get a couple of paracetamol in the morning to see him through to lunch and hopefully beyond.

Oh and generally if the school send them home I keep them off the next day. Unless of course it is patently obvious they are fine.

I wish parents wouldn’t send their kids to school with colds.
My daughter picks up every cold going and gets a temperature, horrendous blocked nose, coughs until she throws up, stops eating, etc.
Then she passes it onto me and I have problems arising from having had pneumonia - a cold can fell me for ten days.

If that ONE selfish parent didn’t send their child then it would stop half a dozen kids being sick , passing it onto siblings, parents, grandparents, childminders, teachers etc etc.
I was the leader of a group that had to force my daughters old primary to insist on a 48 hr abscence from school for kids with D&V. A child in my DD class was hospitalised due to getting a sickness bug from a child whose mother didn’t want to take any time off work to look after her sick child . She was off for 3 weeks and it took her 4 months to get back to her pre sickness weight.
School is a place for education - not a childminding service so the parents can go to work. If you work and won’t/can’t take time off then you must have a person who can look after your sick child.

So my criteria is - is it contagious? If no ( think headache, tummy ache,) then she gets a does of calpol and instructions to tell the teacher if she feels worse.
If she has a temperature I usually keep her off.
Sickness and the runs - always off.
And the main criteria is - how does she look? How is she behaving? If she refuses to get out of bed ( no tv in her room) and won’t eat 8 know she’s genuinely ill!
And , if she rallies , I send her in after lunch.
The cardinal rule is also- if you are too ill for school, you are too ill to play out so no going on bike!!
Hope this helps!

You can't stay off school for a simple cold virus, though Yorkshireyummymummy. Half the class would be off all year around. If a child hasn't got a fever, and has just got general sore throat, snivels and cough, they have to just crack on.

What would be the absolute best is teaching good hand hygiene, not coughing into hands, throwing tissues away once they are sneezed into, having hand gels available, etc., which would all cut down on cross-infection.

I think if everyone did stay home with colds, then we wouldn't get as many and would t need to stay home as often! Presumably it would mutate less quickly as well.

Back to the OP. If DC are I'll enough to stay off school, then they are likely to doze on the sofa. If they look miserable, or are in pain they stay off. They have to rest though, and I wouldn't let them or take out of the house except to GP or pharmacy.

I am a stickler for the d&c 48 hour rule but if I kept my kids off with every cold they’d never be there.

I keep mine off if :

Temperature 37.8 for dd, 37.5+ for ds
D&V
Asthma bad
Contagious as in chickenpox / hand foot and mouth / scarlet fever etc
If they feel rotten eg really heavy head cold

Mine have missed days because of really bad colds but they’ve been in with whooping cough (once not contagious) because otherwise they’d have been off for 5 months!

It’s just a case of judging day by day.

BUT thered be no x box or bike riding! mine can watch TV but that’s it.

I'm quite relaxed over sick days compared to my friends with similar aged children, my job is flexible and I work from home a lot so I think am more open to letting them stay off if I think they need it.

D&V I'm very strict and absolutely follow the 48 hour rule, every time.

Fever/looking or acting unwell yes stay home

Coughs and colds are a difficult one, I wouldn't keep them off for snotty croaky etc but if they have been up in the night coughing and are wiped out I will keep them off the next day.

I have friends who dose their kids up and send them in with the mentality that the school will ring if they are bad. Don't get me wrong I'm not judging them they are teachers themselves and time off for them is a nightmare.

I'm a nurse, office based. I've got a horrible cold virus. I've been to work today, not feeling great, but I can't take the day off because I have no fever and I can't stay off for coughs/sneezes/sore throat and aches. So I've just made sure that I wash/gel my hands every time I approach a bed space, try not to talk to patients too much (I do audit), re-gel/wash hands if I cough or sneeze, change my tissues frequently, and generally don't breathe on anyone! It's all you can do in a world where you can't stop everything for every sign of illness. If every nurse/doctor/teacher/ took the day off when they were a bit unwell, there would be nobody at work.

It’s the pits when selfish twats don’t follow the 48 hour rule for d and v.

Makes me furious and want to slap them; too many inconsiderate wankers who couldn’t give a shiny shite about their own child let alone anyone else’s.

Utter cunts. Hate them.

Mine aren't ill that much anymore. All been at nursery since tiny which helps. And we never seemed to suffer with D&V like others did. DS only off school for asthma attacks that have resulted in hospitalisation but he rarely has those these days (viral infections are the big trigger but colds and flu are impossible to avoid and he's building resistance now), DD2 is never ill and DD1 rarely. They've been off for chickenpox, D&V and DD1 and I had a bad cold in the new year so we were both off at the same time. I was more ill than she was, she chilled on the sofa with books and the TV control while I slept upstairs and only got up to feed her.

But he doesn't have V&D tights so I'm not sure of your advice.

I always follow the 48 hour rule for sickness, absolutely no point in ignoring it.

This is a heavy cold, he looks a bit miserable. He had white spots on his tonsils on Monday and I made the mistake of telling him!!

I let him out on his bike for some fresh air. No windows open this house today it's blowing a hoolie. He did perk up a bit today but like me, was a bit more miserable again tonight. I always feel worse on an evening.

I've told him he will go in tomorrow, he can sit and learn. I'll write a note to be excused from PE if it's particularly exerting.

Can't do right for doing wrong sometimes, huh?

And FWIW his attendance was 95% last year (3 days off for long travel to hospital appts) and dd was 97% so we're not in the habit of loads of days off for common colds.

lougle
But if the ‘ patient zero’ who had the sodding cold didn’t come in the rest of the class wouldn’t be infected would they??

That’s the problem with peoples attitudes - “oh, it’s just a cold”. So since it’s ‘ just a cold’ it’s ok to spread it round half the class then?? And these kids take it home to their parents/siblings etc who pass it round work/ college/ high school etc........if only that kid with the cold had stayed at home.
But no! It’s only a cold! Send him in! Can’t be off work! Can’t risk school being cross with us!
Next time I get hospitalised with pneumonia I’ll remember that it’s only a cold. And since you are a nurse with a ‘ horrid cold virus ‘ I say SHAME ON YOU for going into work because, despite your care you will have infected at least one other person.
Don’t you understand how a virus works??
Jeez, it’s coming to something when a nurse is going to work with a ( by her own admission) horrible cold virus. Let’s just hope the people you infect are not young, or old, or ill, or have low immune systems because luckily you won’t meet many of them in hospital will you? Oh, hang on............

Temperature
D&v
Migraine

Needing to sit or lie down apart from loo visits

Sorry yes, if he’s not right keep him off.

Colds are fucking shit and can make you feel really crap.
Not to mention passing on the germs to everyone else.

I too hate the “ It’s only a cold “ bollocks.

I’m with yorkshireyummymummy on this.

Vomiting. Or missing their head

GP here, Dr parents are famous for sending their kids in come what may! Last day my daughter missed she had a urine infection and I was worried she might wet herself at school (primary age), she was back the next day much better on antibiotics.