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Children's health

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Original poster

Advice please - do you send your toddlers to nursery with colds?

25 replies

imalwaysatthehospital · 14/09/2009 07:21

My LO has got a cold and cough, but no temp, fine in herself and eating.

Would you send them to nursery? LO really wants to go.

Problem is the cough sounds very loud, but she always always gets this and its worse than it sounds. She's been like this since she was little and I'm used to it.

OP posts:

purepurple · 14/09/2009 07:25

Send her. I work in a nursery and wouldn't think twice about you sending her. If she gets worse they can always phone you to collect her.

chocolatefudgebrownie · 14/09/2009 08:01

Yes, I am a mean mummy!

rubyslippers · 14/09/2009 08:02

as long as there is no temperature, DS is sent to nursery

Original poster

imalwaysatthehospital · 14/09/2009 08:02

Thanks, Im going to give her some medicine and send her. She is quite snotty and coughing but is running around here!

OP posts:

Meglet · 14/09/2009 08:06

I would send her as she hasn't got a temp. My ds's nursery (who generally have a pretty strict ilness policy) said that if they stopped children coming just because of a cold there would be no one there in winter.

bubblagirl · 14/09/2009 08:21

if my ds was lethargic with it i would keep him home if other wise in good health id send him colds are so common anyway when ds was in nursery he seemed to have constant cold for the whole 2 years he was there lol only if temp or sickness and diarrhoea did he stay off nursery for the recommended time

MarthaFarquhar · 14/09/2009 08:24

I would send DD if she had a cold, as long as she was not feeling unwell, and no temperature.

If I didn't I have the feeling I would spend the winter months on permanent carers leave.

MrsBadger · 14/09/2009 08:29

agree they only need stay at home with a temp

BonsoirAnna · 14/09/2009 08:32

In the first year of DD's pre-school (she started at 2.10) I definitely kept her home with coughs and colds. Some parents didn't, and basically passed quite nasty bugs totally needlessly to other children. The teachers were not at all keen on bug ridden children going to school and asked parents to keep them at home.

Bad coughs are a real pain as they tend to keep the whole family awake at night. DD caught a cough from a little boy whose mother refused to keep him at home, even though he was coughing to vomiting all night. It made me very angry that she was so selfish as to send her child to pre-school with such a nasty bug.

LadyStealthPolarBear · 14/09/2009 08:35

yes, if I kept him off for every sniffle he'd never be there!
Off for tummy bugs only, really.

elmofan · 14/09/2009 08:37

yes send her as long as she does not have a temperature , maybe put a few tissues in her bag/pocket , or give her a half tea spoon of calpol before she goes in .

Bucharest · 14/09/2009 08:41

Always sent her unless she was visibly not well with it.

pofacedandproud · 14/09/2009 08:46

I agree with Bonsoir Anna. Ds has only been at reception a week and both he and baby dd full of very bad cold, caught from school. Dd has been up all night crying, coughing and temperature. Ds at home today. I understand parents have to work, but sending you child in when they are quite obviously ill, even without a temp [although they may have had a temp overnight] rankles with me.

LunarSea · 14/09/2009 09:13

Yes, as long as they're well in themselves. Would you stay off work for a cold yourself?

Jujubean77 · 14/09/2009 09:17

I also agree with Anna and Po- you can feel totally rotten with a bad cold and need to stay in and rest and chill for a couple of days for your wellbeing. Passing around colds by sending a poor child who is coughing and sneezing goo everywhere is really selfish.

EllieG · 14/09/2009 09:21

Depends on the cold - if it isn't too bad and they haven't got a temp and clearly aren't feeling too bad I'd send 'em. All children get colds, you can't protect them from every wind that blows. When DD started nursery she got a few colds, but I think the exposure has helped her immune system and she now gets fewer bugs than when she was at home with me.

jeee · 14/09/2009 09:24

I bet that half the kids in nursery have great streams of snot hanging out of their noses.

pofacedandproud · 14/09/2009 09:42

well generally I think adults are pretty careless and selfish when they are ill. You may not be able to stay off work if you are ill, but people just don't bother washing hands after blowing their noses, being careful where they cough/sneeze, etc. When I was heavily pregnant I caught very bad flu from a woman who had invited me and ds over for a play date only to tell me how ill she and dcs were. I was very ill. Maybe swine flu has made people more aware about washing their hands, I don't know. the problem with small children is there is virtually no way to prevent transmission other that keep them at home. Colds vary in severity and if babies catch something it can be much more serious.

pofacedandproud · 14/09/2009 09:43

it is definitely the norm though to send children to nursery/school however ill they are, as long as they don't have a temp, so OP you wouldn't be going against the grain.

PortAndLemon · 14/09/2009 10:04

Just being a bit snotty or with a bit of a cough, I send them. If they have a temperature or clearly feel rotten, I don't.

DS more or less always had a cough as a hangover from having whooping cough as a small baby, although it's more or less gone now he's approaching 5 (it comes right back the instant he gets even the slightest cold, though). I know it used to sound quite alarming, but it didn't betoken anything sinister (other than general inability of GPs to diagnose whooping cough for weeks even when presented with two absolutely textbook cases... but I digress).

purepurple · 14/09/2009 18:02

The more exposure children have to germs and diseases, the more resistance they build up to them.
It is very common for children to be ill when they first start nursery/school.
A child who is obviously ill shouldn't be in nursery/school but a child with a runny nose and a cough will be fine.
I have not had a cold for years because I work everyday with children and have built up a resistance.
But if I was to change jobs and work in a different nursery, I would catch everything going for the first few months.

pofacedandproud · 14/09/2009 22:17

that isn't quite logical though. New germs will be coming into your nursery from new children and existing children all the time.

cookielove · 14/09/2009 22:24

i work in a nursery and we accept children with colds, and what most people have said above is true, but i would like to say don't dose your child up on calpol and send them in, if your child is having calpol or any similar medicine then they shouldn't be at nursery, also calpol mask's syptoms and i would not advise it.

Original poster

imalwaysatthehospital · 15/09/2009 08:06

well she went in yesterday morning and ......
was absolutely FINE!

Gave her some natural medicine stuff, she had some karvol on a tissue and she was full of beans and loved it.

Thanks for your advice guys. I didn't want to seem like I was overreacting but I know some people get really annoyed if there's a child with a snotty nose about.

(I would like to add though if she'd had a streaming cold, watery eyes, coughing snot all the time and generally very under the weather I would not have sent her...oh and with a temp!)

OP posts:

bubblagirl · 17/09/2009 07:33

to be honest i had same dilemma with ds but then he had continuous colds for his whole time at nursery so couldnt possibly keep him off if no other illness present its impossible to keep off with every cold as ds never got rid of his for 2 yrs just continuous its how there immune systems build themselves up

his just started school and has his first cold but seems well otherwise so will send in

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