Self isolation and small children

[BlueRaincoat1]

I have a 4 yr old and a very clingy 19 month old. I also have a DH. DCs go to nursery 3 days a week. We both work 4 days a week.

If I had to self isolate my 19 month old in particular would be really incredibly distressed not to be around me for 7-14 days. It would also obviously be very upsetting for the 4 year old.

What is the situation in these circumstances? Can I self isolate with my children? I suppose my DH would have to isolate too, he couldn't be coming and going from the house if I was meant to be self isolating.

My question is - If 1 person is meant to self isolate can the whole family choose to do it for a fortnight, or does it not work like that? Sorry if this is a stupid question. I do believe in doing What is right for everyone, I'm not talking about being selfish, just trying to understand.

I honestly can't imagine not being able to tend to my small children for 14 days when they are crying on the other side of a door.

Following. I’m in a similar situation. We have a 2 and 3 year old, both with additional needs. Very small support network. I have no one other than DP who could cope with both children for an extended period of time.
Been quite laid back up to now, but it’s suddenly dawned on me.

I've thought about this too, given the risks to young children seem so far to be minimal I think I would self isolate with the children at home and make DP move out temporarily to the shed while we sit on the sofa living on crisps, bananas and Hey Duggee repeats.

I have a 7yo, 5yo and disabled 2yo.

Realistically if it came down to it, we'd have to "house isolate"

No way the youngest or eternally clingy 5yo could be without me.

• no way they could be without me if we're in the same house.

I am working on the assumption that if one of us is instructed to self-isolate, then we as a household will do so. Unless you live in a mansion it is fairly unlikely the others wouldn’t get ill anyway, and I would prefer to be with DC than not, and vice versa.

Thanks for replies, I live in a 3 bed house, fairly open plan downstairs, one bathroom upstairs, and a toilet downstairs accessed through the garage . You have to go through the sitting room to get to the kitchen and out the front door. Self isolation would be very hard.

I have a 4 month old that is breast fed and an almost 3 year old. Both very healthy and no reason to believe they would have anything other than mild symptoms. If I was to need to isolate the children would stay with me and my husband would move into his parents house temporarily. If my husband needed to self isolate I would take the kids and move into his parents house temporarily. My husband is a wonderful father but the children would be very distressed to be away from me. I already have to constantly reassure my eldest that I'm going to 'come back' every time I leave the house without her, and if I go out in the evening she will fight sleep until I get home.

Same here. Very young children. All I can think of to do is put structure around the day. So, I am thinking of morning books, breakfast, baby/ kids yoga, painting. TV/ snack. Then school work in afternoon for elder one. if we can go in our small garden some kids of garden activity. It‘d probably be about 10.30am in our house after all that.. kids seem to have attention span of 30 seconds

I would self isolate with my 15 month old. The risk to children, even babies, is minimal. It tends to affect children like chickenpox does- the symptoms are less severe than in adults.

Furthermore, we live in a small open plan 2 bed and it would be impossible to isolate myself from the household.

I think if one of us adults had to self isolate the horse would have pretty much bolted and we would just do it as a family. Dh could get away with a two week stay in one room but every time he needed to pee, I'd have to usher the kids into the garden and then nuke the house in bleach. It's just not feasible.

For myself, I have a bf dependant baby and a toddler with SN who couldn't cope with my disappearance, so if I'm fucked they are too.

We would just hunker down as a family and ride it out the best we could in house.

Anyone in the situation where they don’t have a garden? I have a very active 19mo and we live in a 2 bed flat in London with no outdoor space. As above, I think we would have to self isolate as a household if necessary. But the prospect of not being able to go outside at all and effectively living in one room for 2 weeks without any fresh air is very daunting!