Son was sent home from nursery today for "persistent cough"

[ppyim]

I received a call from Nursery today requesting me to take my 3 years old son home due to his "persistent cough". When I collected him I asked the staff how often did he cough since he was ok yesterday at home. The staff said "We count about 15 coughs in the morning and may miss some".

Should 15 coughs within 5 hours (8am-1pm) for a kid be a concern at all and resulting in two weeks isolation and waste of Nursery fee? I know in the past my son did not seem to drink a lot at Nursery as he was always thirsty back home. When I drove home I heard only one or two very brief and short coughs from my son during 25 minutes journey.

I think they've done exactly the right thing in the current situation.

15 coughs is a LOT. I'd keep a close eye on him.

Yes, 15 times - even short coughs, is persistent.

At this point it's only right that he was sent home and as shit as it is 14 days isolation is needed.

I had to phone the Corona hotline for advice and asked about the coughing - they said they're looking for a dry cough which can be heard 4-5x over an hour and lasting throughout the day/night.

Thanks all for the quick replies. I will keep an eye on him closely today. If he does catch the virus I will be very worrying about the whole community since we almost have zero social activities and no any report cases around us.

Say if he only has odd coughs in the afternoon (let's say less than 3) and no coughs at night, what would be the implication for this situation?

The implication for that situation is that he and anyone he lives with start 14 days of self isolation. Per the governments advice

That's exactly the type of cough that triggers 14 days self isolation and so they're absolutely right.

However many he coughs from now he needs 14 days isolation- as do your whole household.

Same happened to my son - sent home by school nurse. I dont think he's particularly ill but the point is, no-one knows. So, as ridiculously inconvenient as it is, all 4 of us are self-isolating for 14 days. I don't think there's much room for interpretation to be honest!

Your whole household has to isolate for 14 days now even if he doesn't cough much

Thanks all for the advice. Now he is sleeping peacefully. Luckily we have just done some grocery shopping, hopefully it will last for 14 days.

The reality is that children can present with mostly mild symptoms, but they are still very contagious. So yes, any cough or temperature - you need to follow the guidelines to protect others more vunerable than you.

As an indicator - my 8 year old was a bit 'off', very intermittent dry cough and very mild temperature for 2 days in the evenings. Felt like a bit of a precious snowflake isolating us all, as he was/is really not bad, and in normal circumstances I'd have sent him straight to school.

Husband has today developed a dry cough and is starting to feel pretty grotty.

It may just be another virus, but for the flattening of the curve to work - people need to comply with the guidance.

It's a bit annoying but necessary. My daughter's have hardly coughed at all since Sunday but have to stick to the 14 days just in case.

Annoying but necessary as there's not mass testing and otherwise we'd have loads of people carrying on as normal because they've "just got a cough".

It’s annoying but necessary, my son developed a cough at the weekend, it cleared up by Monday morning. But we have to stick to 14 days quarantine, we live in a tiny flat and my boyfriend is having to stay here.

Not ideal, but it won’t harm us.

They did the right thing. Hope he doesn’t feel too unwell and recovers quickly.

Thanks all yes I fully understand it is important to self isolate to stop virus spreading. I was upset earlier because I am not happy with how the nursery operates for quick a while. They won't care if the kids eat or not and only randomly write down in the diary what the kids had during the day. They tend to send my son home for every excuse. Last Christmas eve they persuaded me to keep my son at home by telling me that he would be the only lonely one at nursery, they could close the nursery if my son was not attending. but I was still charged for that day no waive of fee.

Update on my son: he woke up one hour ago with a good sleep. After 10 minutes curdle he is as happy as usual. No cough for 1 hour. I will keep an eye on him. Since both of us are working from him we are planning for 14 days quarantine regardless.

Maybe if your at home for a few days it'll be an ideal time to find another nursery. If you aren't happy then you should find somewhere better.

Yes Rosebel we did decide to send him to another nursery after Easter break and have given one month notice this Monday. Not sure if this is related anyway.

We have the same here- house is under 14 days quarantine as DD has a fever and cough. Much better now but has to stay off nursery until the week after next.

I have my doubts whether nursery will even be open then as I suspect if the schools close the nurseries may follow.

It’s frustrating but at least we won’t pass any bugs on, or expose ourselves to any further germs. It’s not easy trying to work from home with a toddler but needs must at this time.

thanks everyone again for advice and sharing experience. The little one had only one cough so far when he ate a mango slice. He looks great indeed. At least I don't need to be panic too much in the next 14 days, fingers cross.