5 days til school and flu

[Carouselfish]

Met up with friend and our children. Middle of day, tells me their littlest has just a cold/snotty nose. Two days later my 5 year old has 38.6 temp, snotty nose, exhausted, achey legs, sore throat (friend's other child now has snotty nose, neither of them have temps, but haven't met up with anyone else who's ill, or anyone else at all in fact).

Same evening, I've got it too. DD's back to school Thursday, I'm 37 weeks pregnant with a hospital scan Fri. Obviously, I'll be asking midwife about this and asking school on Monday, but as I'll be stressing about it all weekend so I'm interested in what you think.

Will DD be missing start of school and my appointment cancelled? Would you message friend? And what to say? Have already told her DD is ill with temp. Google suggests it's flu rather than a cold as it's spread so quickly. Of course, it could be that we picked it up somewhere else and have given it to her, but we are super rural and, as above, it's the only meet up we've had in a couple of weeks. I'm annoyed that I didn't get the choice to raincheck. And that I've got so much to do before my due date and was finding it tough anyway. But I really love this friend and don't want to be passive aggressive.

Surely you should all have a Covid test?
Hope you feel better

I think that you need to get tested.
Do not send your child to school until they are totally better.
The teacher will not appreciate an ill and snotty child in the current circumstances.
Hope that you both get well soon.

Will get tested.
Even if DD is better by Thurs, is the consensus that you wouldn't send her anyway? Suppose it depends on if test results are back.
And would you message friend? Doubt she'll get tested as no temperatures in her DC.

Well, if it really is flu then you will be very ill for a couple of weeks.
I think that a lot of people don't know the difference between flu and a bad cold.
I've had flu three times in my life. For the first week you are pretty much bedbound, feverish and exhausted.
Like I said, don't send your daughter until she is well. If it is flu, she won't be well by Thursday anyway.
I can't see the harm in getting in touch with your friend.

The only thing that made me think flu was the speed of it spreading and DD's achey-ness (sp?!). Hope just cold.
Have test booked for tomorrow amazingly!

Yes, it just sounds like a cold.
I really hope that the test goes well. You must be very worried.
All the very best for tomorrow.

Your friend was thoughtless, especially since you are pregnant. Especially inconsiderate in light of the Corona virus situation.

That was pretty thoughtless of your friend. A heads up would have been nice.

You are doing the right things, get through test, get results, isolate and as I have also learned double check with friends about any illness before are arranging a meet up in future.

The Covid Zoe app has found that the top symptoms in children is fatigue, fever, loss of appetite. Snot suggests it's a bad cold but I'd get a test anyway.

Iirc colds tend not to be infectious after a few days/ week so she's probably ok but if Covid is clear, I'd perhaps ask the school what they feel.

When did the symptoms start? It isn't clear from your OP. See you are getting a test now, but you and 5 year old should be self isolating for 10 days from when you came down with the symptoms. Everyone else in your household should be self-isolating for 14 days from that date.

If you haven't got the results back by then, you DD definitely can't go back to school on Thursday. You will need to check about the scan, but that would seem unlikely too.

I’d say it’s a cold. Flu literally puts you on your back. Chances are your daughter will be fine by then.

Yes you should be self-isolating until a negative test?

It’s not flu season yet. Hopefully just a cold but you can’t go in to a hospital until you know for sure?

@Carouselfish

Will get tested. Even if DD is better by Thurs, is the consensus that you wouldn't send her anyway? Suppose it depends on if test results are back. And would you message friend? Doubt she'll get tested as no temperatures in her DC.

If anyone has symptoms, they must be tested and isolate.

Anyone with symptoms, and waiting for a result, must continue to isolate.

So unless you have a negative result, then nevermind the 'consensus', you don't risk going anywhere.

Achy legs is unusual in a cold.
Covid can be as little as 1d up to over 14d with 5d average. What were you doing 5d before the temp.
Obviously could be from nursery or a shop as kids dont have masks on

Book a test for all of you asap.

Do not send back until you have had a negative result and even then, do not send your child until she is feeling better, has none of the key symptoms. You should all self isolate until a negative result comes back.

If for some reason you can't test then you should all self isolate for 14 days.

Tell your friend so she can be aware and take action if need be.

Flu literally puts you on your back.

Every year we have this.
This is simply NOT true.

Like most viruses flu can be mild, serious and anywhere in between.
Likewise you can have a really awful cold.
They are not different parts of the same scale - they are different viruses.

This year of all years I hope we can finally knock this myth on its head!

Well, if it really is flu then you will be very ill for a couple of weeks.

Again this is not true. It is a myth than all flu makes everyone very ill.

If you could have caught flu you could have caught covid, they are both viruses so considering it is very early for flu why is covid not your first instinct?
Covid presents in lots of different ways, the government need to start to acknowledge that or things will get a lot worse before they get better.