Ffs. DC with classic cold symptoms now has cough.

[cheeseismydownfall]

DC has an absolutely classic cold. Day 1 and 2 sore throat. Day 3, snotty nose. Now Day 4 and he is chesty coughing, following exactly the same pattern he has for every bloody cold he has had ever. Almost all the children in his class also have colds, as they have done in the second week of a new school term since time began. WTF are we supposed to do?

If it's a wet chesty cough, it's not a Covid cough. Does it meet the definition of continuous? Getting tested when it's clearly a cold is just a waste of resources. I thought guidance in the press conference was not to do that?

When I went to the walk in I said I had cold symptoms felt rough and key worker should I get a test they said yes.

@Redwinestillfine it was. But everywhere just tells u not to come back until tested. My son has a cold. I know he has a cold. His college know he has a cold. But. They won’t let him in

@Lolly34h

My daughters nursery told me if they are sick and have a bad tummy they need a test as that's a symptom in children

... and this is why there are not enough tests available.

Are they giving him work to do at home when he’s well enough?

Latest big study says kids have an array of different symptoms to adults, including headaches, fatigue, loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhoea and often no fever. Cough is pretty universal though so please book a test.

I thought the guidance was not to test if only cold symptoms. So a cold with a sore throat, swollen glands and sneezing/snot you don't test. But cold symptoms that are also Covid symptoms eg. a cold with a fever or cough, you do test.

So if you have a cold, but are also coughing, you test. You can have covid and a cold at the same time in any case.

Yes well, it's great for Boris to say "oh well, only these three symptoms for a test" when tests are running short. No doubt he'll come back in a month to add tummy issues and say "the science has changed".

The science has changed NOW. There are reports that this manifests as tummy issues in small kids NOW. And it's not Boris who'll lose money if the nursery has to shut for two weeks.

@Sleepyblueocean

"My daughters nursery told me if they are sick and have a bad tummy they need a test as that's a symptom in children"

You daughter's nursery is part of the reason why people who need to get a test can't get one or are travelling hundreds of miles to get one.

They are being sensible. Children are more likely than adults to experience covid related D & V according to research

Ds2 has had the back to school head cold
Kept him off for 48 hours as he felt grotty
No temp at anytime
Eating like a horse
Sleeping well
No loss of taste or smell
No dry or persistent cough
He now does cough wetly occasionally (phlegm) but not often.
I rang the attendance officer yesterday for guidance and she said if he felt ok to send him in.
I think most parents are in the same boat?
Trying to do our best and try and understand the govt guidelines which are pretty wooly.
Ds2 does not qualify for a test according to the Govts website.

If it's a wet chest cough it's not a COVID cough

That's what my neighbour thought when her 4 year old started coughing in April. She was wrong too.

Has he been attending school for the last 4 days. Maybe caught cold in the school.

"They are being sensible. Children are more likely than adults to experience covid related D & V according to research"

Sensible or not there is no capacity for it at the moment. They could stay home for 10 days if they are concerned about covid spread.

Same here, awaiting test results for both kids who have classic cold symptoms (noses streaming with snot - joy!) and a cough which they get every time without fail when they have a cold. One is primary, one is secondary - they have had a grand total of four school days between them so far

My DD started pre-school yesterday.
We had a meeting with the teacher last week and I specifically asked about this. What happens when they have a cold? (Just blocked nose, a bit of snot...). She told me that was expected and that it was fine as long as she was feeling well in herself, didn’t have a temperature or a cough.

It is not very realistic to be quarantining two weeks because of a snotty nose, and if there aren’t enough test available, I am not sure how it is good to get tested for sneezes and a snotty nose, priority should be given to people who present the main symptoms surely.

Ideally, there should be lots of quick test available and then this wouldn’t be so much of a problem.

Same problem here. DS started with sore throat on Monday. Coughing started on Tuesday night. It’s a cold. It’s how he is very time with a cold. Tested yesterday afternoon. Results can take up to 5 days. I’ve lost 2 days of work already. Will lose tomorrow too unless we get a negative result and he miraculously stops coughing tonight.

We are also waiting on test results. Ds1 was tested in hospital yesterday. Hoping for a negative as yesterday was the boys first day back at preschool

Waiting on results now here too. Got home tests through my work(teacher) as none available anywhere...... nightmare. 1 child here with sore throat and cough but no cold symptoms, baby with diarrhoea, up/down temp and sooooo grumpy. Hope results don't take forever. Can see schools having an issue with staff soon if tests take ages, lotsbof school staff have young kids.

The problem is that the three key Covid symptoms in adults are not typical in children. This article explains but it makes it very hard to distinguish from numerous other childhood bugs: covid.joinzoe.com/post/back-to-school
Fatigue, fever, headache, loss of appetite and sore throat are the most common, according to this study.

Mine at least managed to get ill two weeks before the start of term. we managed to get a test and negative result so school has not been effected. I am still occasionally coughing though, (negative test) thus not going out apart from school run. pissed off.

and seconding the symptoms in children are different to symptoms in adults. which is a pain in the arse as we will be in and out of school all term.

Thing I keep thinking is if we’ve all caught just colds this easily, what are we bothering with any measures in schools and workplaces for, when it’ll spread like wildfire if it wanted to regardless!

We have had various letters from our school, health board, etc, trying to discourage us getting kids tested unnecessarily.

Not one has addressed that fact that "a continuous cough" (defined as coughing for an hour, or three bouts in a day) = a cold for lots of children. There is no way around that.

They need to either increase testing to cope with children having colds, or change the symptom list for children.

@Sleepyblueocean I completely agree with you they said 48 hrs with a bad tummy and sickness plus a test. Makes zero sense to me

Jesus.
You do what the government has been telling you to do for the last 6 months.
He has symptoms.
You self isolate until you get a negative test result.

Unqualified people saying ‘it’s not a COVID cough’ and ‘it’s inconvenient to self isolate’ are the reason the government is having to treat us like children.

My actual cobvd started off as the shits and a sore throat, that was it for about a week. I thought it was fairly universally agreed that D&V is a symptom particularly in children.

Surely if there are limited tests you need to actually be testing people who you arent sure rather than people with fairly obvious covid symptoms as these are the ones who will be spreading it