Would you get a test for 3 coughs

[wuickquestion]

My DS has a snotty nose, yellow snot and has coughed once when he woke up, again mid morning and just now. Snot is streaming. He has had a cold for a few days. I have been with him all day. He starts reception on Monday or not

No I wouldn’t, I’ll try to find the info I read that said an episode of coughing isn’t just one cough, it’s an actual coughing fit, so lots of coughs, and that needs to happen at least 3 times in a day. Or lots of coughing lasting an hour, to be eligible for a test.

No

No, I’d watch and wait.

No. My child had a cold and I didn't get a test.

@BornOnThe4thJuly that's what I think too.. just worried about him not being able to even start school. I would only send him if his cold was better anyway, which it should clear in 3 days. The school sent a flow chart saying to test if continuous cough, I'm scared to ask definition incase they say keep him off.

I’m struggling to find the link now, in your situation I’d probably speak to your GP then you can tell school they said he doesn’t qualify for a test.
If the NHS meant a cough 3 times in a day, that’s what they’d say, but it says a coughing episode, meaning lots of coughs as an episode.
If it was easy to get a test you could just get one anyway, but it isn’t, far from it!
I’d try to get your son to blow his nose properly himself, then he can do it at school through the day, this will reduce the chance of him coughing. I’d also give him some cough medicine.
This is as long as he doesn’t have any other symptoms. Kids present differently too, stomach upset and fatigue being very common.

You don't need a test for classic cold symptoms. In fact, if school suggests otherwise you should push back. Best thing usually is to ring the GP so you can tell school you sought the advice of a medical professional and have been specifically told your child is fine based on the trajectory of their symptoms. There was a useful chart on the BBC website www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54145299

It's a continuous cough
Coughing 3 times is not a continuous cough.
Sorry I know it's worrying but I know a couple if people who have had symptoms and struggled to get a test .

DC1 started in reception last week. They've already come down with a streaming cold that they've passed straight on to preschool DC2.

School and preschool have both expected them in as there's no temperature and just the odd snot-clearing cough. I don't know if our school is just very pragmatic though. Hopefully your DC will be good to begin next week

No

No, not a continuous cough

The thing is - if he’s not well on Monday you wont send him anyway. If he develops more of a cough over the next few days then you might need to get him tested because school will likely want the reassurance of a negative test. So watch and wait, because it might clear up on its own, but if it doesn’t he can’t start school anyway so then you can test at that point.

It’s quite unpleasant, the swab up the nose, so I’d not be rushing to get it done if I thought it would clear up.

The bbc link fishy quoted says coughing fits or episodes, that makes it even clearer I think, that an episode is coughing a lot of times all at once.

Sorry to contradict everyone but I called 111 on this and was told a coughing episode was as little as “cough cough” three times in 24 hours. The lady said (after checking with a nurse practitioner) that it wasn’t a single cough (and obviously not a simple throat clear or food gone down the wrong way,) but it could just be 2 or 3 coughs one after the other and didn’t have to be uncontrollable or a coughing fit. I did challenge this at the time but was told unequivocally this was the definition. I don’t know whether this is right / the official position but it does come from 111 - and the whole lack of clarity from public bodies regarding the symptoms is really poor.

No

No,defintiely not, there was an expert on the radio this morning (may have been the person who set up the Zoe app) who said that a cough in children isn't a key sypmtom according to their research. He said better indicators for children are severe headache and severe fatigue

Cold symptoms do not need a test.

No, that is definitely not a continuous cough. Both my kids have had colds the past week and coughing a bit on and off, but that's just a cold. If I was to think that their symptoms warranted needing a test then we'd all have to isolate until such times as we could get a test (who knows how long that would take) and until we got the results. Which of course I would do if I thought it might be coronavirus, but it's not.

@lonesomeBiscuit

Sorry to contradict everyone but I called 111 on this and was told a coughing episode was as little as “cough cough” three times in 24 hours. The lady said (after checking with a nurse practitioner) that it wasn’t a single cough (and obviously not a simple throat clear or food gone down the wrong way,) but it could just be 2 or 3 coughs one after the other and didn’t have to be uncontrollable or a coughing fit. I did challenge this at the time but was told unequivocally this was the definition. I don’t know whether this is right / the official position but it does come from 111 - and the whole lack of clarity from public bodies regarding the symptoms is really poor.

I had exactly the same conversation with a clinician from 111 at 1.30am a few days ago. I made it clear that DD2 was literally going 'cough cough' every 20 minutes or so, and she said (after checking she hadn't swallowed anything hot and nothing had gone down the wrong way recently) that it counted as a coughing episode, that the family must isolate and she must have a test.

I specifically told her that I'd phoned to clarify what an 'episode' was and she said that if she doesn't normally cough and she's coughing, then it's an 'episode'.

I'm really annoyed by this article Telegraph because the expert is saying 'if you have a runny nose you don't have Covid'. Well, fair enough, but the Government guidelines specifically say, and instruct schools, that if a child has a fever, a new continuous cough, or loss of smell/taste, they have to be tested before returning (or the whole family isolates for 2 weeks).

I told the clinician at 111 that I was almost certain it was a standard cold virus, but she insisted that DD2 met the criteria.

3x in one 12 hour period is not a recurring cough.

50 x in 3 hours is a continuous cough. I'd still wait a few hours, though, to see if it was that constant.

Yet the nhs site says 3 episodes in 24 hours is classed as continuous, and 111 say that 2 coughs at a time counts as an episode.

They so need to pull their finger out and get testing capacity increased, and I think they should change the criteria for kids needing a test as well. Especially as 111 are giving the info above about what a coughing episode is.

The ZOE research shows this -

The top five symptoms in school aged children who test positive for COVID are; fatigue (55%) headache (53%), fever (49%), sore throat (38%) and loss of appetite (35%). This was different compared to the App’s data on adults; fatigue (87%), headache (72%), loss of smell (60%), persistent cough (54%) and sore throat (49%). In addition to this, research from the app has also found that one in six (15%) children who test positive for COVID also present with an unusual skin rash.

I don't want this control stuff anyway, I want the Swedish model.
So it's easy for me to shrug at NHS guidance & say it's unhelpful.

3 single isolated coughs in 12 hours is not continuous or persistent by any sane definition.

No. I cough regularly. Always have done. Wouldnt dream of clogging up the testing system for a couple of coughs

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/17/children-runny-nose-do-not-have-coronavirus-expert-insists-demand/

@dementedma

No. I cough regularly. Always have done. Wouldnt dream of clogging up the testing system for a couple of coughs

But that's fine, because you'd be alert to 'coughing that is worse than your normal', not 'coughing persistently'.