6th coronavirus test since August - am I misinterpreting symptoms?

[Chance51]

I have a 15 month old son and we are considering taking him for his 6th coronavirus test since schools went back in August (we live in Scotland). I am a teacher and have missed an enormous amount of work due to this. I thought everyone would be doing similar but most staff at my school haven't had a single absence despite coughs and colds being prevalent.

My son has had a new cough on five occasions that we've tested and a fever for 24 hours on the other occasion. For the times when he had a cough it was always accompanied with a runny nose and seemed very much like a typical cold, which is what I assume they have been as all our tests have come back negative.

I just feel like I must be mis-reading the symptoms which trigger getting a test somehow? Is everyone else with children this age testing each time they get a cough..? For people who's toddlers have had coronavirus, did the symptoms look different from a normal cold?

I think the winter after a baby turns 1 they seem to catch every cough and cold going so it's probably just bad timing.

Since March my 4yo has only had 1 runny nose. The winter after he turned 1 I think he had a cold every other week plus the flu and an ear infection - fun winter!

Yes, you are misreading the symptoms.

Snotty nose isnt a symptom, snotty noses cause a post nasal drip in the throat, this causes coughing. It's also really common for children to have random temp spikes whilst their bodies are learning to fight all the germs they are exposed to in nurseries.

@SpnBaby1967

Yes, you are misreading the symptoms.

Snotty nose isnt a symptom, snotty noses cause a post nasal drip in the throat, this causes coughing. It's also really common for children to have random temp spikes whilst their bodies are learning to fight all the germs they are exposed to in nurseries.

I tested because I had a very slight tickly cough, plus all regular cold symptoms, runny nose etc. I only tested because I knew people at work would worry about the cough but it came back posiitve, so who knows?

I'm day 6 now, cough is practically nothing but I have a runny/ blocked nose and a killer headache.

I suspect based on my symptoms, I had a test I shouldn't have.

Children get tummy aches, rashes, diarrhoea, go off their food. Much more likely

You are right. But unfortunately because a runny nose/sneezing isn’t a symptom that requires a test many people have interpreted this to mean that if you have a runny nose/sneezing that you definitely don’t have COVID.

I had what I thought was a cold. Then I had a slight temperature. I got a test because that’s what the rules say fully expecting it to be negative because it was just a cold. My test came back positive.

The test and trace person asks about any other symptoms you have as well as the main 3 and specifically asks about runny nose/sneezing and I was told to treat the first day of cold symptoms as the first day of having coronavirus symptoms. She said they were finding that those symptoms were very common in kids that test positive, probably because they are just generally common in children.

You are not miss reading symptoms- you describe a cough and a fever which are the two of the four main test worthy symptoms. If you are doing it right, then you absolutely should get a test.

The issue here is that you have a 18month old child who is coming across every respiratory virus as a ‘novel’ virus. This will lead to ‘over testing’ but what else can you do? It is wrong to suggest you can tell the difference between different coronaviruses just because of a runny nose!! The symptoms of COVID are a much broader collection of symptoms than the test criteria suggests and they are even more broad or “atypical” in young children.

You are between a rock and a hard place. Personally, I would continue what you are doing. The excessive time off is due to the protracted time it takes for non NHS staff to get a test and a result, not because you are work shy. What you are doing is protecting your school community and by extension the wider vulnerable community. This is important and I thank all the mums out there who are careful and supportive of the Government’s guidelines.

For full disclosure, I am a doctor and worked as the admitting doctor for covid patients in the first wave.

Agree that you’re unlucky with the age of your DC. We braved ourselves for carnage as both DSs run a high temperature with colds and they (to my utter amazement) haven’t had any. But, thinking back, DS1 stopped the endless colds about when he started school and DS2 has just started. And I can’t help but think that the hand washing is helping.