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Original poster

Had enough of isolating

56 replies

Florabella · 13/06/2021 21:23

I just can't keep doing this. All my kids get coughs when they get colds. My son was binged up with a cold and sure enough today the coughing started. This is the 5th time. 5th time of 3 kids off school while I wait for a test that I know will be negative. 5th time that I have let clients down and this one will cost me about £500. Will it cost my my whole contract? Possibly. I can't just move my work by a day - I have to get someone else to cover me and they get paid unseat of me. I can't fucking afford this on top of having to shut my business for months on end with no support. I could just cry.

OP posts:
musicalfrog · 13/06/2021 21:28

It's ridiculous tbh. There has to be another way.

HareofEasttown · 13/06/2021 21:29

Don't you have lateral flow tests that give results within minutes?

If not why not?

inmyslippers · 13/06/2021 21:31

If you know it's a cough why are you isolating? I don't know anyone with kids still isolating when they get a cough

Nikki305 · 13/06/2021 21:36

My 3 year old has had 8 tests in 11 months. We can't keep going on like this

Wanttocry · 13/06/2021 21:36

@HareofEasttown

Don't you have lateral flow tests that give results within minutes?

If not why not?

LFTs are not supposed to be used for symptomatic people. If you have symptoms you are meant to isolate and take a PCR test.
Original poster
Florabella · 13/06/2021 21:37

Lateral flow tests are only for use if there aren't any symptoms. If you have symptoms then it has to be pcr and isolate, and persistent cough is one of the main symptoms.

I feel more of a mug if I am the only person left trying to do the rights thing. Are you all really sending your kids to school with coughs?

OP posts:
SwanShaped · 13/06/2021 21:43

Most people I know aren’t doing it for kids. Not little ones anyway.

Thirtyrock39 · 13/06/2021 21:47

Op it's a nightmare ...I wouldn't send my kids in with coughs though and would be pissed off if others were. Covid seems to be pretty rife in schools at the moment.

UpSlyDown · 13/06/2021 21:50

OP I test my kids but we don’t isolate pending results. It’s never covid and it would ruin us if we had to. Sorry but that’s life.

Bopahula · 13/06/2021 21:52

My dd is completely snotted up with a cold and cough. It's a chesty cough too. She's feeling grotty with it. But if she's ok in the morning, she's going to school. I'm not testing/isolating for a cold.

buddy79 · 13/06/2021 21:54

I’ve just taken my 2yo for his 5th test today as he has a definite temperature. We will all have to isolate for our 11th time in total, DS1 off school, me off work. Yes we are still supposed to be doing this and yes it’s shit. Sympathies to you and you are doing the right thing.

Nikki305 · 13/06/2021 21:55

@Bopahula

My dd is completely snotted up with a cold and cough. It's a chesty cough too. She's feeling grotty with it. But if she's ok in the morning, she's going to school. I'm not testing/isolating for a cold.
Won't school just send her straight home?
PracticingPerson · 13/06/2021 21:55

@Florabella

Lateral flow tests are only for use if there aren't any symptoms. If you have symptoms then it has to be pcr and isolate, and persistent cough is one of the main symptoms.

I feel more of a mug if I am the only person left trying to do the rights thing. Are you all really sending your kids to school with coughs?

You're doing the right thing, you're not a mug. I'm really sorry this keeps happening to you.
Bopahula · 13/06/2021 21:57

@Nikki305. They didn't last time she had a cold/cough. If she's not well tomorrow I'll keep her off. But if it's just snotty I'll send her.

HSHorror · 13/06/2021 21:58

Could you test as soon as they get any symptoms? So at the runny nose stage?
It's just mine are the same and it almost 100% becomes a cough.

thewinkingprawn · 13/06/2021 21:59

There are heaps of kids with coughs and colds in our school. I don’t know anyone who is bothering anymore and the school certainly aren’t sending home.

peanutbutterandfluff · 13/06/2021 22:06

It’s shit. We are still doing it here OP too and have also had to do 5 total. Nursery expect a negative Covid test with a continous cough. Maybe I won’t bother actually self isolating anymore after reading this thread.

ineedaholidaynow · 13/06/2021 22:11

Don’t the symptoms of the Delta variant also include cold like symptoms? In other countries you would have to test for those symptoms, NHS symptom list should be updated

Gingenius · 13/06/2021 22:12

OP we are the same. DD had Covid too so when she starts coughing I’m even more sure it isn’t Covid, and DS is at that age where he just has to look at another child and he gets a temperature.
We’ve had to isolate 3 times in the last 5 weeks. I work in a health care profession and I feel terrible for the patients on my caseload that keep having their appointments postponed and also the impact on my daughter’s education. I don’t know how to get round it though: a cough and a temperature are what they are. I guess the only way out would maybe for schools to allow them in with a -ve lateral flow rather than PCR….

Bobholll · 13/06/2021 22:14

I feel you OP. My eldest had always been a cougher, GP thinks it’s asthma. We are 20 tests since January. It’s a friggin nightmare. She gets so distressed with them as well.. we’ve wasted a small fortune at nursery as she’s missed 2/3 days a time waiting for results. 😡 I have sent her in with many a cough but only after a negative test. Nursery are fine with that.

I’ve also taken 15 days off work (some unpaid) or juggled my hours & worked until 1am so I don’t lose money. My employer is very good but they are getting frustrated with me. And I feel horribly guilty.

My youngest started coughing this afternoon. I could cry. I’m so fed up of not just being able to be slightly ill & getting on with life. It’s unsustainable! I’ll lose my job 😣

Gingenius · 13/06/2021 22:18

I think for little ones it’s especially compounded by them not having been exposed to so much during the lockdowns. My DS is 2 and I don’t think he had a cold until he was about 15months because of all the lockdowns, hand washing etc but now he is picking up everything going: we’ve had croup, conjunctivitis and chicken pox as well as a handful of colds all in 6months: all of these need time off work even once the isolation ends. Tbh can’t believe he hasn’t had Covid yet!

Bobholll · 13/06/2021 22:19

*I admit we don’t self isolate while waiting for results everytime. If DD seems unwell, we do. But if it’s just a cough & I can head her wheezing, I’ll assume it’s asthma & we go out scooting or for a walk. So far, I’ve not been wrong.

HazeyJaneII · 13/06/2021 22:22

Threads like these give me the wiggins.
Da shielded for a whole year, medically vulnerable with complex needs, but now back at school and unable to get a vaccine.
The only hope we have is that people do the right thing, reading that so many people don't do the right thing, is frankly terrifying.

Gingenius · 13/06/2021 22:27

@HazeyJaneII I don’t think OP was saying not to do the right thing - most people posting on here are doing the right thing but are acknowledging how difficult it is and as some posters have said how much it jeopardising their income. I see it from both sides: DH had to shield and it was terrifying because I had to go to work as a key worker and hope like hell everyone else that I had contact with was being sensible. I have two small children and keep having to isolate and that is incredibly frustrating - we will of course keep doing it to protect vulnerable people but why can’t we vent our frustration at it?

OldScrappyAndHungry · 13/06/2021 22:29

I’m a teacher and have had loads of kids in with coughs and colds.