What should we be doing at home

[Helptonight]

Hi all - we have 10 year old who has tested positive on lft (pcr's ordered) my question is how to manage at home? Should he be sequestered in his bedroom? We have been maintaining some distance but feel a bit naff saying you have to stay in your bedroom. We have 2 bathrooms so that's not a problem but should we be remaining completely seperate? No meals together etc? Any guidance/experiences would be apprciated!

@mummabear74

Our 10 year old tested positive a couple of weeks ago on LFT. Went for PCR next day and it was negative. We decided we wouldn't isolate as we'd all been mixing anyway.

Hmm I have seen a few posts about pos lft and then neg pcr - what is the deal if that is the case?

@CagneyNYPD1

When my 10 year old DD tested positive, I carried on as normal within the home. As I would if she had any other virus. But she was asymptomatic and myself and dh are double jabbed. DS13 wasn't jabbed at this point, so I did ask him to be sensible and not sit next to each other. A bit of extra cleaning. But no isolating in her bedroom, no wearing a mask in the house.

We did daily LFTs as well as our PCRs. DD remained well and no one else got it from her.

That's encouraging to hear - this our first experience having any contact with it. I work at home and husband works out doors so we have been v lucky to get this far!

Depends on your own comfort levels with risk. Personally I'd be carrying on as normal.

@PingedPotato

Depends on the 10 year old and any extra risk factors in your family I think.

He is pretty independent most of the time, can keep himself busy. Tbf when he realised no school for a week it did perk him up somewhat!

@RobotValkyrie

We had two household rounds of suspected covid back in 2020: one in the first wave when you had to be admitted in hospital to get tested, and one in the second wave when tests were so overbooked you couldn't get tested.

First round, me and DH got sick as fuck for over a week (my oxygen levels were borderline, ambulance crew was really unsure what to do), whereas the kids got just a bit coughy for a few days.
Second round (about 6 months later), DH got normal-fluey, but DS1(aged 9) found it really hard to breath. I stayed with him (included at night time) and comforted him at all times till he got better. Me and DS2 didn't get any symptoms. And none of us got anything remotely COVID-like since then.

So, just to say... If you're double-jabbed, you're really unlikely to catch it from a child, and even less likely to pass it on. So don't hold back on cuddles.

Wow that must have been frightening especially in the early stages when none of us knew what to expect.

@ThunderboltKid

We had pretty similar here. 9 yr old positive on LFT - we didn’t isolate him but kept windows open and tried to encourage him to keep a bit of space. He doesn’t like physical contact, so he was happy with that. The next day both he & I had positive PCRs, so now we’ve isolated ourselves upstairs, because at least I can keep him company.

Also, ignore everyone who is judging your post. When you first get the positive it’s a bit of a shock and I definitely wondered what we should be doing. Once you calm down a bit you end up working out what works for your family.

Hope he’s not suffering too much.

Thank you for this, I forget sometimes it can be a bit of a minefield on here. He seems to be ok for now just lethargic but eating and drinking ok. I have found out that 3 others from his class in the same boat, we have been v lucky to get this far I think!

When my entire family had Covid in the summer I was wearing an FFP2 mask around them most of the time. We also had the windows open (obviously easier in July than November). I didn't catch it.

When we received negative PCR it said he no longer needed to isolate if he didn't have symptoms and school were happy to have him back. We kept him off as it was neatly the weekend and thought it best to see how he was over the weekend before going back to school.

DD9 tested positive on Wednesday, not doing anything different in the house. I’m vaccinated, DS6 isn’t but they are still playing together.