Is anyone being stricter than the official advice?

[StuntNun]

My DH has tested positive on PCR and will be self-isolating with his last day of isolation the 6th January (unless he gets negative LFTs on the 2nd and 3rd) as per the current advice for England. However, he also wants to keep the kids off school for two days next week even though the advice says they don't need to self-isolate unless they have symptoms. Is anyone else going beyond the official advice and self-isolating when they don't legally have to?

We all more or less isolated but it was half term so nobody had to miss school. My dh popped to the shops a couple of times before he went down with it, but we didn’t mix/socialise and we both moved our work to home. Four out of five of us did end up getting it, but we still all hung out together at home.

Nope. I had covid in October & my kids still went to school & my husband to work. But they did test every day. Neither my husband nor kids caught it from me so I’m glad they didn’t miss 10 days of their education for no reason at all! We avoided busy shops or indoor stuff mostly.. DH did go to Aldi for essentials but at 8pm when quiet. And he took the kids on bike rides or to the park at the weekend!

Kind of, we have been careful all the way through, my mid teens son has Down Syndrome, advised to shield when cases are high locally, he has had both jabs but booster isn’t due until mid February.
I received the NHS letter last week telling me to keep a PCR test at home and if he tests positive he will be treated with anti virals within 24 hours.
I’m not sure if I’m going to send him back to school next week or lay low until he can have his booster, if I do send him back to school it will be the only risk we take, I won’t socialise and will use supermarket delivery.
He attends a SEN school, they are super careful, bubbles etc. despite this they had their first few cases before Christmas.
It’s truly shit.

Will you be allowed to keep them home longer than the suggested guidance?

The harm caused by even 2 extra days isolation to the kids is likely larger than the benefit from them not attending school. Both are almost completely irrelevant of course.

The guidelines exist to balance the harms caused by isolation with the benefits of isolation over the general population. Going beyond the minimum could make sense to you as an individual in avoiding catching covid as your personal risks may be significantly higher than the general population.

But harming yourself more (even if only mildly) doesn't add much benefit to stopping the spread, and harms you more - of course 2 days stuck in the house does little, but it does do a little - less exercise etc. - but then the chance of a couple of likely non infectious kids not being at school also does very little.

I am definitely much stricter than the rules in England because I am not 100% convinced that Johnson is making the right calls and I want to do my bit. So for example when DD's classmate tested positive at the beginning of the holidays we didn't see anyone much as she was a close contact and we didn't want to put friends at risk before Xmas. The only friends we saw we met outside. Now we're on holiday (self-catering) and I'm mainly doing outdoors activities with the children - rather than indoor ones. Having said all that I will definitely send them to school unless the rules prevent me. School is not optional in my view as they missed so much education already.

Why does he want to do that?

Depends where you are. When we were waiting for PCR results, the school said DCs had to stay home and would have to do full isolation if any of us were positive.
A PP mentioned what they did in Oct but the guidance has changed since then.
Everytime we have called the school concerning covid advice they have always said to err on the side of caution. They don't want covid going through classes or teachers catching it.

My DS had it in November. DH went to work every day (on public transport) DD went to school every day. I mainly wfh but did go to work a couple of times. We didn't isolate DS , but we only did "essential" stuff like work and school and occassional shopping. We missed a party and didn't socialise/go to sports clubs. None of us got it. We each had 2 pcr tests and several lfts.

When are they due back to school?

I would test them before sending them back to school, and keep an eye out for symptoms, certainly.

Our primary asked that dc didn't come in if there was a positive case at home. This was during the height of an outbreak at school, which saw a lot of children off with covid.

Their school is following the guidance so they say it's fine to send them in while DH is self-isolating.

I would prefer children from positive households didnt attend school especially with omicron being so contageous.
Are you dping daily lateral flows and a pcr test on them too to check for infection?
We are be more cautious than rules but one of our children was shielded and is high risk.on advise of doctor we kept children off school from march 2020 till march 2021.
We also took out from school early december by mutual agreement with school due to rising cases. We are highly unlikely to be sending to school in january.

@Newyearnewme2022 if you don't mind me asking do you know why having downs syndrome puts your ds at a higher risk? Just wondering as my 8 year old has a rare genetic condition that presents with similar symptoms to downs syndrome (he has moderate learning difficulties and a few different health issues) but nobody seems to know whether he should be taking extra precautions or not.

We kept our youngest child off school after their sibling tested positive. Five days later they tested positive. Had we sent them to school it's likely they would have passed it to at least some classmates as well as teaching staff. This was the week before school hols. I believe we made the right decision for us.

When DD had it, i worked from home for 10 days and avoided indoor places like cafes but did go for some walks to stretch my legs. We didnt distance from her, but DH and I both avoided catching it.
I think most people do their own risk assessment and decide what they are comfortable with.

@elliejjtiny The CDC first raised the risk for people with Down Syndrome in October 2020 due to some having poor outcomes to COVID, cytokine storm being a factor due to the way their immune systems work.
My sons consultant until then had been blasé about him catching COVID because he has no underlying health problems, she has since changed her tune. I have deliberately stayed fairly ignorant and not researched too much because I know it would put the fear of god into me.

I am furious with the government for not rolling out the vaccine for vulnerable children quickly enough, 12-15 year olds became eligible at the end of July 2021 but I had to fight for him to get it and he didn’t receive his first until September, if they had rolled it out quicker he and others like him would be getting their boosters now instead of 6 weeks into the new school term. I’m even more furious that parents of vulnerable 5-11 year olds haven’t been given the choice to vaccinate their children.
If you look at the Down Syndrome website they say children are at little risk, it’s much more risky for adults, my son is 15 but has finished puberty so is seen as a young adult.
If my son was 8 I would be careful but not overly so.
Sorry for the long rambling reply!

They do say if you are a close contact you don’t need to isolate but should reduce social contacts, WFH if you can and limit contact with others (presumably in case you have it or incubating it). I don’t know if many people do that or just carry on as normal

I would be testing with lateral flows every day and do a PCR after five days. I'm not keen on the government advice to send household contacts back to work/school, it seems completely mad if you're trying to avoid infections. Of course, one night argue they are not, in fact, trying to reduce infections...

God no and if my DH tried that it’d be “okay you can entertain them I’m off out”

One of my kids has now tested positive as well so we're all getting PCRs today (apart from DH.) DS4 is actually delighted to be missing three days of school! I'm still testing negative on lateral flow tests and I had my booster on the 12th December so, fingers crossed, I won't come down with it as well.

@Exhausteddog

My DS had it in November. DH went to work every day (on public transport) DD went to school every day. I mainly wfh but did go to work a couple of times. We didn't isolate DS , but we only did "essential" stuff like work and school and occassional shopping. We missed a party and didn't socialise/go to sports clubs. None of us got it. We each had 2 pcr tests and several lfts.

This I assume is pre-omicron. Sadly if someone tests positive with this strain, it is almost a given that everyone in your family will get it and the potential to pass it on at school/workplace will be far higher. It's not the same now.

@StuntNun

One of my kids has now tested positive as well so we're all getting PCRs today (apart from DH.) DS4 is actually delighted to be missing three days of school! I'm still testing negative on lateral flow tests and I had my booster on the 12th December so, fingers crossed, I won't come down with it as well.

Totally unlikely now.

@TulipsGarden

I would be testing with lateral flows every day and do a PCR after five days. I'm not keen on the government advice to send household contacts back to work/school, it seems completely mad if you're trying to avoid infections. Of course, one night argue they are not, in fact, trying to reduce infections...

Totally agree. What some people forget I think is that it is way more infectious than it ever was.

Maybe so @neveradullmoment99 but at least I should have good protection against symptomatic infection.