Confused about under 5 LFT guidance

[Willow4987]

DS1 has tested positive on a LFT today, rest of the household is negative

DS2 is just under 2 years old and guidance says it’s not recommended to test regularly on this age group

So do I just test him again towards the end of DS1 isolation and hope for the best, test him regularly against the advice or just not test again at all??? The guidance is really vague about this age group

I was initially thinking that we would have to test him daily like we will be doing to ensure we caught any positives early so as not to delay isolation but concerned when it says it’s not recommended to regularly test this group. Is it harmful to them in some way??

Just to say we will all isolate alongside DS1 anyway as there’s no way we can distance from each other as he’s only 3.5 years old.

I tested positive last week and DH tested positive yesterday. We're keeping our 3 yr old at home with us but I'm following the guidance and not testing her. It's beyond a fight to test her so will only do it if we have to. Obviously if she has symptoms we'll have to, but not whilst she stays well.

Are you keeping her at home for the full 10 days or will you let her out if you both test negative on days 5 & 6 as per the guidance?

I work in an early years unit and our local public health teams have asked us to advise this age group to do daily LFT's if it's isn't distressing to the child and it's acceptable to the parent.

If daily LFT's are too difficult, a one off PCR around day 5 is better than nothing but as a very young close contact, you're not obliged to test at all. If he developed symptoms then testing is advisable but alternatively you could just isolate him for 10 days.

It all depends how traumatic testing him is, really.

@Opihr yes it’s very traumatic for him (and us!). He has to be pinned down so that we can test him without hurting him with the stick thing. He’s very young for a 2 year old and not verbal yet so he doesnt understand what we’re doing at all. I’d rather not test him if we didn’t have to and will probably just isolate him instead