Our school won't give dd her prescribed medicine at lunch time

[twirlaround]

How can this be sensible, and what is to be done if parents are unable to go in at lunch time to give medicine?

I have my DD off today with tonstillitis. Saw GP this morning and got antibiotics. If shes better by end of week I was planning to send her in but then thought 'ah, antibioitics'. Feel like keeping her off until her course is finished out of pure principle!

My last school had over 1200 pupils (secondary), so I would guess there are a fair few taking medication at any one time. Certainly enough to make it quite a large exercise for the office staff. I could see it working better in a smaller school.

I have had a diabetic in my class, just as I have have had /asthmatic/epilectic/nut-allergic children in my class. You read the handout, you make a note of the first aider's number and then you trust the parents and the child to pass on information to you or the head of year as the management of their condition changes.

The thing is poppies, you may be able to do that if you're a SAHM or like me, work from home. But I wonder how women who have to commute to work and work full time, manage. Do they take three days off work or something? Or throw sickies?

Every now and then I think I ought to go and get a more challenging job, not working from home and then something happens like my kids get ill, or I read a thread like this, and I think how bloody unnecessarily difficult life still is for most WOHMs.

Bring back school nurses. We always had a nurse in school and if anything happened to us then we were sent to the nurses office. If we needed memcation then we went to the nurses office. I remember cueing up at the nurses office to get my Rubella injection with the rest of the girls.
So simple solution BRING BACK SCHOOL NURSES!!

I am in 2 minds if the school should give medicine or not. Thankfully, my eldest ds has not needed to take meds while at school (yet!). My youngest ds may or may not need heart meds by the time he is school aged. It is a very big responsibility to give meds to a child that is not your own. The guilt I felt the first time I missed a dose of my ds's hypertensive medication after his surgery was tremendous. Plus, I am not sure that I would trust someone else with something so important (not sure how I would feel it is was an anti-b.) I think that I would ask for the 3x a day variety and then arrange around school hours.

In all honesty, I can understand why school swould want to cover their own backs as we have become a nation that will "claim" for anything........you know, "where's there blame, there's a claim" I wouldn't personally want that responsibility hanging over my head

don't you lot have a school nurse? we bring in the medicine, fill in a form saying "5ml at lunchtime please", she keeps it in her fridge, and the teacher sends whoever needs medicines to the nurse just before or after lunch for their doses.

never heard anything so ridiculous as expecting mothers to come in and pour a spoonful of amoxycillin down a child's throat at lunchtime....

Ours doesn't either. I think we are supposed to either go in at lunchtime, or as I do, try and space the medicine differently, which isn't always a very equal time lapse between doses.

I can see it's tricky, but can also understand why teachers do not want to take it on. If something is 'going round' as it usually seems to be, potentially a class could have quite a few children on anti-biotics which could get complicated. Also, it always seems to have to be kept in the fridge when we get AB's.

I assume ongoing medication ie inhalers may be a different matter though.

The reaction point is very very valid. Penicillin is quite common to be allergic to, and many other antibiotics are based on or around penicillin. And it is rarely the first dose that can cause the reaction. Stranger things have happened than for the teacher to be sued.

robinpud - yes i had thought about the access point which is why I wouldn't put it in school bag kept in the cloakroom. lunchboxes are stored separately. not foolproof but less likely to be tampered with and juniors boxes kept separate from infants (and keeps antibiotics cool). cough sweets etc she takes into class with. i have impressed on her importance of not sharing things like that in case of allergies. calpol i have sent in (school bag kept in class not coat pocket)for her use using sachets rather than bottles. by the way in case you think i am heartless, if she's being sick or is properly ill I do actually keep her at home!