ALL opinions please: when is too ill for school?

[binkie]

Ds has been sent home from school today. School asked us on Monday to keep him off yesterday, so we did, but clearly we sent him back too early for them. [insert sad face here]

To me, he is fine for school. He's at the end of a cold, so quite snuffly still, and is the sort of child who doesn't remember to blow his nose till told; but no fever, perfectly normally bouncy as far as I'm concerned, appetite is fine.

Of course if it were sickness or diarrhoea I'd keep him off till 48 hrs after all clear; but should I really keep him off till his nose stops running?? What do others do?

It might be relevant that chicken pox is raging round the school just now - but he's had that. Might they be being extra-sensitive?

Blimey - he sounds fine for school to me!

Souns fine to me if he is well in himself, and not likely to be passing his bugs onto other children/staff.

If chicken pox is doing the rounds that might be why they are more cautios. Have you asked school why they feel he shouldn't be in school. Tell them he was fine at home.

I'd be really pissed of about this, kids can be snotty for weeks after the start of a cold. Are you working? Have you had to change your plans because of this?

Crumbs, there'd be no-one at all in ds' reception class if runny noses were a cause for absence! I have to say that I base my interpretation of when to keep him off on whether I would stay at home in the same condition, with a bit of an allowance for smallness (ds is 4). So like you, yes to sickness or diarrhoea, yes to a hacking cough or an obvious sore throat, yes to a fever. But he goes into school if his main cold symptom is a runny nose.
Did they specifically say why you were to pick him up early? I would say I hope he's better soon but he doesn't sound too poorly to me

It's a difficult one isn't it? Esp if you work/need to arrange child care. I think that definately keep them off if they are "not themselves" eg extra clingy whingy and moany as this is no fun for child or school staff to deal with, but also I'd say no green snot. The reason being that at this stage the cold is still infectious so could result in loads of other kids/staff being off with it as well. i know its a pain tho, esp this time of year when they just seem to have one infection after another after another.

He sounds fine to me. Our school asks that all children are well enough to participate fully in the school day ie. swimming, gym, outdoor recess, lunch etc and obviously not contagious. Sounds like they are just covering themselves unless he has complained to them about still feeling tired or unwell.

Thanks so much for all the quick answers! LHP, green snot is a new one for me - might well be what they're looking at - he's certainly not running clear or just a bit crusty. That idea also gives me a sensible way of talking to the school instead of being upset, so special thanks.

Re work - I do - but as I've got a 3 yo as well luckily I still have a full-time nanny who can look after ds (and maybe, yes, the school's taking a bit of advantage of that). But next year I won't have anyone to cover this sort of thing ...

I'm not even sure I would agree with the green snot guideline (sorry to differ LHP). A cold is a cold and no big deal in my book. Don't see the logic in keeping them off in case they give the other kids a cold - kids are just as likely to pick up a cold from a stranger in a shop..or at the supermarket, since when people sneeze the smallest 'aerosol' droplets remain airborne for up to half an hour. So you can pick up a cold from getting into a lift vacated by someone with a cold 5 minutes previously....

I always find this really difficult with DS1 - when he gets a cold, he usually develops a hard dry cough that can go on for weeks - if I kept him off for that, he'd be off for yonks!

Update for you kind people interested in others' petty & insanitary worries: I spoke to the school and it was exactly a concern about him "sneezing green", plus he was complaining about tiredness, which is not usual. So I think the school was reasonable; and yet again I've learnt something useful here.

If i kept my kids off school every time they had a cold then they would never be there.

it used to drive me round the bend when ds started at his first nursery, 5 months, and they sent him off whenever he had conjunctivitis which seemed to be all the time. Sometimes I wondered why i bothered paying as he was home more than there. They all have the policy, but some interpret it more sensibly than others. to the first nursery, any eye gunk was 'conjunctivitis', even if it was clearly just cold-related rather than green and gunky. I know its contagious, and maybe I'm just a heartless bi*ch, but as far as I could see it was a circular argument, as the only reason the other parents wouldn't want their children to get it (if they were like me ) was so they weren't off nursery... I.E., if they all got it but weren't excluded, it wouldn't really matter, we could all treat it in our own time and not waste weeks of precious degree study time looking after a perfectly well baby with streaming eyes.

Phew, didn't realise I was still so bitter about it...

Miranda2, DSs nursery has the policy that the children can come back 24hrs after starting antibiotic treatment for conjunctivitis. This is perfectly reasonable since it's not just the children that get it - the staff pick it up too.

he souns fine for school to me too. I kept ds off today but he was iller than that.

sorry, hadn't read other responses before I posted, I see my comment was superfluous really!