Stuck at home going mad with coldy dd1 - at what point do you think I can send her back to school?

[Aranea]

Dd1 is almost 5. She has a cold and developed a fever of 39 on Thursday night. Yesterday she woke up with no fever but by lunchtime it was 38.5. This morning again she woke with no fever but because of what happened yesterday I kept her off school. By 3pm it was 38.4. I know I should keep her off again tomorrow but would love you to tell me it would be ok to send her!

Do you think I need to see it stay below 38 for a day before sending her back? Dd2 and I are going nuts here.

I wasn't really saying anything about the adults being off work or not. I think adults can be trusted to do the catch it bin it kill it stuff and should do just that when they're at work (unless they've got a temperature or other symptoms as well when yes I do think they should be at home even if it's inconvenient).

OK - but then you'd keep your kids off school with a cold but no fever, if 50% of cases don't involve a fever?

I would keep them off if they were at the totally streaming stage at the start of a cold because you can make a pretty good guess that that's when they're going to be at their most infectious (and miserable). After that it would depend on how old they were and where they were going.

If they had a temperature at all I'd keep them off till it had totally gone.

It's not just the people you meet directly that matter. Your dd might not be a link in a long chain of infection that spreads to (amongst lots and lots of other people who are fine) someone who is pregnant or asthmatic and dies. Or she might be. But one way to make sure that she's not is to keep her at home until she's completely well.

The more people do that, the fewer severe cases there will be (not to mention the less time off school and work for all the mild cases).

Sniffles towards the end of a cold that can hang around for weeks - that's when I think the costs/benefits can go the other way.

The chances that you're spreading whatever the virus are right down then, and the costs of staying at home for weeks and weeks go up.

But early on, when people are most infectious (even if it really is just a cold), then the costs of staying home are smaller and the benefits bigger. Bigger than usual this year because we've got an extra winter germ (SF) to avoid spreading.

I see your point. Must admit though, I would still be reluctant to keep a snotty child off school just on the grounds of snot!

Anyway, mine is clearly not going to school tomorrow as I don't think I can recall more than one occasion before in her life when she has taken herself to bed and gone to sleep, so she must be ill!