WWYD - postpone nursery until flu season passes?

[westlondonmumof2]

Would love to get some views on a decision I am mulling:

DD1 2.6 about to start nursery two mornings a week (purely for socialising purposes). DD2 is 16 weeks. We live in London. Family friend who's a doctor (altho not in UK) has advised I postpone nursery for DD1 as well as all other group activities as he believes there will be a second surge of the illness come Sept and the risks outweigh the benefits, esp the risks to DD2.

I am concerned about the safety of the vaccine tbh and may not take it up if offered. Obviously, the above approach is not guaranteed - otherwise could not buy food, use public transport, basically not go anywhere etc - but would drastically reduce chances of getting swine flu.

Anyone else in the same boat and considering going into semi hibernation for a few months til the anticipated "resurgence" passes? Or am i overreacting? Am inclined to let her start and then pull her out if predictions prove correct, even before any actual cases reported at the nursery...

I'm not convinced it would drastically reduce your chances of catching s flu

I have vaguely considered it as I'm humungously pg, and REALLY don't want to catch SF, and obv I will hopefully have a newborn babe soonish, which is also worrying. However, I think you'd be hopelessly optimistic to think that the "threat" will be over in a few months, and therefore you're looking at a WHOLE winter of hibernation

Agree with idea of pulling DC out if there's an actual outbreak in the area/country.

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I empathise with your post in the sense that SF is a scary thing to ponder (and I have big SF anxieties) and not something we would want for our children/ourselves.
I'm not in my comfort zone when my kids are ill . I also live in London.

This said, I wouldn't be inclined to give up nursery if it is something you would otherwise consider to be of a benefit to your DD and yourself.

I'm not sure that socialising with children will necessarily increase her risk, if you live in london. It could be contracted just as easily popping to the corner shop, baby clinic, the park, the tube wherever. If there was a confirmed breakout in the nursery then you might want to think about removing her til that's past but otherwise I'm inclined to think that putting life on hold for something that it's partly out of our individual control will we have potentially exacerbate any anxiety. Would you keep her away from a birthday party for example? Or a restaurant?

Dilemma456 is right though, she will pick up some things as she goes but it will happen at some point whether its now or at school.

I have found that if I mentally erase the 'swine' from anything I read about 'swine flu' so that it just reads 'flu pandemic etc', I'm more inclined to think about from a calmer perspective!

Hope this helps.

Cookiemonstress is right - take the "swine" out of the equation, and it isn't so scary. I'm very very pregnant at the moment, dd may or may not have had it, I've had relenza as a precaution though. And I am concerned about what might happen to the newborn if he/she gets ill. BUt dd is 6 and at school and I can't keep her out, and ds is nearly 4 and will be going to pre-school as usual.

That said, I did keep him off for the last couple of weeks (only 2 afternoons a week) of term because there were 6 "diagnoses" (Untested) of flu in his pre-school, and because we had holiday plans and pre-school not as important as big school.

If dd did have it, it was way way less serious than the seasonal flu she had before christmas where she was soooo ill for about a week. But I know that there is talk that the winter resurgence may me more serious flu.

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