How many days did your DC miss this year? What's "average"?

[PoppyWearer]

From what I saw on MN and observed from friends' DCs and at our school, with the cold winter there seemed to be more illness than usual this school year. Right?

Somehow DC1 (just finished Reception) escaped relatively unscathed and had one day off all year, when she had a bad cold and was completely exhausted. There were days back in Jan/Feb when almost half her class was missing, so how she managed not to catch any of the nasty bugs going round is a miracle!

(Not at all a stealth boast - there were other children in the school that managed 100% attendance (DC1 was upset she didn't get a sticker for attendance). Which absolutely amazes me!)

How did your DCs get on? Just curious if this was a bad year or not, and what to expect in years to come.

Dredging my memory as a child, I can recall missing a few days due to usual childhood illnesses, but did have one or two years with 100% attendance, when I was a teen.

DD - 1
DS - 0

I'm a teacher and usually I have a couple of days a term off - very bad cold, chest infection or a throat infection. I'm asthamtic and despite what one poster said on the first page, some colds affect people in different ways, some worse than others and believe me, it can be pretty grim to have to teach to a class of thirty with a streaming, nose and eyes and not being able to teach phonics properly because you can't make some of the sounds!!! Also grim for thirty kids to be staring at it!!!

Anyways, this year for me has been horrendous. In fact horrendous for the school. At one point we had to contact disease control or similar at the council for advice as we thought we may have had to shut school to stop the spread of viruses.

I arrived back at work in September after 9 months maternity leave so had zero immunity to all the usual bugs and germs. I have just triggered a 'meeting' due to so much time off but this year I have had; 2 x throat infections, 2 x tummy bugs, flu, bronchitis, ear infection a sudden and horrendous allergic reaction to penicillin which required an immediate trip to a&e from school, colds and god knows how many UTIs!!! And that doesn't include my sons chest infections and measles (despite having jab - he was that 1 in 10).

This year, my family has been damned unlucky with the germs. Some people are lucky to have a fighting fit immune system and everyone responds differently to infections, even colds. I know of one child who had 5 chicken pox spots yet another who was covered from head to toe (when I had them aged 2, I was hospitilised!)

I also have children in my class though, that have time off because they're tired. One girl has 80% attendance and aprt from 2 weeks when she had a tues/weds or weds/thurs off, every one has been a monday or a friday - typical days for feeling tired.

Blaggers.

Of course nobody is going to admit on Mumsnet of all places their child has less than an impeccable attendance record.

But take away this information and process it as fact and you'll be happy enough living under your acquired illusion.

A bit relieved to see a few lower attendees on the thread now. My yr.1 dd missed 21 days this year. She had the chicken pox and also recurrent tonsillitis. She had tonsillitis six times during term time and gets a scarily high temp with it. Also she is asthmatic and high temps have a tendency to trigger an attack.

The school have been totally fine about it.

WTF Flyingtree?! Nobody here is blagging or lying, you can see the spread of attendances people have experienced. My family have been lucky this year, but it would have been a different story three years ago at nursery I can tell you.

Dd1 (year 7) 0 days (usual-she hasn't had a day off since year 3 when she had pneumonia)
Dd2 (year 4) 10.5 days (4 medical appointments for long standing condition-usual; 1 day (in 2 halves) for medical appointments for new condition-not usual; 1 day approved absence for sporting activity-never done that before; 4.5 days illness-about usual-2 sickness bug days and 2.5 days migraines)
Ds (year 1) 16 days (mostly ear infections, but tonsilitis too, unusually little he had double that the previous year)

DD got 95% attendance. She has time off for chicken pox and tonsillitis. Also 1.5 days when we went on holiday (authorised).

Thinking back to my own school days... Perhaps 3 a year? It was usually a heavy cold that got me days off. Very occasionally a sickness bug.

This year DD2 had 100% and DD1 only missed half a day as she was sick on a friday lunchtime and sent home.

DD1 has been at school for 6 years and DD2 for 4 years. The maximum either has had off is 3 days a year.

They both get bad throat infections but usually these are in holiday time.

Ds - 3 days (year 2) - chest infection
Dd - 16 days (reception) - tonsillitis, nasty coughs, temperatures

Added to dd's days off for illness, she also picked up a verucca and a wart on her foot. And both kids got nits!

All of the above resolved over summer.

People's kids on mn don't seem to get ill as much as mine. All the bugs come from school though. I always send mine back fit and healthy and full of energy, lasts a few weeks until the bugs start going around.

Dd - 98% attendance, 1 day authorised hol and first 2 days of reception for vomiting bug, first time she has ever vomited!

Ds - 94%, 1 day auth for hol, 2 for vomiting bug and remainder for two bouts of tonsillitis. I was really pleased as the previous year he had tonsillitis at least 4 times and getting time off work was awkward!

1 day after a hospital admission (burn, nasty), 2 days with a winter flu virus, temp so high he couldn't stand.

Then 5 days excluded, which is authorised absence. Don't comment please, I am still on the edge of tears when I think about it and it was 2 months ago.

DD1 has endometriosis and is at college. She's probably had between 5 and 10 days off all due to the endometriosis.
DD2, DD3 and DS2 have probably had between 2 and 5 days of each due to illness.
DS1 has has an awful year. His attendance has been below 85% due to his asthma. He's been off school a lot because he's been on antibiotics and steroids. Probably at least 20 days in total.
We also took them on holiday back in October for a week which meant them missing school on top of the illness days.