Vomiting - 48 hour rule

[irishmurdoch]

Do all schools insist you keep kids off for 48 hours if they vomit? I don't remember it being a thing when i was a school.
Very annoying when you know your kid isn't infectious eg vomiting because of allergy/anxiety etc.

Pretty sure no one's ever caught coeliac disease from my daughter as we stick to the 48 hour rule when she's been glutened. But very annoying to then get letters from the school complaining about her absence record.

Is she vomiting at school? If you know she's had gluten and has thrown up at home, I just wouldn't tell the school.

I definitely agree with this.

But I would say there are some occasions where you know it isn't a bug. My DD used to vomit when given egg (when first weaning), and we did the egg ladder. If we'd tried her on a bit of egg, she'd thrown up half an hour later, and then been fine, I think it's fairly clear that isn't a bug.
We did use to try her in egg on Saturdays though, just to make sure she was fine for nursery on the Monday, but it wasn't 48 hours.

I honestly don't know. I mean there have always been parents who don't stick to it anyway so no idea if parents are rushing kids back now or not. I haven't heard anyone talk about it either way and my two haven't had any vomiting this academic year.
I think the school have adopted the generic 'if your child is too unwell to be I school, keep them at home. If they're well enough to attend, send them in' approach.

This is the updated guidance we got in September on the 48 hour rule:

Sickness and Diarrhoea – guidance for parents and carers
Following advice from the Local Authority, we have changed our policy on absence due to sickness and diarrhoea. Your child can return to school once you consider them well
enough to do so. You no longer have to wait for your child to be clear of symptoms for 48 hours before returning to school. **

would be interesting to know if other local schools are doing the same.

That seems so counter productive to overall attendance. If a child comes back in while still in the most contagious period (the 48 hours), they'll potentially end up with a far bigger effect on attendance than that child stating off an extra day. Especially in the lower years

All about their attendance figures

Ours has recently been revised to 24 hours!

Why do you think I don't respect them? My daughter's never had a vomiting bug (cast iron immune system!) but we follow the rules to the letter even when we know for a fact that her sickness is due to gluten contamination. We're then pulled up by the school for excessive absence, so I think a bit of mild annoyance on my part can be allowed!

They're revising it down to 24 hours (or nothing) to improve their attendance stats, not for any reason supported by medical/epidemiological data.

It's been the law for food hygiene (for commercial food outlets e.g. restaurants, cafes etc) for donkeys years that you have to stay off for 48 hours with sickness or diarrhoea. It's only relatively recently that they've extended it to schools.

It's a shame that all those conversations about "take time off when you're ill routinely like other countries do" during covid (and all the guilt tripping done by the media, public health bodies etc telling us it was Bad and Wrong and Selfish to go to work when sick in a country with laughable sick pay) were ultimately hot air, and that when it comes to it they want to tick a box saying your bum is on a seat even if you're in no fit state to learn/work and even if you're contagious and going to pass it on to others.

When your dd curls up in excruciating pain and vomits every time she gets her period and she's on her period and curled up in excruciating pain and vomits it's pretty clear what the cause of the vomit is

But why did you even bother to tell the that she vomited if it was obvious that it was caused by the milk issue? Seriously. You presumably did t keep her off school at all. Why would you announce it?

Interestingly even the NHS has a disclaimer that if you know the vomiting is due to a non-infective cause (eg, long term condition, medication) you don't need to follow that rule

You can look on here for the guidance all school should follow as a minimum exclusion

You can look on here for the guidance all school should follow as a minimum exclusion

Minimum guidance

@redheadsaregreat I can't keep it a secret! My DS loves to tell everyone in great detail when he's been sick. 🤢

Our school recently changed to 24 hours. There has been a huge surge in sickness bugs this term. I wonder why

Exactly. Reducing it to 24 hours in an attempt to improve attendance is nothing short of idiotic. It takes about 2 seconds thought to realise that it will lead to more children off, so more absence days overall.

I agree with OP - it's annoying when the cause isn't a sickness bug.

My grandsons both have grade 3 tonsils and can gag quite easily when eating because of this. When the gagging is bad it can lead to a stomach full/what they've just eaten coming back up.

I can't remember either of them having a full week in nursery because of this. Mum would regularly get a phone call within half an hour of drop off for her to go pick them up - usually falling to me as mum works. Constantly paying for childcare when the child/children are at home. By 8.30 am they would be with me, playing happily, eating normally - not a hint of temperature/illness.