to expect parents to keep their children off school for 48hrs after a tummy bug?

[helyg]

Last week a child in my daughter's nursery class was sent home with very bad diarrhoea.

Now the school policy is (in line with Public Health reccomendations) that a child must stay off school for 48 hours after v&d as they are still infectious.

However this child was brought back to school the folowing day, less than 24 hours after being sent home ill.

Two days later, my daughter goes down with diarrhoea. Which may be entirely coincedental, and if she did catch it from him she could have caught it on the day that he was first ill and sent home... but still I am pretty cross!

I don't understand why the school don't enforce the policy (as sending letters home repeatedly stating what the policy is clearly isn't working shouldn't they be able to turn a child away if they know that it has been less than 48hrs?) and I don't understand why other parents ignore the policy and completely disregard the welfare of the other children!

And breathe...

[Pushmeinthepool]

YANBU! In my opinion, someone who blatantly disregards the 48 hour rule is being selfish. The rule is there for a reason!

[StayingDavidTennantsGirl]

Admittedly this is quite some time ago, but when ds1 and ds2 were at nursery, I know of children who were turned away on more than one occasion, when the staff thought they had conjunctivitis - and that was based on the staff's suspicion, not even actual evidence (such as the child having had diarrhoea at nursery).

On the flip side of that, though, I used to send ds1 back into school the day after he'd been sick because he suffered from migraine-type headaches which would make him throw up, after which he'd have a sleep, and then would be better. The school's guidelines made no differentiation between him throwing up once because of pain in his head, and him throwing up because he had a tummy bug, but as nurse, I could tell the difference, and would send him back into school if he'd had a migraine vomit but not if he had a tummy bug.

[helyg]

StayingDavidTennantsGirl: I completely understand that sometimes things can cause v&d without being infections, my son is lactose intolerant and sometimes had diarrhoea due to having eaten something with milk in. But as far as I know this was a bug.

[StayingDavidTennantsGirl]

I'm sorry I gave that impression, helyg - I guess my story wasn't really that relevant. I do think that you aren't being unreasonable to expect the nursery to stick by the guidelines, especially in as obvious a case as this one.

[helyg]

Sorry, I think my reply came accross as more blunt that I intended it to be

What I meant was that in some instances I totally understand why you might send a child back after less than 48 hours if it clearly wasn't a bug (eg migraine, allergy).

[StayingDavidTennantsGirl]

Helyg - I'm sorry if I upset you and made you feel you'd been too blunt................................

I think we'd better stop now or this could go on forever!

Friends?

[helyg]

lol, friends

Have only just started posting on here, it's hard to convey the right tone when you're typing!

[littlebylittle]

YANBU drives me mad, esp "well I had to go work arguments" So do the others they will infect. But agree with exceptions for known non bug causes.

[cookielove]

At my nursery the 48 hour rule is held up, infact we now have inforced a form for parents to sign to say that they have been informed of the policy (which they actually signed in agreement to when they first started using the nursery, and have a copy) and are not allowed to bring child back to nursery until stated date, also a note on it to say if they continue to have sick or diarrhoea at home then it is 48 hours from any bought, there for pushing the date of return forward.

We hear it alot, but i need to work, well if all the staff get it the nursery won't be able to open, and then your going to be in trouble

[2shoes]

yanbu

[beammeupscotty]

I work for NHS Direct and there is a massive outbreak of D&V at the moment. Every other call is D&V, mostly little ones. The majority is caught at nursery/playgroups. Even so some mums are keen to send them back too soon, we always advise 48 hours after symptoms finish.

[Pozzled]

YANBU

But I do think that the school is at fault as well as the parents. They should definitely turn children away when they know it hasn't been 48 hours. Some schools are even worse in that they send mixed messages, on the one hand reminding about the 48 hour rule, while at the same time going on about attendance figures and questioning every absence.

[mumutd]

I don't think you are unreasonable at all, it can be a really nasty bug and I would be more than p'd off if I knew that was how my child had contracted it.

My 18 mth old has D&V now and has had it since last Wednesday, can't believe how long it is lasting and have heard that a lot of people are having symptoms lasting for at least a week. I know you can't protect them from it all, I have no idea where my little one caught it from but to deliberately take a child back to a nursery/school setting whilst still infectious is very selfish.

[Shaz10]

There was a thread about this a few days ago, and I put this on there. Some parents are really good at the "dump and run" so you can't hand the child back, and then they refuse to answer their phones. Some get called from a different number to the school one (we have to be sneaky sometimes!), but often just won't come to pick their child up, they either say they're on their way or just say they can't come. There are some right ones out there I can tell you!

[BoffinMum]

A lot of toddlers fail to digest food properly and have 'toddlers diarrhoea', which is commonly misdiagnosed by poorly trained nursery staff as being an infectious disease when it isn't.

Similarly a lot of them are under the misapprehension that children can get childhood diseases such as chicken pox more than once, when quite simply you can't.

This is the reason some children end up being sent home, at great inconvenience to their parents, when in reality there is little or nothing wrong with them.

Different if it's highly infectious though, I freely admit.

[Shaz10]

My friend got chicken pox twice! The real thing, not shingles or anything else. He said to the doctor that he'd had it before, and the doctor said "Yep, it happens more than you'd think". I think my friend was disappointed, he wanted to be a medical miracle!

[BoffinMum]

Well the doctor is wrong. Doctors often are .

After multiple comments to the contrary made by ignorant nursery nurses, resulting in mad treks across the county to retrieve children from nursery who had a solitary lone spot on them somewhere and nothing else wrong with them, I made a point of asking this question of one of the world's leading immunologists after he had visited Cambridge University to give an invited lecture on his cutting edge research into this exact area, and he said categorically that you couldn't get it twice, and if people thought they had, then it wasn't chicken pox the first time.

I think if nurseries had to refund the money paid by parents if their children were off sick, then parents would be more vigilant and nurseries would train their staff better in how to identify and prevent childhood diseases, btw.

[TulipsInTheRain]

YANBU.

yes it's a pain in the arse keeping them home when they appear to be perfectly fine but the bug my dd has had all weekend is the perfect example of why it has to be done.

she had puking sessions on friday afternoon, saturday afternoon, sunday evening and then again late last night. In between she's perfectly fine, annoyingly so in fact as she's bouncing around playing and demanding food and drink constantly but every 24 hours she vomits copiously for a few hours and then falls asleep.

Technically she's able for school, but seeig as she vomited again last night she's clearly still got the bug and would have passed it on to the whole class if i'd sent her in yeasterday.

[3cats3dogs]

BoffinMum, I know I'm being pedantic, but it is possible to have chicken pox more than once.
A small percent of people do not develop the antibodies to prevent another infection.
A relative of mine had it 4 times. Blood tests showed that she had no protective antibodies, and Drs went on to suggest that up to 13% of people could be reinfected, depending on the age they first had chicken pox.
(There's something about it on the NHS website too)
Sorry, back to subject!

YANBU, but teachers are up against parents willing to lie to make sure their child gets back to school as soon as possible.

[mummyloveslucy]

The same thing happened to us last week, a little girl was sent home vomiting and was back the next day (and was sent home again!)
My daughter then went down with it as she is very tactile and this little girl is one of her best friends. [Aaaah] I asked her if she'd been hugging this girl and she said "yes, of corse, she's my friend".
I do think it's irrisponsible though of the parents and not fair on their child or any of the other children, or staff.

[gingernutlover]

yes, i lose count of the number of times a child tells me they were sick in their bed in the night - havent heard a word of it from the parent - then lo and behold the entire class goes down with D and V, plus me, plus my LO meaning I have to take time off for us both

however, i have seen it from the other side too, my dd threw up her dinner at nursery due to nearly choking on a bit of the pudding. It was clearly only the meal she had just eaten and the staff told me that they thought she had been sick because of the coughing and choking. The manager wanted me to keep her off for 48 hours and I had quite a fight on my hands not to.

[muggglewump]

I'm at home again today after D&V bug on Sunday. I feel fine, I am fine but would not go back to work (Care Home) until the 48 hours are up incase I am still infectious.
I wouldn't risk spreading it to vulnerable people and besides, as one of the cleaners I'd have to deal with the mess!

[pigsinmud]

Yanbu. Little girl yesterday holding sick bowl sitting in the pushchair up to school. Today same girl is back in pre-school - oh joy.

There is a lot of d&v around here at the moment - not surprising when this happens.

[helyg]

I've had chicken pox twice, so I know that it is possible...

Also toddler diarrhoea tends to contain lots of undigested food etc in it (my eldest had it) which is easily differentiated from tummy bug diarrhoea with watery stools and stomach cramps, at least by any nursery/school staff worth their salt!