How sick is too sick for school?

[Anonymous]

Keep them home if required by school rules (fever, diarrhea, etc). Also keep them home if you feel like they would be too miserable in school to benefit from going anyhow. When school is needed for childcare purposes sometimes I'm more aggressive with sending. when it is a day where I don't need school for childcare purposes I'm more inclined to keep them home.

[Anonymous]

Please consider equipping your child with a mask and some sanitizer, while symptoms persist, to protect other kids in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please consider equipping your child with a mask and some sanitizer, while symptoms persist, to protect other kids in the classroom.

OP here. I would absolutely do that if my kid was 5+ (and as I also have this stuffiness, I’ve been masking) but as I understand it, research does not support masking 2-4 year olds, and other countries don’t. They basically never wear it right (and mine’s had basically no practice) and it makes them touch their faces so much it’s actually a net negative.

[Anonymous]

Don’t be an a-hole and keep your gross sick kid at home.

[Anonymous]

If you are asking here, you know he should not be going to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t be an a-hole and keep your gross sick kid at home.

Have to believe that this is a childless teacher.

[Anonymous]

Chiming in to say I would have made the same call you did.

My “guidelines” for keeping my kids home (in addition to obvious illness) are low energy/fatigue, and a cough/runny nose that is constant enough to be distracting.

In other words, if my kids have cold symptoms but normal energy levels I send them to school unless they’re coughing or blowing/wiping/sniffing their nose non stop.

[Anonymous]

1. I would have done / have done the exact same thing.

2. There is a big bright side to this. Your child is going to get sick a LOT this year, never having really been exposed to the germs of a classroom/daycare before. But once they go through all this they will get a lot less sick in the years to come.

When our son started daycare the pediatrician told us he would get sick 10 times in the first year. And he absolutely did but since then he has (knock wood) had very few sick days and is now in middle school. truly what really sucked in retrospect is that every time our son got sick so did my husband. Every. Time.

[Anonymous]

RE Is it different for PK vs older kids?

Yes, absolutely. If you have flexibility in child care, keeping a mildly sick kid at home is a nice thing to do for them and for the teacher and community at these young ages. In PK they won't be creating make up work for the teacher if they miss a couple days here or there. That changes a bit as the lessons become more intense with age.

[Anonymous]

Struggled with this when my pre-K3 kid got a cold on her second week of school. Her energy level was fine, minor clear runny nose, and just occasional cough (no fever, vomiting, horrible cough, tons of mucus etc)— we sent her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep them home if required by school rules (fever, diarrhea, etc). Also keep them home if you feel like they would be too miserable in school to benefit from going anyhow. When school is needed for childcare purposes sometimes I'm more aggressive with sending. when it is a day where I don't need school for childcare purposes I'm more inclined to keep them home.

Thank you for your honesty. My kids are older now but that was my rubric.

[Anonymous]

Shooooooooooooot which busy & desperate parent in a bind hasn’t given fever reducer right before school & prayed for the best? Ideal? No. Necessary to keep a job in this world? Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep them home in a situation like this.

I bet your pediatrican disagrees with you. If they are sick enough to prevent them from fully participating, they stay home (so yes, fever, vomit, major lethargy, etc). Otherwise they go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shooooooooooooot which busy & desperate parent in a bind hasn’t given fever reducer right before school & prayed for the best? Ideal? No. Necessary to keep a job in this world? Yes.

You need to keep a kid home 24 hours after a fever goes away. So if your kid is home from school with a fever and still has a fever at 2PM you gotta keep them home the next day from school. It hurts other parents who actually don't get paid leave or someone at home who is immunocompromised. My mom had cancer from when I was age 3-6 (and then died after) something like this would have really hurt her system and possibly killed her sooner. She was a single parent (dad died) and had limited help. I understand some people are desperate, but keep your kid at home when they have a fever/ diarrhea/ vomit/ lethargic/ etc. Please think of others, especially when you are priveledged (as many DCUM people are).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shooooooooooooot which busy & desperate parent in a bind hasn’t given fever reducer right before school & prayed for the best? Ideal? No. Necessary to keep a job in this world? Yes.

You need to keep a kid home 24 hours after a fever goes away. So if your kid is home from school with a fever and still has a fever at 2PM you gotta keep them home the next day from school. It hurts other parents who actually don't get paid leave or someone at home who is immunocompromised. My mom had cancer from when I was age 3-6 (and then died after) something like this would have really hurt her system and possibly killed her sooner. She was a single parent (dad died) and had limited help. I understand some people are desperate, but keep your kid at home when they have a fever/ diarrhea/ vomit/ lethargic/ etc. Please think of others, especially when you are priveledged (as many DCUM people are).

PP but I would send my kid home with a little runny nose and cough (as long as none of other symptoms). I also usually give my kid a Covid test even if have just runny nose and cough symptoms just to be safe.