Steps for monitoring for Covid once school starts

[Anonymous]

DS is 8 and we are pretty sure we will send him back to school this fall. He’s never stayed home from school for illness, and other than once when he was three, has never complained of symptoms of illness other than minor signs that may or may not be the sickness. I think he gets minor symptoms of illness, but his hardiness is such that he doesn’t notice or complain. So it’s basically impossible to tell if he’s sick.

So all this gets us to Covid. We will have zero idea if he’s sick next fall. Mom and dad both work from home and will continue to, so any exposure will be from school and come home with him, not us. So I think monitoring him is key. I read about various somewhat helpful monitoring steps, but can anyone provide feedback based in actual science as to what might be worthwhile?

Daily temperature seems like a good (though not perfect) idea. Any recommendations for a good thermometer? I dont care about cost. We have a well reviewed Braun ear one, but it will read 98.6 in one ear and 99.9 in the other, so we only rely it to know whether there’s a blazing fever versus not.

What else might we do to watch out for or test for minor symptoms that DS won’t complain about?

[Anonymous]

I'm a nurse at a hospital. Here is what employee health tells us

1. Temp once a day. Preferably not at night.
2. Monitor yourself for excessive fatigue and aches and pains
3. Loss of appetite/smell/or taste.

Those, along with the more obvious signs should be enough.

Honestly, I prefer the under the tongue thermometers, though I have a temporal scan one that's very accurate. Avoid any "no touch" thermometers. Employee health attempted to use them at work to take our temps each shift and it was wildly inaccurate.

[Anonymous]

Which temporal thermometer brands do you recommend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a nurse at a hospital. Here is what employee health tells us

1. Temp once a day. Preferably not at night.
2. Monitor yourself for excessive fatigue and aches and pains
3. Loss of appetite/smell/or taste.

Those, along with the more obvious signs should be enough.

Honestly, I prefer the under the tongue thermometers, though I have a temporal scan one that's very accurate. Avoid any "no touch" thermometers. Employee health attempted to use them at work to take our temps each shift and it was wildly inaccurate.

Which temporal scan thermometer did you find to be the most accurate?

[Anonymous]

Nurse PP here. We have a Braun. We also have a regular under the tongue one. Both have been completely accurate over and over again.

[Anonymous]

The school will also likely take their temp and turn away anyone with a fever, even if it seems like a cold otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Countries that have continued to have primary kids go to school have found that kids aren't really transmitting covid to adults.