GROUP THERAPY: sending kids to childcare / school when they’re sick
Welcome to Group Therapy, where someone asks a question and we all throw our collective wisdom at it….
Do other people send their kids to childcare sick? When I first returned to work I hated my job and was very conscientious about keeping my son home when he was sick, and was very censorious about parents who sent their kids to childcare sick……
…….But now I have two kids and a new job that I love. One or other of my kids have been constantly sick for the past two weeks. Frankly it is painful to have to spend a day at home with them grizzling and getting stir crazy, and I would vastly prefer to be at work. I notice everyone else is sending their kids to childcare sick – there are runny noses, coughs and crying kids lying around everywhere. Is it so wrong to send them to childcare?
Jodi
This is too funny because the day before I received this, I sent Coco to daycare with a sniffle. This winter (and autumn!) I'm finding it hard to determine where one cold ends and another begins so I figured she was either at the start or end of something and every other kid at kindy is sick and there is literally NEVER a day in living memory when everyone in our house has been totally well.
Anyway. She had no fever and wasn't coughing and spluttering and she's had SO MANY days at home skulking bored around the house so I figured it was OK. The phone rang at lunchtime and her teacher asked "Has Coco been sick?" and I immediately felt totally guilty. "Um, well, you know, not really, well a little bit but no fever and you know….is she sick now?" and the teacher says "She's pretty miserable and she says her body hurts." Her body hurts! Oh……my heart hurt a bit when I heard that and I was straight into the car to pick her up.
Fortunately, working from home I can do that but lordy it's hard when you're working outside the house.
Over to you guys……
And if you have an issue that could benefit from some collective wisdom, send me an email here….(I won't publish your name)
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How do you deal with guilt?
Annie, I’m not sure how the immunised children are at risk from infection if they’re immunised? Isn’t that the whole idea? As you say it IS a choice, immunisation is NOT for everyone and the propaganda about the monstrous parents who don’t immunise their kids is exactly that: propaganda. We have a family history of violent reactions and death in my family and our three kids are not immunised, yet it was a scientist (who disagreed with my choices) who had me look after her immunised son for a week, knowing he had whooping cough, without telling me. She happily put me, the baby I was carrying and my two kids at risk. Her response later, when I found out “He only had a mild case,”…that’s kind of like saying you’re only a bit pregnant. Be careful with this can of worms, it might not be what you think it is.
I don’t think sick kids ie runny noses, coughing, fever, on antibiotics etc…should be attending childcare. It’s not very fair on the children that aren’t sick.
I recently pulled out my son from childcare because of this issue. He was constantly getting sick!! I must say every time I would drop him off, there would be at least one child sick in the room, and you would always see the bottles of antibiotics on the table.
I believe if your child if not well then they should be recovering at home in their own environment with proper TLC from mum or dad.
Aaah, this is a tricky one when you’re juggling the responsibilities of motherhood and work and I must say, I have hardened with time. When my daughter first started at daycare (aged 1), the first sign of a cough/sniffle, I automatically kept her home. However, now my general rule of thumb is a temperature or anything green (from either end!) = stay home, anything more minor, off she goes.
I must also admit that there has been the odd occasion where I’ve had an unavoidable morning meeting and I’ve dosed her full of panadol and sent her off to daycare, hoping I get ‘the call’ after the meeting is finished. I know, very bad but true.
I have a new can of worms to open: what really does make me cross is the parents who haven’t immunised their kids against the likes of whooping cough yet knowlingly send their children into a shared daycare environment, placing immunised kids at risk. This to me is irresponsible. If you choose not to immunise your kids, fine, there’s no judgement here but please don’t place the immunised kids at risk of infection.
First child, I was a paragon and would keep the little darling home, even when the daycare centre objected to his loose poos (from teething, not gastro, no fever etc).
Second child, after seeing “green shoelaces” hanging from some kids nose, I too took the attitude that if he was sniffly, minimal fever, he went.
The silly thing is you are contagious before symptoms and daycare is almost gauranteed where you picked up the problem from in the first place.
Gastro is another matter altogether.
Another interesting thing, it’s also much easier in the workplace to be called home than to ring in sick.
Oh Benita I’m with you on the smoking issue! My mother-in-law chain puffs away and it drives me bonkers! She just doesn’t get why it upsets me. I look like the draconian daughter-in-law by asking her to go outside..way WAY away from the windows and screen door! But I suppose that’s a bit off topic what we’re talking about here…
I send my daughter to family day care, which can make it a bit more awkward if you’ve sent them with a cold or something.. immediately noticed, as there’s only 5 kids there.. but my day carer has a system, if its clear (runny nose) there’s no problem. if its coloured (yellow or green) stay at home.
which i thought was a fair enough system, until the day my daughter had a runny nose (clear – i’d been checking it constantly that morning).. then we got in the car, and i swear, 1 minute before we arrived at day care house, i looked into the backseat and it was green!! where did that come from??….
Benita, I think some people dont think beyond their own family. I get really irritated when I go shopping and see school aged children, who are obviously sick enough to be home from school, out and about having morning tea in a cafe and shopping with mum. Thats just inconsiderate.
When my eldest child was at preschool we had a child in the class who had leukaemia and had to have chemotherapy. Even though she was away for a long time, she did come back for short days and visits when she up to it, so we were all sent notes and reminded that it was essential for children to be kept home if they were unwell. A cold isnt just a sniffle to some people, it can be potentially very serious. Luckily 6 years later she is fit and healthy and getting on with a normal life.
Shaezy, thanks for you comments. Sometimes I feel like I’m being a real whinger when I bang on about keeping sick kids away from my boy, and I know some of my family members who are smokers get a bit pissed off when I don’t let them smoke anywhere near my kids, especially the one with asthma.
It’s just nice to know that there’s someone else out there who knows what this is like – and that we’d both give anything not to have this problem. xxx
My benchmark is occasional cough, clear runny nose that isn’t constantly streaming and no temperature is OK to go. If he has vomited the night before, but doesn’t have any other symptoms, I send him, because he has the best gag reflex I’ve ever seen! A drink of water gone down the wrong way can induce a good vom.
If there is a temperature, I keep him home. If he is sneezing, I keep him home. If he is coughing badly, ie, hacking cough, I keep him home. If his nose is constantly running or has any green tinge at all, I keep him home. I sometimes prefer to keep him home when he’s almost OK, especially if it is a day I’m not working, because a duvet day works as a preemptive strike!
If he has had an interrupted night’s sleep, and is particularly tired and grumpy (to the point of bursting into tears because the English Marmite is finished and he has to have Vegemite, for example), then I keep him home. He’s going to have a dreadful day at school and so will his teacher and classmates. If he has a night / morning like this, he’s usually coming down with something and winds up with a massive temperature anyway.
BTW, he is 5 and in Kindergarten, so a day here and there isn’t such a big drama. He’s not going to fail Year 12 because his mama kept him home when he coughed a lot!
Grumpy teacher dont worry I think we all know parents at our kids schools and preschools who treat taking a day out of their life to look after their own sick child like a day with a serial killer – something best avoided at all cost. Its always the same people. I heard this one recently – Little Johnnie was vomiting overnight but he went to school because mum said theres ‘nothing wrong with him, he was after attention’. Yes children often vomit all night when they’re fit and healthy and just want attention from mum !
I know the nurse who runs sick bay at our school and the office ladies who have to ring home when the child has to leave and they say its always the same small group of families whose kids get sick before 11am, which means they were sick before they arrived and mum didnt want them to stay home.
Timely post Mia as I kept my 4 year old home today from pre-school because she got up through the night vomiting and she was generally unwell this morning. If it was just a sniffle, as most of the kids at preschool often have this time of year, I am am not concerned however fever or vomiting or lethargy – better to keep them home and I would hope other mums have the same consideration.
Having said that, I work from home so it is easier for me to make that decision whereas I have a friend who does send her child to preschool at times when she should probably keep her home but it is often for fear of losing her job as she has a boss who is less than mother friendly. It is the mums who have the attitude “let the pre-school deal with it” that makes me mad
i had to send a child home today who was green, very poorly looking and complaining of a sore stomach. we let him rest in the sickbay, he fell asleep for about an hour and then decided to send him home. his mother, who is a canteen manager at another school could not spare the 5 minute drive to come and get him, sent a taxi for him so he could sit all day while she finishes her shift in the canteen. i think the canteen would survive without the manager for the day!!
am i wrong to be horrified by this?
don’t even get me started on those parents who send their children sick ALL THE TIME! ugh.
i am a parent, so i know how hard it is to take time off, especially being a teacher who needs to be replaced (not just leave work for another day) in a world where relief teachers are as rare as hens teeth… PLUS i teach an autistic unit, where they need to be at least willing to take them on or are trained in special ed.
The thing that irks me is that my son cannot be given painkillers at the school without a doctors letter, and his own, prescribed meds. They are not allowed to medicate – by law. If he takes it to school, he has to hand it in, and sign a sheet saying he left it there, and then sign it out when he takes it, and at the end of the day.
He is in Grade 8! And, in the past 4 weeks of school has missed 5 days where he has gone to school on Days 1-3, then come home with headlice on day 4 or 5!!
To be fair to his school though, they DO try to stop headlice, and have issued a list stating which symptoms mean children should stay home, they do this at the start of every term. And if we can’t pick him up, they will get him home for us.
I’m with Nomie, Jacqui and pissedoff!!
Keep them home if they’re sick – it just spreads the germs everywhere. It’s inconsiderate to the other chilldren as well as their teachers/carers.
It is extremely irresponsible to dose your child up with painkillers, then send them to daycare and not notify them that the child has had medication, especially if you have previously signed a permission slip for the centre to administer medication if required. If they need painkillers they stay home.
Our daycare sends a letter out at the beginning of the year detailing what they believe is “acceptable” illness (like most people have said – clear snot is ok, green snot should be reconsidered etc). It’s great because parents have been forewarned and if a child comes to daycare outside the “boundaries”, the carers just call the parents and send the kids home..
ALso, Benita, I totally agree. My son has asthma and sensitive lungs due to prematurity. On their own, we can manage the asthma, but when he picks up bugs, it’s down to the hospital, on nebulisers and a week’s worth of stress for him (he is only 2). While I understand I can’t keep him in a bubble (and I believe it does help him to get small colds etc), I get really annoyed by parents who don’t even consider the immunocompromised kids who might be at risk from a bug or virus that other kids bring to school. Especially when the parents already know……
Aaaah memrories. I’m still slightly bitter about the the first year of day care where I spent a small fortune on day care that my son only attended sporadically because every time I sent him he seemed to come home with a new bug.
My kids are both at school now so definitely go when it’s just a cold, stay home for gastro etc. My dilemnas are more about whether to send myself to work when I am sick. I take time off to care for the kids but the work has usually piled up by the time I get it myself so I end up goin in and sharing my germs with my team.
I go for runny nose but OK = daycare, runny nose / cough and fever or feeling miserable = stay at home. Both my kids have asthma so Im pretty careful about colds. My work is 30k away from their day care and I would hate for them to need me. I guess Im lucky in that I have a lot of sick / carers leave at work and I really dont enjoy my work at the moment so its an easy decision to make.
I think it’s fine to send my daughter to kindy with a bit of a runny nose..but in these swine flu times there is a lot of paranoia out there. In deference to that a couple of weeks ago when she had a bit of a cold I told her she’d better stay home. Well she bawled her eyes out at the prospect. This was such a contrast to the beginning of the year when the teacher had to rugby tackle her to prevent her from doing a runner out of the gate to follow me home, I just had to let her go…with instructions to hide in the toilet if she felt a sneeze coming on.
this is where my husband (angloaustralian) and I (italianaustralian) differ, and that’s where we have a clash of culture, I am for keeping them home (like the italians do), to give the body a rest and recuperate on is own, for him you got to have torn limbs in order to be called sick (joke), when kids are little there is no point on sending them to daycare and be more miserable, they need their mommy and lots of cuddles, love to all
Just remember if you send them to daycare/school/extracuricular activities you not only might make another kid sick.
But the teacher as well!!!!(yes that’s me) and then i make all my nieces and nephews into vomity, explosive diahorrea, crankypants crying all weekend for their mothers.
Oh yeah and if you could teach ‘em what no fingers in noses means i’d be most grateful
Fever, chesty cough, stomach upset, sore joints/body aches, green snot or glands up so I can feel them – they stay home. Sniffle, cough, generally feeling miserable, they go.
For the record, mine are 14 and 20, and are still under that rule. Actually, so is Mr24, who is currently living here. If Mum says no, you are sick, that’s IT!
OMG Beth, that’s a terrible thing to do!! You dose your child up on panadol so “you can clock up a few hours at work”. And on top of that you think it’s funny. I hope your giving your child the right dose!! I’ve seen many mothers like you who give extra doses to last the distance. Be careful with that one, your child’s carer could call DHS!!!
I managed 2.5 hrs at work today before my husband rang about our four year old. He claimed to have a headache and a funny tummy so he stayed home from preschool. The problem was my husband was due to fly to melbourne for work so home I came. 4 hours later, several yogurts,a trip to the park and a movie he is miraculously better. Sometimes you just have to make a judgment call and err on the side of caution.
On that note what do you do about a friend whose child you know is sicker than they want to admit or acknowledge.
I have asthma as does one of my children. I KNOW what an asthma cough and wheeze sound like. I have a friend whose child has had these symptoms for a couple of years. I have told her I think the child has asthma. She just dismisses it and says the child is fine. Asthma can be really scary.
I read this post thinking this is familiar read the comments and thought wow that happened exactly to me last week and then I realised it was me! – hope this doesn’t mean my last Wednesday morning will repeat tomorrow
I think you can usually tell by their behaviour whether its more than just a sniffle and a cough. Even before the snot goes green my kids (even now they are older) tend to get miserable and easily irritated and you just know something is brewing. This is my sign to keep them home. This happened last Friday. My son was grumpy and not himself so I kept him home. A few hours later he was complaining of an earache. Went to the Dr and sure enough he had an ear infection.
On that note, why do people with snotty kids take them to swimming lessons ? And then spread the germs all though the lovely heated swimming pool to everyone elses kids.
I think we should treat our kids the way we would want to be treated when we are sick. I know when I’m sick I want some TLC and to be at home.
Contrary to popular belief, green yellow snot does not mean they are bacterial and extra sick, as snot tends to thicken up and go that colour as the cold starts to clear up, so if they are feeling fien just a bit green snotted I don’t see why you would keep them home. If rather unhappy I’d keep them home though
My little one (2 yrs) woke up with a cold this morning – runny nose, cough. I know for a fact many parents would send a child with these symptoms to daycare or school, particularly as she’s her normal happy self. I just can’t do it.
For one, she may just have a common cold, but I don’t want her catching something else ON TOP of this mild illness and run the risk of her being sick for weeks, rather than days. If I keep her home today, at least she has the chance to “rest”, stay warm, and hopefully recover quickly. Not to mention her passing it onto other kids and her carers, that’s just not fair & part of the reason as to why these bugs are so difficult to contain.
Keeping her home isn’t a luxury I have either. I’m a contractor so I don’t work, I don’t get paid. But it’s a sacrifice I have to make for my own child’s health.
I so could have written this post – my name is even spelt the same as the other Jodi lol!
My daughter has been in childcare since she was 4 months old – the first year or two she had a constant cold but now she hardly EVER gets sick – great immune system!
I also subscribe to the ‘green snot’ theory – as Dr’s have told me this indicates an infection and the child should be at home.
I remember a ’snarky’ comment from another mother that I worked with one day when I’d had the previous work day off due to an 18 month old with green snot.
She asked me what was wrong with my daughter and proceeded to roll her eyes at me when I explained about the green snot. “SO? they’ve all got green snot at my daughters kindy!”…..
Well of course they do if parents like you keep sending them there with it to pass to their friends via the playdough!
Just this morning my little girl complained of a tummy ache and wanted to stay at home from kindy. She’d eaten all her breakfast, had been chasing her brother up and down the hallway and had no temperature. She looked well so I sent her… Of course I’m not 100% sure I made the right descision but I haven’t had the call yet.
My rule is green runny nose, cough, temperature and any gastro bug or eye infection is a stay at home. I’m not working at the moment so I do have the luxury of being able to do this.
I agree with Nomie- as a preschool teacher myself, we can usually tell if a child has had medicine. We are not allowed to give panadol anymore as DOCS have said it masks what the child may have, so keep this in mind: Is it better to tell the teachers you gave your child panadol, or have them end up in hospital with something else? Please be considerate, we know parents have to work, but we have many children to look after and can’t give your child one on one attention when we have 19 other kids to look after with just one other staff.
I am a bit militant about keeping home but just the sniffles is ok.
This part of the whole balancing work life & family life is extremely stressful!
Our daycare has a policy of once the kids temperature is over 38 degrees they get sent home. They aren’t allowed back to the centre until they’ve got a dr’s note saying they’re fine.
That’s my policy as well- if they’ve got a temp they don’t go, but if it’s just a runny nose then I don’t think twice.
I think it’s a good policy and it means that most kids stay away until they’re better.
It also means you’re less likely to dose them up hoping you get half a days work done. They won’t be allowed back wihtout clearance, so you’re just delaying the inevitable.
Just a few boogies = daycare
Boogies + misery guts and sooky = home
Fever = home
Vomits = home
Gastro-anything = home
Agree with NC, Amanda and others who send/don’t send according to snot colour. It’s winter, we all get the sniffles. But I’d like to add another thing to the mix about parents who send kids to school/daycare when they are quite obviously suffering more than a cold: the other kids will almost certainly contract whatever lurgie your kid has, and some of these kids will come out of it even worse than your kids. I know I’ve banged on about this a few times already this winter (and God knows, it’s already been a long one, and we’re not even into July!)but my son has a few health probs which, in a nutshell means that the flu can, and usually does, turn into a stint in the hospital for him. I am sick to death of having to take the poor kid up to the hospital to be nebulised, given oxygen and a course of steroids, antibiotics and god knows what else because he came in contact with a kid who should have been home in bed. Sorry for the ranting, and I know I’m never going to be able to keep him away from every bug going around, but anyone with a kid with health problems knows that it is a constant battle just keeping them healthy and out of hospital, and parents who send their (obviously) sick kids to school make our jobs just that little bit harder.
Rant over – shall go and have a cup of tea and a lie down xxx
Conjunctivitis is one that’s been getting me lately. I’ve had it and then have played tag team with it with my son. Care absolutely insist on quarantine (which I understand and respect) because it’s so contagious but it’s hard to know when it’s really completely gone. I had to pick my boy up because he had developed the eye discharge within two hours of being at care. Staying at home just because your eyes are a bit icky is more boring than a cold. But I did it in the hope that contagion would be reduced. However, runny nose or winter cough, he’s there at care. Snot rockets any shade other than clear and he’s home with the heating on and layers of clothes.
I feel for kids who get sent to daycare dosed up with nurofen so that their parents can at least clock up a few hours of work before being called to collect their child. If your child is sick, surely their welfare has to come first?
That being said, I had a horrible moment of guilt last week when my 4 year old, who had been home sick with his dad or grandparents minding him, asked me, “why don’t you ever stay home with me when I’m sick, Mummy?” I’m a senior school teacher, and it is very hard to take time off.
I am a working Mum, I work as teacher to young children. I am currently in bed dosed up on panadol. Here’s the thing – you send a child to school/care with a cold, then they spread it to others, including staff. I have been vomited on, covered in green snot, cleaned diarrhea… if you child is sick PLEASE keep them home… all us working parents have the home/work tug thing… we all have to make snap decisions on whether we call in to say we not coming to wok due to sick kids… we all use up all our sick leave/carers leave…. but sick kids need to stay home and not spread things around… It drives me nuts… and unwell kids don’t learn, they are miserable. And the reason we ask if a child is on medication is incase there in an emergency… in my view, if a child needs medication like panadol, nurofen etc they need to be home. Also, a child who is unwell and in care/school is more likely to pick up another virus, as they have a low immune system. A clear runny nose is OK.. a left over cough is Ok too, but thats it.
Oh and the headlice thing… Don’t get me started!!!
I don’t have children, but I have a 2 year old little sister who’s constantly bringing various infections home from childcare. She’s had a cold almost every month, gastro at least once, and headlice so many times I can’t count. Toddlers have no concept of germs!!
I agree on the general consensus here, but I think it’s also up to the childcare to police things and say “your child is a diseased little rodent, take them home” though maybe not quite that harshly… Mum’s spoken to the carer’s about the headlice issue, and they just shrug it off like it’s nothing, won’t even let other parents know like they do in schools!! Like Amanda (bugmum) said, they don’t pay enough attention to things like that gastro incident- the child shouldn’t have been allowed in the door and that note should have been read straight away!!
Absolutely agree with NC – green snot & fever = HOME, clear snot no fever = CRECHE. Gastro = HOME.
I can deal with people sending their kids to school when they’re a bit off, but let me tell you one thing:
Send your child ANYWHERE when they’ve got lice, and I’ll come after you and shave your bloody head.
good grief Amanda – yes that is appalling – gastro, no way, not at all – they haven’t eaten yet?? the poor kid!
basically with my kids, if they need to take some sort of cold medication during the day then they stay home – if they can do without it then they go. Mr3 gets sinus so he perpetually has a runny nose.
funnily enough my kids have never ever been to a doctor because of a cold or flu – so either I’m lucky or a bad mother. No really, by the time I think they are needing to see a doctor it’s usually in the middle of the night and the next day they are heaps better, so we don’t go. I’m not really a bad mother.
I agree with numberchic as well. If we wait for colds to completely disappear then our children would never go to childcare.
I do despair when I see children who are obviously unwell (green nose, miserable, lethargic) at preschool. My only hope is that the carers are about to pick up the phone to call the parents.
Seeing that sick days/carer’s leave does not grow on tree’s parents are unstandably careful about how often they keep their children at home. It’s tricky business and one that is constantly in our minds.
No-one wants to be a “bad mummy/daddy” by knowingly sending our child/ren to school when they are sick. We do the best we can with the facts that are presented to us.
Good luck everyone.
I agree – green snot and fever/all round grumpiness? Home. Sniffle and clear snot reasonably well? DAYCARE! I usually dose up with panadol (actually nurofen because it lasts for 8 hours and chances are I will get longer at work before I get the call to pick her up) before she heads off and no guilt! I was just laughing about this yesterday with a fellow wokring Mumma who said that she does the same thing, then when you have to fill in the form asking if they have had any medication? No, nothing! Nothing to see here…
Ooh, sorry, just have to tell you a story. When Miss Nearly 3 was enduring her first VERRRRRY LOOOOOOONG miserable winter in school, I went in one morning and saw a parent had written something along these lines in the ‘Communication Book’ to the room staff:
“X had gastro yesterday and is still a bit pooey today. She hasn’t eaten anything yet and is a bit miserable but she should be ok.”
You better believe I was straight out the door and into the director’s office asking WTF?? Parent was immediately called and child taken home but, seriously, who would take a kid with gastro into school to infect everyone else?
mmm… tough one. i tend to play it safe and keep them home when in doubt, but it’s certainly not easy. for anyone. and it meant i took way too many days off work last autumn/winter, when we seemed to be at the dr’s office at least once a week…
my reasoning is that it’s not fair on the other parents/kids if i send them out when they are not 100% – i figure, if we all kept them home at first signs, we would avoid constantly passing it on to each other. BUT that would only really work if everyone did it, and as you pointed out, most people don’t. In the end, my husband got so sick of us keeping the kids home last year when no-one else was doing it, that he started veto-ing my decisions, and if it was just a sniffle, off they went…
I’m with numberchic, there ain’t no other way of saying it. Green nose stay home. Clear nose send them off happily to childcare. Every other man and his dog have a runny nose, what’s one more?
Yep, I’m with numberchic’s school-worthiness classification system.
I kept Miss Nearly 3 home for a day the other week because she was a complete snotmonster with a cold she’d picked up from ’school’, and I didn’t want her carers to have to deal with that…but she was off again the next day once it had settled down. If I kept her home every time she had a slightly runny nose or cough she’d never go.
“Green shoelaces” from the nose and/or a fever – no, they stay home. A sniffle and/or a cough – they go. Chances are they picked it up from preschool anyway. Obviously miserable and/or vomitting and/or the runs – no, they stay home. If I kept them home everytime they had a cold they’d never ever be at preschool/daycare.
With 3 kids the baby, Mr3 is the first to go to daycare as his sisters had their grandmother. I must say i am terrible with keeping him at home if I feel he is unwell as I’m so used to a completely different kind of care (which mind you I really took for granted). I think its unfair to expect the carers to look after all those kids as well as those feeling less than well. Hubby complains all the time about what a softy I am but cannot bear the thought of him looking for a cuddle… That said – there is a huge difference between a sniffle and a fever!
I took my little one to daycare with a runny nose and did not think much about it, she was chatting away in the car about what she was going to play etc and all seemed well. We got out walked in she said she had a sore belly and proceeded to vomit in the middle of everyone and all over me. Needless to say we came straight home.
This is a bit tricky because I know some people find it hard to tell the difference between a sniffle and a full blown bout of bronchitis. It also depends on the age of the child. When I was younger if I had a temperature, mum would make me stay home. But if I was basically fine, bar a runny nose, off to school I trotted.
I don’t have kids of my own but id say it would be different for very little ones as they are effected by colds/coughs more than the ‘bigger kids’.