Sending sick children to school

[crazypoohbear]

After seeing a post in another forum about pulling kids out of school for a Vacation, I got to thinking....
Why do people insist on sending their sick kids to school??

I know of a couple of different mothers who what to make sure their child gets the "Perfect Attendance Certificate" at the end of school.
These mom's have sent their kids to school with the stomach bug, the kids have left class to and come right back into class.
I don't want my kids exposed to these germs but what can you do???

The school nurse will send them home but the parent sends them back the next day.
(IT doesn't count as an absence because they were there for a portion of the day)

This to me is much more bothersome than pulling your kids out for a vacation!

[SBETigg]

A lot of schools have stopped offering attendance recognition awards because of this. I agree with you- sick kids should stay home.

[DisneyDudet]

I did my Communities class clinical in nursing school at an elementary school.

If the nurse would send a child home or if they were sick the day before, she would call them into class and take their temp to make sure they were temp free.

The best way for YOUR kids to not get anything these other kids are bringing to school is to tell them to wash their hands after going potty and before lunch and snacks. Put a little bottle of that Purell or whatever hand sanitizer or wipe on the top of their lunch in their lunch box (in a little baggie in case of spillage. This will help them remember to wipe down before eating if going to was their hands isn't practical.

Make sure they get exercise and eat well. This will help the immune system.

Also, could you talk with the school nurse to have him/her make fliers or newsletters to make sure sick children don't come to school?

[crazypoohbear]

Disney Dudet
It's funny you mention the hand sanitizer my youngest prings his to school, and church ( the look on his face when someone sneezes into their hands just before the "peace be with you hand shake!)
The school does send out reminders and it is mentioned in the hand book.

BUT... the parents who do this also pump tylenol into the kids to keep the fever down before sending them to school

As a mom, I always go by the "sick eyes" syndrome with my kids!
I don't know what the perfect attendance thing is about anyway. Has anyone who has graduated gotten a job because of "perfect attendance"??

[DisneyDudet]

Originally Posted by crazypoohbear

I don't know what the perfect attendance thing is about anyway. Has anyone who has graduated gotten a job because of "perfect attendance"??

Haha, its funny you talk about that!

I just picked up my prize for having perfect attendance at work for the month of July! haha

Part of the problem with kids coming to school sick, is the parents can't or don't want to take off work to keep them (happens a lot). That was an issue at this school I did clinicals at. The parents were affluent, but that meant mom and dad both worked. If a child became ill, it was a HUGE inconvenience to the parents. Grandmas and aunts came to pick up the kids. Lots of single moms had a hard time getting off work. Now I know that a lot of stay at home mom's sent their child to school sick. I can't speak for them, as I never had a stay at home mom.

The award is multi-faceted:
1) Mom and dad want to have the perfect child and/or a highly recognized child.
2) Child wants to be recognized and/or is highly motivated.
3) Child wants mom and dad to be proud.

The problem with parents sending their kids to school sick is, not only are they infecting other children, but there's a chance they will have to leave work or yoga or whatever to come pick up the child later, then be upset about it.

If this happens a lot, its best just to teach good hand hygiene and give kids vitamins!

[BronxTigger]

I don't like when parents send their sick kids to school, because then they get the other kids (and me!) sick too. (I'm a teacher)

Also, as a teacher, if I send a kid to the nurse, and the parent can't be reached, then the kid has to come back to class.

My school has perfect attendance awards too, and I don't like them. I wish they would do "excellent attendance" awards also, which could be for kids who miss 1 or 2 days a term, but not necessarily perfect.

[thrillme]

That's a tough call. Kids get sick. Some illnesses they have to learn to tough it out and go on to school. A little cold can easily last a week to two weeks. You can't keep a child out of school for a week to two weeks for just not feeling up to par because they have a cold or allergies. Some coughs due to colds or allergies can last a really long time regardless of how many doctors they see. Some things just need time to ride out. Sinus infections, ear infections if no fever is involved they can take a while to go away.

In the REAL world if a person stays out of work for every little sniffle they'll end up fired a lot quicker than they can cough.

Now on the other side of the coin a child with a fever has no business in school. If the fever doesn't truly go away 4-6 hours after taking tylonol or motrin...it's not gone. If the child is throwing up...what are you thinking??? Many employers are not keen on "monthly ills" and neither are schools. Some kids are just sickly, colds, ear infections, sinus infections just seem to be frequent.

Some parents too are barely keeping their head above water. They get paid by the hour or have limited leave. Some don't have family available to take a sick child. What are you going to do? Fortunately I'm in a job that works with me on this and I have a lot of family here that can help out but...what if I didn't?

The best way to combat this problem is to teach kids about germs early on and encourage good hand washing proceedures. I usually pack a small bottle of that "germ rub" in my son's back pack and encourage him to use it when he can't wash his hands. I always make sure he takes vitamines regularly. For teachers and caretakers I'd recommend wiping down doorknobs, toys, pencil sharpeners everything "common" whenever a child shows signs of illness at least twice a day and encourage trips to the bathroom to wash up even if they don't have to go.

Stomach Flu's...they can come on very suddenly. Unfortunately they are quite contagious. Nobody can predict that.

All I know is you can't keep a child out of school for every little sniffle.

[tyandskyesmom]

Originally Posted by thrillme

That's a tough call. Kids get sick. Some illnesses they have to learn to tough it out and go on to school. A little cold can easily last a week to two weeks. You can't keep a child out of school for a week to two weeks for just not feeling up to par because they have a cold or allergies. Some coughs due to colds or allergies can last a really long time regardless of how many doctors they see. Some things just need time to ride out. Sinus infections, ear infections if no fever is involved they can take a while to go away.

In the REAL world if a person stays out of work for every little sniffle they'll end up fired a lot quicker than they can cough.

Now on the other side of the coin a child with a fever has no business in school. If the fever doesn't truly go away 4-6 hours after taking tylonol or motrin...it's not gone. If the child is throwing up...what are you thinking??? Many employers are not keen on "monthly ills" and neither are schools. Some kids are just sickly, colds, ear infections, sinus infections just seem to be frequent.

Some parents too are barely keeping their head above water. They get paid by the hour or have limited leave. Some don't have family available to take a sick child. What are you going to do? Fortunately I'm in a job that works with me on this and I have a lot of family here that can help out but...what if I didn't?

The best way to combat this problem is to teach kids about germs early on and encourage good hand washing proceedures. I usually pack a small bottle of that "germ rub" in my son's back pack and encourage him to use it when he can't wash his hands. I always make sure he takes vitamines regularly. For teachers and caretakers I'd recommend wiping down doorknobs, toys, pencil sharpeners everything "common" whenever a child shows signs of illness at least twice a day and encourage trips to the bathroom to wash up even if they don't have to go.

Stomach Flu's...they can come on very suddenly. Unfortunately they are quite contagious. Nobody can predict that.

All I know is you can't keep a child out of school for every little sniffle.

I agree completely!

[crazypoohbear]

Originally Posted by thrillme

That's a tough call. Kids get sick. Some illnesses they have to learn to tough it out and go on to school. A little cold can easily last a week to two weeks. You can't keep a child out of school for a week to two weeks for just not feeling up to par because they have a cold or allergies. Some coughs due to colds or allergies can last a really long time regardless of how many doctors they see. Some things just need time to ride out. Sinus infections, ear infections if no fever is involved they can take a while to go away.

In the REAL world if a person stays out of work for every little sniffle they'll end up fired a lot quicker than they can cough.

Now on the other side of the coin a child with a fever has no business in school. If the fever doesn't truly go away 4-6 hours after taking tylonol or motrin...it's not gone. If the child is throwing up...what are you thinking??? Many employers are not keen on "monthly ills" and neither are schools. Some kids are just sickly, colds, ear infections, sinus infections just seem to be frequent.

Some parents too are barely keeping their head above water. They get paid by the hour or have limited leave. Some don't have family available to take a sick child. What are you going to do? Fortunately I'm in a job that works with me on this and I have a lot of family here that can help out but...what if I didn't?

The best way to combat this problem is to teach kids about germs early on and encourage good hand washing proceedures. I usually pack a small bottle of that "germ rub" in my son's back pack and encourage him to use it when he can't wash his hands. I always make sure he takes vitamines regularly. For teachers and caretakers I'd recommend wiping down doorknobs, toys, pencil sharpeners everything "common" whenever a child shows signs of illness at least twice a day and encourage trips to the bathroom to wash up even if they don't have to go.

Stomach Flu's...they can come on very suddenly. Unfortunately they are quite contagious. Nobody can predict that.

All I know is you can't keep a child out of school for every little sniffle.

I don't mean the kids who come to school with sniffles or a cough or just feeling punky.
I have no issue with that.

The one's I'm talking about are the ones that say they know their kids are sick but "don't want them to miss school because they are working on perfect attendance"

I know that there are people who "need" to send their kids to school because they can't afford to miss work etc.
But, my kids go to a private catholic school so it's not that they can't afford to take the time off to stay home with a sick child (they are spending over $4000.00 per year for elementary school)
IT's the "I want perfect attendance at any cost" that I have issue with.
My youngest is such a germaphobe that it is very distracting for him to have someone physically sick in class

I agree that sending a kid with allergy sniffles is a must. mine has allergies year round almost.

[conorsmom2000]

Originally Posted by thrillme

You can't keep a child out of school for a week to two weeks for just not feeling up to par because they have a cold or allergies. Some coughs due to colds or allergies can last a really long time regardless of how many doctors they see. Some things just need time to ride out.

Well said....that's what we sometimes deal with here. Conor gets a horrible allergy related cough caused by post-nasal drip. This happens 2 or 3 times throughout the school year and can last up to a week or more. For the most part, he's not "sick"...there's no fever, etc. He's just got that scratchy cough that comes and goes, but sometimes, it's hard for him to stop coughing. When it keeps him up at night, I'll keep him home the next day as sending him to school exhausted on top of the cough won't do him any good. The last time he had it though, was during the Terra Nova's - we were completely torn on what to do. He wasn't sick enough to keep him, and he was sleeping fine, but we were afraid that he would be distruptive to other kids testing if he started to cough. We decided to send him to see how he did - after he got yelled at for getting a drink of water, we then sent in a note explaining his cough and asking if he could keep a bottle with water with him. The teacher replied that would be fine and she had him keep the water on the corner of her desk and he could get it anytime he wanted. The next day he went to get it and she yelled at him for drinking her water!! So, I'm not sure if we did him any favors by sending him in.

Originally Posted by crazypoohbear

The one's I'm talking about are the ones that say they know their kids are sick but "don't want them to miss school because they are working on perfect attendance"

I don't get that either - I never realized how competitive parents could be until, of course, I had a child. It amazes me sometimes!! Our school does the attendance award and quite honestly, I wish they wouldn't. What's worse to me is the kids who push for it and the parents who go along with it! My neighbors were like that - her daughter was so intent on getting perfect attendance that I literally saw her dragging herself to school at times when she was sick! Why would you allow that? (and the mom was a SAHM, so work wasn't the issue). I had one Mom run up to me after the awards this year and say "Did Conor get perfect attendance??" (because of course, her son did). I just laughed and said "Nope, we went to Disney!"

This is a little off topic, but one other thing I don't understand with the schools is why they don't let parents know if their kids are "frequent fliers" at the nurse? Conor is a smart 7 year old, but an anxious kid - he had a great teacher, but she was a very loud woman - apparently to get away from that, towards the end of the year, Conor would go to the nurse - a lot! In his classroom they had "bathroom bears" and "nurse bears" - to leave the classroom, you just put the appropriate bear on your desk and could just leave - the teacher would know by the "bear" where you were. So, from being in the school a lot, and from things that Conor said, I realized that Conor was going up to the nurse quite often. When I mentioned this to the secretary one day, she started keeping an eye out for him and confirmed that he would slowly wander up to the nurse for something (a headache, a scratch you couldn't see, bumping his arm, etc.) By the time we realized it, this had been going on for a few weeks! Why couldn't the nurse give me a call to let me know so we could address it with him earlier? It wasn't just Conor, though - there were a few kids in the class that did this. One was doing it in the winter - Conor would tell me every day that Tony was crying in school and went to the nurse. We knew he was having trouble adjusting to his Mom going back to work and like Conor, he's a sensitive kid who got stressed with the teacher yelling. After a few weeks of this going on, I saw his Mom and asked how he was doing - she had no idea what I was talking about! I felt awful - but, I would have thought she knew that her son was crying and going to the nurse every day!

Sorry, I know that's off topic, but with school starting it's been on my mind. Obviously if your kid is going to the nurse every day there's something going on and the parents should be notified so they can get involved! Or, at least this parent would like to know!

[thrillme]

Originally Posted by conorsmom2000

Sorry, I know that's off topic, but with school starting it's been on my mind. Obviously if your kid is going to the nurse every day there's something going on and the parents should be notified so they can get involved! Or, at least this parent would like to know!

I understand what you're saying. Fortunately my DS's school nurse would call me anytime he set foot in the door no matter how minor the problem was. (They were a little silly sometimes for what they sent him to the nurse for but I figure they were only trying to cover themselves...like a bump in the hallway, another kid spilled some hot chocolate on him...of course it wasn't really HOT just messy etc)...There's a LOT that goes on in schools and not just the nurses office that I really wish they'd inform the parents on what was going on so we have a chance to fix it early

[Ian]

These are most likely the same parents who flip out on the sidelines of their child's sporting events and go ape when their child brings home a grade of A-.

This relentless driving of our kids towards perfection isn't healthy. I mean yes ... everyone should strive to do their best at all times, but doing your best does not mean perfection in every single aspect of your life.

Personally, I know DD and DS will never get perfect attendance awards, because we'll pull them out at least once a year for vacation. I'm sure they'll survive. I did.

[jax86]

i had to chuckle at the kid who uses hand sanitizer in church. i thought my daughter was the only one!!
seriously, i have to agree with those who think sick kids should stay home. I know many parents who pump their kids up with motrin in the A.M. and by the time it wears off and they get a call at work, their child has already received credit for a full day at school. some of these parents say "i'm on my way" and proceed to leave their kid sitting in the nurses office for well over an hour or longer. ( i work in a school)

a good friend of mine has a daughter who has a heart disorder amd although she can attend school any cold or flu she catches is so much worse for her and although parents were cautioned to be considerate of this, they aren't.
bottom line, all they care about is them selves and it is very sad.

[AvonleaCF]

And how many working adults go into work while sick because they can't afford to take the day off? What sort of example is that?

[offwego]

Originally Posted by AvonleaCF

And how many working adults go into work while sick because they can't afford to take the day off? What sort of example is that?

Uh...sometimes it's not afford in terms of "hourly wage" but afford in terms of attendance is measured in overall performance reviews for promotion. I've dragged myself in with double pnemounia to make sure I'm hitting those bonus targets for growth in my area..I'm sure DS will live. (and to be fair I have my own office not shared with co-workers and knew I wasn't contagious)

[IloveDisney71]

Originally Posted by BronxTigger

I don't like when parents send their sick kids to school, because then they get the other kids (and me!) sick too. (I'm a teacher)

Also, as a teacher, if I send a kid to the nurse, and the parent can't be reached, then the kid has to come back to class.

My school has perfect attendance awards too, and I don't like them. I wish they would do "excellent attendance" awards also, which could be for kids who miss 1 or 2 days a term, but not necessarily perfect.

I'm a teacher too and I love your idea of an "excellent attendance" award. However, I really think most of my parents send their kids because they can't or don't want to miss work. I'm a parent too and I know how difficult it is to deal with a sick kid and have to miss work - BUT it is NOT fair to expose others to an illness! That's just my

[snifflesmcg]

Originally Posted by AvonleaCF

And how many working adults go into work while sick because they can't afford to take the day off? What sort of example is that?

That would be me! I've gone to work with upset stomachs, strep throat and bronchitis.

Just a thought, maybe some of the parents pulling their kids out for vacation realize how many days their kids have missed and send them.

My mother was a firm beliver of "Perfect attendance". She sent me to school and had me tough it out often (till at least noon when it counted as a full day). In 2nd grade, I was awarded an "almost perfect attendace" (it was made just for me). I missed a few days in June because of the Chicken Pox and there was no way I was allowed to go. Fast foward a (quite) a few years, I have a great work ethic. I never ever ever miss a day! I can tell you exactly how many times I've called out in my 13 years of working. My sister on the other hand, she was allowed to stay home from school for headaches and she calls out for all kinds of reasons.

Looking back I realize that my body temp is lower than most and I never had a "fever".

[BRJARE3]

I have a 4 year old that attended pre-school last year. There is a mom in her class that tells us she sends in her son sick, after giving him tylenol, because she needs the rest! Well, last Nov. he was sick with a cough, fever and runny nose. He passed it on to a few kids, including my daughter. She passed it to her brother, and then her then 6 week old sister got it. She had a fever and we spend 11 days in the hospital. She was diagnosed with RSV. It got to the point where she had to go on a breathing machine because she was breathing too fast and it was wearing her down. Just aweful. We had to take her to the hospital on my oldest daughter's birthday. It was a nightmare. Such a tense time for us. Thank God she fully recovered and will be 10 months old tomorrow. But, I can not stand the moms that allow their child to go to school sick. We are both stay-at-home moms. Come on. Deal with your childs illness. There is no reason to have them go to school sick, just because you don't want to deal with it. Thankfully the little boy will not be going to the same school this year as my daughter.

On a side note, if you use the hand sanitizing gel, make sure that you are putting it on your younger children. If they get any of it into their mouth, they could experience alcohol poisioning. Little kids have a tendacy to put things into their mouths, and the gel is made with alcohol.

[Stitchahula]

Also the moms who bring their kids to play dates when sick. My son has a rare form of anemia and he can't fight off illness as well as someone else so a stomache bug for you can and has put him in the hospital for days. This one mom knew my son has a hard time when he gets sick but wouldn't think twice about coming out with us when her kid was sick and throwing up. We would leave as soon as I knew her kid was sick but by then the damage was done. Really how much do you think the kid gets out of anything when they feel that bad wether it be school or fun if they are sick let them get better you aren't doing them or us any favors by making them go out or to school.Sorry don't mean to sound so grumpy about it but it is a pet peeve of mine.

[ElenitaB]

As a working parent, I spent many a morning with incredible angst, knowing that I had to stay home with my sick child but knowing also that my staying home would have serious consequences at work. This was the main reason I left one job where I was office manager/marketing director/book keeper/ etc. for a start-up company. If I missed work, things just didn't happen and it was very stressful on me. I chose to leave and go to a bigger company.

Let's not pass judgement quickly on other parents. Just because one sends a child to private school and pays tuition, doesn't mean that you can "afford" to miss work. I make great sacrifices to send DS to a private school as do several other parents that we're friends with. Not of all of us who send our kids to private school are high-paid (or SAHM).

That said, I have a compromised immune system (due to chemo) and I'm worried about picking up something from sick kids sent to school through my DS. My first year back on chemo, was particularly tricky for me and I sent a note to the other parents (through the school administration) to ask for parents not to send their kids to school if they were sick.