Childs school with a lot of sick kids?

[JennaTX]

Last weekend DD had her birthday party, two friends could not come because they were sick.

Sunday night DD had a fever around 102.

She stayed home Monday, the school nurse called to find out how she was, what her symptoms were, etc. No fever all day until Monday night.

I kept her home again. School nurse calls, and out of 21 kids in her 5th grade homeroom class, 7 kids were out today! That is a third of her homeroom class!

I'm not sure if DD has what others had because it was more "flu" like, so in some way I want to keep her home for a couple of more days and my 1st grader also. The other kids in her class have been out from 4-7 days.

Whatever it is going around the kids school, seems to be knocking most kids out for around a week. The nurse also suggested sending the kids to school with water bottles so they are not drinking from the water fountain.

So would you keep your child home for another day when some "bug" is flying around the school, or just send her back?

 

[golfgal]

The influenza knocks people out for a week or more, which is probably what the kids have. Our school has stated that they don't want the kids back for 7 days if they have flu-like symptoms AND they have to be symptom free and fever free for 24 FULL hours to come back. In your case since your DD had a fever on Monday night they wouldn't want to see her until at least Wednesday--that is fever free without taking meds to bring it down too.

 

[JennaTX]

The influenza knocks people out for a week or more, which is probably what the kids have. Our school has stated that they don't want the kids back for 7 days if they have flu-like symptoms AND they have to be symptom free and fever free for 24 FULL hours to come back. In your case since your DD had a fever on Monday night they wouldn't want to see her until at least Wednesday--that is fever free without taking meds to bring it down too.

DD has been fever free for over 24 hours, I haven't given her tylenol since Monday afternoon. She has had no symptoms except fever.

So now I am worried that she doesn't have what is going around and why would I send her back to school with a third of her class out with something that seems much stronger/worse than what she had.

 

[ohiomom28]

Have you taken her to the doctor? At least around here, they are advising any flu like symptoms to be treated like H1N1 if not tested. We have several in surrounding cities with it.

 

[belle&sebastiansmom]

If my child was healthy, I'd probably send her to school. There is always going to be some bug out there. Plus, she'd probably already had been exposed to it and if she was well then she'd most likely stay healthy. Good luck to you. No fun having sick kids!

A little off topic, but: What are the school systems going to do with all the absences? Around here they are very strict about attendance. I just wonder how different districts will handle kids using up their allotted time within just one illness.

Also, are school districts expecting parents to take the kid to a doctor at first sign of fever? Or should parents wait it out a couple of days so see if it goes away? Doctor's visit's are excused, but I know I can't the copay every time one of the kids gets the sniffles. And yes, I'm terrified of the swine flu. I had my almost two year old in the doctor's last week for bronchitis. It was packed with coughing and sneezing kids. I'm sure he picked up more by sitting in the waiting room for an hour.