Opinions Please...sick child/school question

[cruisnfamily]

The short version is that DD11 was sent to the clinic by her teacher today(the teacher's idea, not hers). Apparently she was coughing "rib shattering coughs" and "didn't look good". She had a fever of 99.9%. Of course I picked her up and she definitely is coughing(funny, she didn't have that cough this morning before school) and the fever was about 100.5% by the time we got home. She doesn't really feel "sick", just coughing. I gave her motrin at noon and no fever since then. 4 kids from her class were sent home today with the same symptoms. I'm very friendly with the teacher and communicated with her by email this afternoon. She seems to think my daughter(and the other "coughers" should stay home for the next day or two).

Now, here are the questions:

1)Would you send her to school tomorrow if there's no fever throughout the night or in the morning?

2)If you didn't send her to school tomorrow, would you let her participate in the school's winter concert which is tomorrow evening?

Thanks for your opinions!

 

[C.Ann]

We've recently had a pretty severe outbreak of whooping cough in our area - even in teens and college-aged kids (very unusual) - so my answer would be no to both..

If the child is still coughing - even without the fever - keep her home..

 

[holycow]

I think I would ask the teacher if she would object to your DD performing in the winter concert.....I have kept my DD home from school as she would be fine but then would have coughing fits and just be worn out....Jmho...

Hope she feels better soon!

Holycow

 

[FreshTressa]

I'd keep her home and watch her all day, and if she was fine all day, then I would let her go to the concert.

We had that fujiian flu, and that is how it started, cough and low grade fever. It wasn't until a day or so later that we started to feel really sick.

 

[mtemm]

some friends of mine are going thru this right now...she's 8 months pregnant, her husband, and their 18 month old daughter all have it. No fevers, just horrible coughing. I would say keep her home. If she's not coughing at all then let her go to the concert, but if she is even a little bit I'd keep her home. Its just not worth either having her get sicker or having someone else get sick.

 

[cruisnfamily]

Originally posted by C.Ann
pretty severe outbreak of whooping cough in our area

Where is "your area"? Are you in Florida?

 

[aprilgail2]

In my daughter school the child has to be fever free for 24 hours and not fever free by tylenol, fever free all by themselves....they can't come back for 24 hours after vomiting either and 48 hours after the start of treatment for pink eye...now if the darn parents would only follow the rules it would keep the other kids from getting so many illnesses... maybe not every one but some of them!

 

[Megan's Mom]

My dd has RSV and we didn't send her back today just because she coughs up so much stuff we thought it better for everyone. She really thought she had gotten away with something this morning. She doesn't feel bad just coughs.

 

[tmfranlk]

I would definitely talk to the teacher about the concert. In out school district, if we weren't in school that day, we weren't allowed to participate in any games/concerts/activities happening the same day.

That said, I would probably keep here home (I've got the same cough and I've already given it to my baby DD and probably my DH). If the teacher is okay with her going to the concert, I'd do that based on how she's feeling and how the cough is doing (you probably don't want her coughing through the whole concert either).

 

[C.Ann]

Originally posted by cruisnfamily
Where is "your area"? Are you in Florida?

------------------------------

No - I'm in upstate NY.. Health officials here are kind of stumped because you don't often see whooping cough anymore..

 

[jrmasm]

In out school district, if we weren't in school that day, we weren't allowed to participate in any games/concerts/activities happening the same day.

I think that is an excellant policy.

 

[cruisnfamily]

Well, here's the update, still no fever but DD woke me up at 5am with a sore throat and headache. I gave her some motrin, turned off her alarm and told her she's staying home today. She woke up on her own at 7am and says she really wants to go to school and she feels fine(of course she does, the motrin is still working) except for the fact that it hurts to swallow.

We told her she is staying home and that's that. We still haven't made the decision on the concert. I don't think she should participate but I just feel so bad because they've been practicing for weeks and she really wants to do it. I told her we'll worry about that later.

 

[DisneyObsessed]

I'm in the same predicament. My DDs concert is tomorrow night. And it includes her first solo. She would be heartbroken if she had to miss it. I don't know how our school deals with this. I kept her home today, hoping the rest will do a world of good. BTW, this may be a stupid question, but what is RSV? It's been posted all over the boards, and I don't know what it is. Jeesh, I've been a Mom for 15 years. I thought I knew it all.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Originally posted by cruisnfamily
Well, here's the update, still no fever but DD woke me up at 5am with a sore throat and headache.

She probably has the flu. Keep her home. The headache is the tip off. DD just got over it, and it is a rollercoaster ride of fever, no fever. Took 6 days before she was well.

 

[christinou]

be careful with the sore throat, we are also in upstate NY and my husband had strep.....
Luckily, no one else did.

 

[my3kids]

RSV is respratory sysyntal virus (not sure of the spelling) Passes off in adults and older children as a bad cold most of the time. It is life threatening to prematurley born infants for the first 2 years of life. My child was hospitalized with it at 17 months. It is nasty stuff....

 

[Toby'sFriend]

strep as well as the flu is making the rounds here and it doesn't always present with a fever.

I had my baby into the Pediatrician yesterday for the Flu (and he did have the Flu shot) and the Dr. did a strep culture on his throat just to make sure - it is very red. He is also following that pattern of high temps for a time and then no temp for a couple of hours.

Honestly I would keep her home. I know it's disappointing, but there are so many nasty bugs out there right now and it's not fair to the other kids or people in the audience to risk further exposure.

 

[Cruise04]

I would also keep her home. Not only do you need to worry about other people but you need to worry about her being around other people that might have something else. Her immune system is probably much lower right now and being exposed to anything else could really wear her down even more and cause potentially worse problems.

Our school policy is not in school, no extracurricular activities at all! I think it's a good policy.

 

[cruisnfamily]

I did keep her home from school today. She was OK until about 12:30 and then her fever went up to 102. It's starting to come back down again with the motrin but obviously the winter concert is out for DD tonight.

I did get an email from her teacher this morning that said if she is up to it she should go ahead and come to the concert even though she missed school today. We were planning to do that but now it's out for sure.

Now the question is which one of us stays home with her and which one takes DS8 to the concert. All the grades are performing. It means more to me so it will probably be me who gets to go and DH who stays whom with the sickie. He won't mind I don't think.

DD is soooo upset over this. She's in 5th grade so this would be her last year to do this with her friends from this school. And she's really excited to be playing the drums for two of the songs and singing for one song. Oh well, she does understand but she is very sad to miss it. Tomorrow is the Christmas party for CCD and I already told her she is probably going to miss that too. Poor thing, she says this is the funnest week of the year and she's home sick!

 

[moinab]

I'm in NE FL and our pediatrician is telling everyone NOT to come into the office unless absolutely necessary because there are so many bad viruses making the rounds right now, and anyone with a weakened immune system can get very sick from secondary infections. My kids have been sick on and off for the past two months. They are finally healthy right now, so I'm not taking them out at all.

I know how your DD feels. When I was 8, I had to miss the one field trip we had scheduled for the year because of strep throat. Hope she feels better soon.