Irresponsibility of Parents re Vomiting Bug

stepster

Hi, I'm constantly amazed at the amount of parents that think it's ok to send their children to school within hours of being sick. Last week in our kids school a child actually vomited in the school yard, his mother arrived down to the school with a bottle of Calpol and dosed him up - he remained in school for the rest of the day. In another case a child had been violently sick at 3 AM and was sent into school the next day.

I appreciate that many parents need to work and getting time off work to deal with sick children can be an issue - but to allow a child into school sick, thus putting others at risk is irresponsible IMO.

Anyone else feel strongly about this?

marley123

totally agree. we got a note last wk from school saying kids were being sent into school still sick which is causing other kids to catch bugs & that in future sick children must be kept at home until completely recovered.

lily09

I do agree to a certain extent was vomited on a couple of times this year, but have seen two sides. Firstly can come over kids very quickly, have seen kids in my class scoff their lunch and two hours later turn that delightful shade f green! Other hand especially for serial offenders it can be difficult t distinguish between schoolitis and a vomiting bug if no bodily fluids are seen in the morning. Am teacher not a mammy so no expert.
What drives me mad though is parents changing phone numbers and not telling you or what I have heard from one parent 'put a basin under them'

stepster

@marley123 at least the school is trying to do something about the problem, I must try and get this done at our school.

@lily09, I know all about schoolitis, and can normally tell when a child is trying to take a sickie! My problem is the child that has vomited during the course of the last 12 hours being sent into school. Whether they look OK or not, I think it is not enough of a recovery period and they can pass the "tail end" of their bug to others. And I totally rest my case on the 'put a basin under them' comment. That's just blatent irresponsibility and ignorance at the highest level!

Big Bag of Chips

'put a basin under them'??

Ah, God! If you're sick yourself all you want is to be comfortable at home. Why would you leave a miserable child in school? Surely it would be very very rare that nobody would be available to take the child?

RubyGirl

Well it's been in my house now since Sunday night, hopefully last night was the last of it. I'd agree kid's cant function after a night of vomiting. Just have to look at their little pale faces.

Abi

My nieces clothes got vomited on by a boy in her class last week. She ended up catching the bug herself after that. If the child only begins to feel ill at school thats one thing, but knowingly sending a child in sick is a disgrace. It's spreading the bug around the class, and it's unfair to the sick child. Vomiting weakens them, they need to be at home being looked after.

his mother arrived down to the school with a bottle of Calpol and dosed him up - he remained in school for the rest of the day

That is a disgrace. The school should have insisted that the child be taken home.

byhookorbycrook

Abi wrote: »

My nieces clothes got vomited on by a boy in her class last week. She ended up catching the bug herself after that. If the child only begins to feel ill at school thats one thing, but knowingly sending a child in sick is a disgrace. It's spreading the bug around the class, and it's unfair to the sick child. Vomiting weakens them, they need to be at home being looked after.



That is a disgrace. The school should have insisted that the child be taken home.

You can't "make" a parent take a child home.

MrCreosote

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

You can't "make" a parent take a child home.

Try pulling out that line if your child has whooping cough or measles or chickenpox and see how far it gets you.

They can shut the school too which amounts to the same thing.

byhookorbycrook

MrCreosote wrote: »

Try pulling out that line if your child has whooping cough or measles or chickenpox and see how far it gets you.

They can shut the school too which amounts to the same thing.

Children with chickenpox are often in schools,as are those with scarlet fever, headlice,flu,hand, foot and mouth and of course stomach bugs.Schools don't close for any of these. Schools can only close where there is a large number of staff and/ or children ill.
Measles and whooping cough are covered by vaccines and are slightly diffferent.

If a child has something and the parent sends them in, what do you expect the school to do?Make them stand outside the fence until hometime? The child can hardly be sent home on their own either. So yes, schools cannot force parents to remove a child ill with a stomach bug.

RubyGirl

Our would, and they'd be sent home for as little as not having a proper uniform on.

stepster

Regarding sending children home, our school would send you home for an incomplete uniform but do little to nothing about the problem of keeping these illnesses at bay. At the end of the day, some people will do what they want to do irrespective of others but perhaps if enough messages were sent out from the school reiterating the importance of hand washing and avoidance of illnesses, the spread would not be as rampant or linger for weeks to months on end. I know of several people including family members (and who know our feelings on this) will do their utmost to avoid illnesses for themselves and their kids but once they have had a dose, they don't care who they pass it on to.

byhookorbycrook

RubyGirl wrote: »

Our would, and they'd be sent home for as little as not having a proper uniform on.

Primary kids sent home for not having uniform?Good heavens!

Orion

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Primary kids sent home for not having uniform?Good heavens!

Bet you it's a nun's school

From the other side of it - can the school not refuse to take the child in if he/she is unfit to be there? It's not a case of sending him home - it's a matter of refusing to take him in.

pwurple

Measles and whooping cough are covered by vaccines and are slightly diffferent.

Not sure if you mean they close, or don't close for these. The levels of both are rising due to people not vaccinating. A Primary School in Cork, Crab Lane, is closed at the moment due to an outbreak of whooping cough. the same school was closed last year for an outbreak of TB! TB for goodness sake, in this day and age.

I know a child who was hospitalised for a week with whooping cough, this chiild had received every vaccination and was breastfed to over 18 months, but still picked it up. Vaccines are not 100% effective, so when the 'herd immunity' drops there are serious problems.

I get very angry when people are irresponsible with the health of other peoepls children.

My sister-in-law sent her two children over to me to look after for a saturday when she knew damn well they had the vomitting bug but didn't tll me until I phoned her asking why the two of them were throwing up. They had been sick a lot during the night, but she thought it was gone. Within two days the lot of us had it. My mum came over to help while we were sick, and she got it. Then my dad got it from her, and his office got it.

Birroc

My family got the winter vomiting bug last week. It really is a nasty nasty dose. I wasn't right for 72 hours after I first got sick.
One of my kids seemed to be 100% after 48 hours but that was after lots of sleep and TLC.

If any kids or parents get this bug, they should avoid contact with the general public (school or work) for a minimum of 72 hours. Otherwise they are being selfish and irresponsible.

Owryan

Sick kids in my kids playschool everyday. The staff have said it to the parents but they still bring the kids in . My 3 (4,3,2yo) all had the vomiting bug and when I rang caredoc I was told to keep them locked up until 3 days had passed sine the vomiting/runs had finished.

Let them back to school this week and the staff were trying to get parents to take their kids home as they obiviously had the virus.

Now my 2 yo is showing symtoms again . Woild love to smack some heads

Lola92

Owryan wrote: »

Sick kids in my kids playschool everyday. The staff have said it to the parents but they still bring the kids in . My 3 (4,3,2yo) all had the vomiting bug and when I rang caredoc I was told to keep them locked up until 3 days had passed sine the vomiting/runs had finished.

Most early years settings have a clear policy on illness exclusion. Anywhere that I have experience so far has it written that a child cannot be re-admitted to the setting until a minimum of 24hours after that last dose of vomiting/diarroeah.

The parents sign up to this policy and are aware of what it entails. We have had several children and some staff out in the last couple of weeks due to the vomiting bug. It is completely irresponsible to expose your sick children to a school environment, the knock on effect to other children, staff and families is enormous.

stepster

Regarding "bet you its a nun's school", no it's not actually, it's an educate together school. The parents seem to dictate what happens there to a large extent but uniform and not having coats is a big issue with the principal, rediculously.

Last message and pwurple, totally got it in one.

Discovered yesterday while talking to neighbour that he, his wife and two young children had bug week before last. I might add, he reluctantly told me when I asked him had they been sick, as he knew his actions were completely and utterly selfish. I had heard the kids crying inconsolably for hours for four nights in a row but they were still sent off to the creche when obviously they were unwell. This family send their kids to the creche a couple of days a week and then to a childminder for the remaining days, a childminder my sister in law also uses. So, not only did they go to work sick themselves and infect people, they also sent their children to the creche with the vomiting bug, then proceeded to go to the childminder at the end of the week and infect my sister in law's baby too. The sister in law specifically went for a childminder to avoid the sicknesses that plague creches. Now baby is on an antibiotic for what is a virus but was told it was a chest infection ha! But who is she to argue with the doctor. On day five now and antibiotic made no difference, the virus has to run its course.

I also find it unbelievable that these parents let their poor kids go to a creche, school, or minder when they clearly need to be at home on their couch or in bed resting and recovering in peace. Instead they are sent out exhausted with their immune system compromised and prone to other infections.

Owryan

[/Quote] It is completely irresponsible to expose your sick children to a school environment, the knock on effect to other children, staff and families is enormous.[/Quote]

I NEVER put my kids into school with the vomiting bug, they were out over a week but other parents were not so considerate

triona1

This drives me mad.
Im lucky my 4 kids are never ill,But one of my sons is ty1 diabetic he is in 5th class.If the parents of the kids that are sick only knew what i would have to go through if he gets the vomiting bug or any other virus they would be shocked extremely dangerous for him.
I got a phone call from the school before the Halloween break to say that the teachers and kids are dropping like flies,some kids just vomiting on the table and the parents cant collect them.
And then they are sent in to school the next day the headmaster was mortified saying it to me.
Result was my son missing nearly 2 weeks of school for nothing.

skyfall2012

My children have been off school for the last two weeks sick with high temperature, cough, tummy ache. I am a SAHM and have the luxury of being able to keep them at home without worrying about a boss wondering when I will be back at work.

A lot of families have both parents working nowadays and they are under a lot of pressure, to keep their jobs in a recession, pay mortgage etc. There is really no support for families in this country to cope with all the demands on them.

Perhaps there should be better provision (made at government level) in the work place for parents who have to take children out of school for extended periods due to illness.

byhookorbycrook

Orion wrote: »

From the other side of it - can the school not refuse to take the child in if he/she is unfit to be there? It's not a case of sending him home - it's a matter of refusing to take him in.

Many children are dropped off by a car that barely slows down.If parent/s are gone, how can you not let child in?

Owryan

This is not a rascist post so mods, please go easy .

One thing I ve experienced from my own kids preschool is the language barrier. There is one little girl in my youngests class who has no english at all and her parents have only a little bit more.

Talking to staff they are having a hard time explaining that sick children should be kept at home. But then again plenty of irish people have no problem dropping off sick children

lynski

my little ones had it last week, the younger 2 threw up and the oldest only had stomach cramps but i kept him home as i knew if he did get sick i would have to load 2 pukey smallies into the car to go get him.
his school, my daughters pre-school and any other school i have ever heard of have clear 24hr policies,
My sisters daughters school in the uk has a 48 hr policy, her daughter threw-up in the school yard at the start of school on monday and could not come back until thursday as 48 hrs was into wed.

hoodwinked

in my daughters school the rule is 24 hours clear of ANY signs of illness aka diarrhea or vomiting before they are allowed back in, if they throw up in school, they are cared for separately until a parent gets in to collect them,

i would never dream off sending her in sick, although at 3 she completely pulled a sickie on me by telling me she was feeling sick, so i kept her out, she then proceeded to eat everything and anything for the day and never once got sick.

byhookorbycrook

Cared for by whom?Schools don't have "spare" staff, much less nurses/sick bays etc.

hoodwinked

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Cared for by whom?Schools don't have "spare" staff, much less nurses/sick bays etc.

they aren't spare as such but they do have staff who would come in for lunches/afternoons to relieve other staff for their lunches, and there is always one staff member floating around filling in where needs be.

gugleguy

"When parents cannot afford to keep their children with vomiting bug at home"

Mr.Wemmick

Seriously?! Do you really expect teachers to look after and educate 25 - 30 kids in a class, and mop up vomit too.. sick children are the responsibility of the parents, or Doctors/nurses, not teaching staff. The fact that parents can not afford to stay at home, isn't the problem of teachers.

And, btw, while sick kids are being looked after, what are the rest of the children doing, covering the curriculum on their own?

byhookorbycrook

hoodwinked wrote: »

they aren't spare as such but they do have staff who would come in for lunches/afternoons to relieve other staff for their lunches, and there is always one staff member floating around filling in where needs be.

Not in any primary school I know of. I'd love it we had staff "floating around!!"