Send to School with a Cold?

My kids go unless they have a fever, are tossing their cookies, or genuinely look miserable. They also lose their evening activities if they stay home, and they don't like to miss baseball and dance.

So yes, with a mild cold like that my kids would go.

I work at a school and it makes me crazy when parents bring their sick kids to school. They get everyone else sick and (including me) and then I have to use up my vacation time to take off work. I would keep her home.

If her temp is under 100, then I would give her the cold medicine and send her. I don't keep mine home for just colds. Good Lord, they'd miss half of the year. It's not worth spending 4 hours making up the work in the afternoon/evening when they feel fine enough to go.

If my DD was really miserable, I'd keep her home. If she was only somewhat miserable, she could go with some medicine. Sometimes I say that DD can go to the nurse if she feels worse.

Yes.
You can't stay home every time you get a sniffle.
Especially in middle/high school there's just too much work to miss and making it up can be a nightmare even if you ARE out because of fever/diarrhea/vomiting/etc.
If she's well enough to play, she's certainly well enough for school.
Send her in with tissues and hand sanitizer and teach her to cough into her elbow.
We just got our flu shots yesterday - earliest we've ever got them.

I might keep her home, make home made soup with Garlic and onions and give her a day or so..

You do not need to keep her home the full 10 days.. once the temp is back to normal.. off to school.

Of course, what you want to do is double-check with the school. You won't be the first mama to have done that, and you certainly won't be the last.

But it's frustrating to a mother when her children are sick enough to show symptoms but well enough to play.

When my children were growing up, my rule was that if they were sick enough to stay home, they were sick enough to stay in bed. They could forget about getting up and playing instead of going to school! It was easy to soften that when it seemed appropriate, but it took care of many of the problems. If a child was well enough not to want to stay in bed all day, he or she was well enough to go to school.

Personally I feel that a lot of times allergies are misdiagnosed as 'just a cold' and we all know how allergies can persist.

I would probably take a day to find the right combination of allergy/cold medication that controls her symptoms and then send her back.

Since the Zyrtecs and Claritins take a little time to build up in the system I would probably start with a low dose of Benadryl and the real Sudafed (the one you have to show ID for).

At least then she will be more comfortable and able to focus better in class.

Hope she feels better soon.

I would send my kids with those symptoms. And if and when they DID stay home sick they stayed in bed or on the couch, no TV, computer, etc. Resting and reading only. I never wanted to make a sick day feel like a vacation day.

Is she contagious? Is she too distracted to get anything out of going?

If the answer is yes to either of these I would keep her home for the day and try to get the class work from the teacher so she isn't sitting around doing nothing all day. Otherwise it's off to school.

i don't mollycoddle colds too much. they're pretty ubiquitous in this part of the country during most of the cool months.
but your daughter sounds like she's on the sick end of the spectrum. i think i'd keep her home and let her curl up on the couch.
khairete
S.

Dose her up and send her to school. Colds are way too common, and my girls would miss way too much school if they stayed home because of the sniffles. That said, if they had a fever over 100 or seemed totally miserable, I'd have them stay home.

My parents would send me. Their philosophy was sometimes you have to push yourself a little to get up and go when you're not feel well. More often than not, you end up not feeling too bad and can make it through the day. If we really didn't feel up to it, we were allowed to come home sick. Very rarely did we come home sick, because most of the time we really did feel better after we got up and got going.

I do think it's important to send kids. It's important to instill in them the idea that this is their job. Going to school is their job, and they need to take it seriously. I can't call in sick every day or willy nilly. I can call in sick, and kids should be able to stay home sick if they need to. But I can't do it just because I have the sniffles.

How old is your daughter? Not sure I'd give her cold medicine, as it really doesn't work on kids. Might give her some ibuprofen, though.

If it's constant sniffling and coughing, nose blowing, etc, I would keep her home for one or two days, especially since she has a slight fever and isn't feeling 100%. I think if she went to school like that she'd have a hard time concentrating for a full day of school. Keep her home and make her rest, no running around outside since that will probably aggravate her symptoms.

I don't think you have to keep her home the full length of the cold though. The symptoms will lessen a bit within a couple of days and she'll be fine.

I'd send her. She'd just run around and play then get bored all day.

I just received an e-mail from my kids' elem. school today. It stated: 100 degree temp. within 24 hrs. of going to school, mucous from the nose in a green or yellow color, vomiting within 24 hours, feeling lethargic or less than normal amount of energy, and/or any rash or conjunctivitis. That being said, if she barely has a temp. of 100, clear mucous and her mood is fine, I'd give her a little tylenol and send her on her way. The school will no doubt call if it spikes.

Good luck and hope she feels better soon. My little man is going through the same thing but states his throat hurts when he "swallows hard" and his chest hurts a little when he "coughs loud".

That's a tough one. My mom used to send me to school when I was very congested and I was miserable. It was disgusting how many tissues I went through at my desk.

If it's just sniffling and the occasional cough, then send her in. You could email the teacher and give her a heads up. If she seems miserable at school they'll probably send her to the nurse and call you.

My son goes to school when he has a cold. He probably got it there so keeping him home isn't really protecting anybody at school. In fact he has a cold now and he is off playing at school. When I have a cold I would much rather be working (I tend to forget about the cold and get down to work) than home dwelling on how I feel.

It is the grey line of being sick. You don't say the temperature, is it 99.8? If so, I would keep her home. Remember, a temperature is usually a reaction to infection somewhere in the body.

In our house, we push ourselves to keep going, but it is hard with kids, because they don't know their bodies like we know ours. Not yet.

My daughter is home today with a the tummy bug. Her stomach hurt but she never got sick, so she went to school yesterday. I picked her up and she said her stomach hurt and just before bed she threw up. I had already called in sick last night and she woke me up at 6:00 a.m. and said she was ready to go to school. I tried to feed her and she couldn't or wouldn't eat a plain warm tortilla. So I kept her home.

Yes there is a risk that others get sick, but hopefully our immunities work hard to keep the healthy healthy. I am sure I come in contact with sick people all the time. My niece works at a pharmacy and she never gets sick.

As well, we only have so many sick days at school and work. Personally, I think you just have to establish some guidelines, while staying within the schools policy.

You've probably already made your decision by now, but FYI, I send my kids to school with a cold or they'd miss an awful lot of school. However, I do keep my kids home with a fever, even a low grade fever. Often a low grade fever in the morning gets higher throughout the day. I work at home so it's not a big deal to me to have a kid home from school so that might affect my opinion. Also, this applies to elementary and middle school kids. Unfortunately, by the time they get to high school it can be very difficult to make up even one missed day and my older son wants to go to school unless hospitalized! Last winter he had pneumonia with a 103 degree fever. He brought his school backpack with him to the doctor appointment so he could go to school after he got his antibiotics. Ah, no, not going to school today. He's also gone to HS with a fever of "about 101" without telling me because he knew I'd want him to stay home. I digress, but I find it frustrating that it's so hard for HS kids to miss a day of school that they go to school sick, perhaps extending their illness and making the other kids sick!

Hope she's feeling better soon.

Back to school tomorrow!