How are you handling sniffles, etc?

[meli554]

My daughter woke up sounding congested and sniffling. No other symptoms, normal temperature. I feel like we are going to be experiencing things like this a lot as we go into the fall & winter months.

She is in school on Tuesday/Friday, so I can see how she feels tomorrow... But our school health screening only recommends staying home for 2 or more symptoms, temp over 100.4 or exposure to positive Covid-19.

How would you handle this? If she is still congested/sniffling on Tuesday (assuming no other symptoms develop), would you advise to keep her home?

[dancingnancy]

Can you email the school nurse to see what they think? DD has seasonal allergies and was sniffling the other day. We are hybrid and it was one of her home days. I emailed the school nurse and explained that it happens every year around this time and she replied that it was ok to send her to school.

[lolalolalola]

Here you need to keep them home if they have any new symptoms at all, including Fever, Cough, Shortness of breath, Difficulty breathing, Sore throat, Chills, Painful swallowing, Runny nose, Nasal congestion, Feeling unwell, Fatigue, Nausea, Vomiting, Diarrhea, Unexplained loss of appetite, Loss of taste or smell, Muscle/Joint aches, Headache, Conjunctivitis

So she’d definitely get sent home from school here.

If 2+ symptoms are required, I’d follow the rules in your state.

[Roc A Bee]

I would give allergy meds and see if symptoms improve. If yes, I would send her.

[waverly]

We can’t send to school with any symptoms nor can I work.

So I think we have to test and get a negative in order to work and go to school.

[loira]

Can she be tested? My DD woke up with the same thing yesterday and my province recommends testing for anyone with even mild cold symptoms, since symptoms vary so much with this virus. We're isolating at home until we get the results.

[campermom]

Runny nose and congestion are on the list of two symptoms for us. So both together would exclude from both school and daycare.

To get back in they need a negative test (rapid is not accepted), quarantine, or a dr note that it is something else.

That child would be considered a Person Under Investigation. The class would be moved (bc we have SO much extra space), sit for 24 hours, “misted”, and sit for 48 hours until the class can return.

This protocol begins in a few weeks when we go hybrid until they realize we all will be staying home anyway.

Yesterday my neighbor told our other neighbor she couldnt come to the outdoor bday party due to the daughter having a runny nose and cough. I’ll bet she sends her to the sports game on my daughters team today though.

[expectantsteelerfan]

I'm trying to prepare myself for being at the pediatrician every week from now on. We are to keep them out for any symptom (including congestion and runny nose), which I definitely understand. We can easily do remote on our usual hybrid days if they have any symptoms. But we ALSO need a dr. note for them to return to school after they've been kept out for any reason. I haven't had to keep them out/get a note yet, but I don't know what the dr. is going to say other than 'they had a cold and can return to school' (or if they will be tested and confirmed negative, but around here, it seems you have to really be sick to get a test, and even then they don't want to test family members).

[Leeham Rimes]

Our school sends kids home with one symptom. There were two kids sent home to virtual learn due to coughing last week. I currently have a sore throat. I truly believe it’s due to post nasal drip from changing weather but I’m staying home in case I take a turn or until my allergy meds work and then I know it’s allergies.

[gretchenindisguise]

I think it's going to be a long winter of many covid tests for kids.

We just had our eldest tested yesterday. Hopefully results come in today or tomorrow.

ETA: got results in about 24hrs on the dot. She's negative as we expected.

[krystee]

Every single October of my entire life, I get a terrible cold for about two weeks. It just started, right on track. And like always, the boys have it too. I am so annoyed that I may have to work from home with a two-year-old for basically the whole week because it takes four days to get most test results back here. And I will probably have to do this half a dozen more times this winter because we basically have chronic winter colds, all winter, every year. Ugh.

[goldengirlz]

The proposed illness guidelines from our school suggest staying home for three days for cold symptoms (without a fever or cough).

Think about how you would feel if a child came to class sniffling and blowing their nose and was seated right next to your DD. If you wouldn’t want your child sitting next to someone with the same symptoms, then keep her home until she either improves or she gets tested.

[lurkie22]

Unless she has allergies, I'd keep her home. Even if it's not Covid, we still need to keep our kids home when they're sick and contagious.

My DD started having a runny nose last week, and technically with our school checklist she could still go. But I called the doctor and she said she was still supposed to recommend testing for any mild symptoms. So we did the test the next day and had to wait 3 days for results. I kept my son home too because he was developing the same symptoms. So they missed 4 out of 5 days. I think that's just going to be the new reality. They were both negative for Covid, but I'm still glad I kept them home. As my doctor said, we still need to contain colds too, since we don't want everyone's immune systems being down if/when they do encounter Covid.

I know it sucks and it makes school seems impossible, but this year is going to be very different.

[mskitkat]

My daycare and pre-K’s rules are that literally any symptom requires a negative covid test to return. My kids are going to get a loooooooot of covid tests.

[ssmjlm]

Oct 4, 2020 13:17:03 GMT -5 mskitkat said:

My daycare and pre-K’s rules are that literally any symptom requires a negative covid test to return. My kids are going to get a loooooooot of covid tests.

Yeah, I’m figuring we’ll be paying out the butt for COVID tests so she can go back. Copays aren’t cheap.

And this is assuming they don’t run out once everyone is back to school.

[mskitkat]

Oct 4, 2020 13:54:19 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

Oct 4, 2020 13:17:03 GMT -5 mskitkat said:

My daycare and pre-K’s rules are that literally any symptom requires a negative covid test to return. My kids are going to get a loooooooot of covid tests.

Yeah, I’m figuring we’ll be paying out the butt for COVID tests so she can go back. Copays aren’t cheap.

And this is assuming they don’t run out once everyone is back to school.

don’t even say that!! I can’t not have childcare! One of us would have to quit.

[outnumbered]

Oct 4, 2020 11:35:06 GMT -5 krystee said:

Every single October of my entire life, I get a terrible cold for about two weeks. It just started, right on track. And like always, the boys have it too. I am so annoyed that I may have to work from home with a two-year-old for basically the whole week because it takes four days to get most test results back here. And I will probably have to do this half a dozen more times this winter because we basically have chronic winter colds, all winter, every year. Ugh.

I know it is annoying, but I am the preschool teacher who does not want to bring anything home to her family.    I bet your kids have fewer colds this year.  If people follow the rules then your children will be exposed to less illness.

[irishbride2]

My daughter had congestion and either needed a doctors note saying it wasn't Covid (like chronic allergies or the like) OR a negative test in order to return to school.

[latte]

At our daycare, any symptom requires a covid test. We could also get a note from the doctor saying it’s a known issue (asthma, allergies) if that was the case.

[meli554]

So I think the right choice is to keep her home. Keeping her home harms no one, but sending her could potentially harm others.0

[Shreddingbetty]

My kid woke up with a runny stuffy nose on Wednesday and so my ex kept her home. I kept her home Thursday because her nose was still a faucet and that wouldn’t work well with masks. She never had a fever or actually felt bad. Friday I sent her back to school. I’m glad they don’t require Covid test each time a kid gets sick because most of these things will be regular colds unless you have had known exposure to someone. I guess it also depends on where you are at. We really don’t have a lot of covid here so chances are pretty small.

[circa1978]

DS just got his first COVID test because of sniffles. (Negative.)

He has terrible fall allergies starting around October and this year was no exception - nasal irritation and runny eyes. He has documented allergies so we didn't have to do it for school but I thought it was the right thing to do because while small, the chance was there since he's in person (that's the only exposure any of us has, we don't even grocery shop) and could expose others.

As an added bonus, we were able to take care of his flu shot at the same time.