2 x WWYD re swine flu (and children)

At the minute its in our hospital nursery. and i am getting myself ready for not taking my kids into school as and when it gets there. but my daughter and i have asthma. i dont think they are over reacting i think they are just doing what comes natural and protecting thier children. re the party could you call them?

Disclaimer: I'm not a Mum.

I would send her to school. If you kept her off every time anyone at school had any infection, she'd never be there. I know it's scary, but if you take the 'swine' bit off the front: would you keep her off if other kids had seasonal flu? In any case, how long would you keep her off for? It's likely that most of the population will have had it by the end of the year, from what I understand.

The second one: if they aren't in Monday I would call the parents. I wouldn't automatically assume they wont come to the party. Tbh I'd be tempted to go ahead anyway and sod them if they don't want to come!

Thanks both. Especially as you both have different opinions!

RA I posted on OT as wanted a more balanced view. I want her to still go to school and if totally agree about if parents are keeping their children off now how long are they going to keep them off for?! If I take the stance now that she doesn't go in so I am protecting her then am I going to have to keep her off til Christmas as I can't see there being no further cases next term.

I was thinking re the party that if my child is in school with 3 of the other children then the parents of the 3 children that have been off won't want them to be with the children that have been in! I am tempted to go ahead anyway but with only 6 guests if 3 or 4 don't come it might be a bit miserable!

I agree with RA. Swine flu is all around me at the moment (I'm in Brum) but I have to carry on and protect myself as much as possible but life can't be put on hold untill its over.

I can understand parents being concerned but I don't see how you can keep the child away from school for so long. Also, the cases are only suspected........it could be a bad cold for all you know at the moment? They aren't swabbing any more as I assume its a given that most of us will get it at some point over the next 6 months. Your child is probably just as likely to get it from people in the shops or parks etc. or anywhere else they go as they are from children in school (esp if half aren't there anyway).

I think its pretty much impossible to remove the risk completely.

Again I totally agree with you FN, but then I have pf's comment re only being natural to want to protect your children niggling at me ?

I would still send both my children into school even though my son has asthma. I've worked at a school with 5 confirmed cases of swine flu and was fine, personalyl as long as all precautions are taken by the school and hygiene is paramount (maing sure children wash their hands after going to the toilet etc) then you are doing all you can to minimise the risk.

But how far do you take it? You can't never cross a road to protect them from being run over...........

Just because you send your child to school doesn't suddenly mean you're not a caring mum and looking after your child as you should. I know.....its easier to say all this than to do it ?

I had to work in the anti-viral (tamiflu) collection and assessment clinic yesterday-the latest guidelines are:

not to swab any suspected cases (so therefore most of the people who turned up could have had hayfever or a summer cold); only people with symptoms (fever, cold/flu symptoms) to be given tamiflu; any one with suspected swine flu to remain as isolated as possible for 10 days.

Doesnt answer your WWYD question though

HTH

Thanks again all, my instant reaction was that it is madness to keep children off school as this could go on for ages and you can't keep them away from school until it's all over and you can't isolate your children from it out of school either.

It'scomments like "you'll never forgive yourself if she gets it" (from my Mum) and another friend said the same as pf about it's a Mum's natural instinct to protect their children, that make me doubt myself.

I've decided she is going in on Monday, definitley. Then she has an assembly in the afternoon which I will go to which should be interesting if half the children are missing! I will make a decision re the party when I see how many children are off school.

(I can't ring other mums as I don't know any ?)

I would send her in. My daughter's pre-school has had a case, but the child was not in the setting for about 3 weeks while on holiday and hasn't been in, but another child who has been playing with her while she has been ill has been in pre-school. A lot of parents have been quite reactionary about it, but as long as you are following excellent hygiene procedures, you should be fine. I think you need to be in fairly close proximity to someone who has it as well.

I'm trying not to listen to much about swine flu as I get very easily anxious about this sort of thing and obsess.

However, my understanding is that it is 'just' flu, right? Obviously with a different name it is going to be slightly different but my point is that people die of normal flu and people recover too. I had flu last winter. It was horrendous and took a long time to get fully better but I still have the opinion that you can't hide from it because you'd have to stay indoors for months.

When it arrives in our area, we'll be sending the children to school etc as normal. I've got immune system problems so I bet I'll be the only member of my family to get it lol

This is the dilemma I have at the moment, I'm not a person to listen media reports on these things. There has been a confirmed report on a child in the school my daughter attends pre-school at.(And might even be in one of the upper years which my daughter will have no contact with) I read the lettter and didn't think twice about not sending her, the next day my daughter's teacher pulled me aside and said I should pull her out until after the summer hols as I am pregnant and in a 'high risk' group. I think its going to be difficult to avoid altogether and I'm at as much risk in my job with the general public so I want to continue sending her to pre-school as she loves being with her friends. My family think I'm stupid for putting myself at risk.

I know you didn't mean to, but that is the first time I have panicked at all when reading about swine flu.

My friend works in a Dr's surgery and she said they are working on a vaccination, not sure if it is in addition to the normal flu jag or if it will be an all in one. have you heard anything about this?

Having had my own moments of crossness and panic - I do agree with RA (now!).

This is really interesting to read as I am teacher and mum to an 8 month old and we have one cofirmed case in our school and it is a member of staff. I can't not go into work, it's not an option. We are being super vigilant with the kids insisting on lotsof handwashing and disinfecting door handles etc to try to minimise the spread of infection but at least 1/2 of the class i was teaching last week have had some sort of cough/cold/ sore throat complaint in the last few days. Letters from the authority went out on Friday to all parents so we'll see how many turn up on Monday!

I'm a Doc, currently working in general paediatrics, and will be moving to general medicine in December - joy!! I am also the Mum of a 16mth old. I do not relish the days when we start dealing with our 1st cases (we've so far not had to addmit a single case), and know that once I do I will be at risk of catching it and then passing it on to our daughter who is in a higher risk category than H + I due to her age. I am not happy about that idea, but what else can I do?

I think H will be wanting to a)quarantine me from the home, or b) keep me away from work, but at the end of the day we may be stuck with swine flu dramas for the next couple of years. Yes it would be silly to spend time in close contact unprotected with a known case of flu if you can hep it, but there is no end in sight for a long while yet, and the cases (or rumours of cases since we're now in treatment phase) will keep coming well into next year. There are suggestions that getting the flu now will be preferable to the more virulent strains that come along in the autumn/winter months too.

I would keep sending her to school, the 'cases' may not even be swine flu. A friend had been to a Take That concert in Glasgow (one of the Swine flu hotspots), had never felt so bad in his entire life, had a temp consistently over 38 deg, very sore throat, muscle aches and lethargy so severe he barely moved from his bed for 72 hours, but was negative for swine flu when he was swabbed, so even the most convincing sounding cases aren't necessarily SF - and if they are, the vast majority of people will get over it in a few days.

Asthma, pregnancy etc are higher risk groups, but as far as I have been led to believe from the clinical updates, aside from the tragic death of the healthy man recently, the only deaths have been in people with even more significant underlying health problems such as immune deficiency and other complex medical backgrounds.

Thanks for that info Becca.

I'd certainly send primary age children who were basically healthy to school, yes. As has been said, I'm pretty sure we'll all come into contact with it in the next few months (or into contact with something that someone might think is swine flu, IYSWIM).

At the moment, I'm only even slightly worried because I'm pregnant; I don't really want it before this baby's born, and I wouldn't be keen on a brand new baby getting it. Otherwise, I'm just assuming that the huge majority of people who get it will feel pretty ill for a few days and then get better. What's the alternative anyway? We can't all stay at home for the next year or more on the offchance that we meet someone who might be infected.