When do you keep your kids home? - Page 2

[Imakcerka]

DD1 tried to tell me her leg hurt too much to walk today... and I told her "nice try"  then dd2 came in with a "tummy ache"  DD1 told her that mom wasn't falling for anything today.  HA! 

I usually try to keep them home once a month.  They never get sick so they like their down time with me when they can get it.

[mamazee]

My school-aged child LOVES school and I trust her to tell me if she feels bad enough to not go. In fact what's more common is her pretending she's well enough to go when she's sick. For me, vomiting, diarreah, fever, or if she's just really dragging and not being herself.

[ollyoxenfree]

Originally Posted by mamazee 

My school-aged child LOVES school and I trust her to tell me if she feels bad enough to not go. In fact what's more common is her pretending she's well enough to go when she's sick. For me, vomiting, diarreah, fever, or if she's just really dragging and not being herself.

Yesterday morning, DD woke up with chills, fever, headache and vomiting. I sent her back to bed with a hot water bottle, fluids and cold/flu meds. By lunchtime, she tried to convince me that she should go to school for the afternoon. Um, no....

[Cavy]

My rule of thumb is to send them in unless there is a measurable obvious symptom like ... vomit, diarrhoea, fever.  Or they are in the recovery period after suffering with one of those.  They can always be sent home if they really aren't well & coping.  Bonus of being a SAHM is that I can easily collect.  Mine are moaners & would just like to stay at home with me all day given half a chance.

DD actually got 100% attendance last term.  First ever for any of my DC!

[JollyGG]

Normally our rule of thumb is vomiting, fever, or diarrhea.

However, my son has been suffering from some gastric reflux issues and has missed so much school that he no longer gets out of school for vomiting unless it is accompanied by one of the other symptoms. We are getting him well and this isn't an issue now, but it was for a while.

In years past when my son wasn't sick so much I would usually be rather lenient on what I would let him stay home for. He didn't miss that often and so the occasional day where he probably could have gone but didn't really weren't a big deal.

My daughter gets migraines. Once she feels better she can go to school if she wants to even though she was often vomiting in the a.m. She's on new medication so we leave it up to her now. She likes school so usually chooses to go. Previously the migraines were so frequent that she couldn't have afforded to miss so much school so probably would have had to go once the migraine passed.

[lauren]

Recently my first grader got sent home by the nurse due to a tummy ache. I thought she was coming down with something. Took her home, she watched a movie, asked for an early lunch and ate fine. She then begged to go back to school. So I took her. The nurse had a problem with it more because kids don't ever beg to come back to school! It was kind of funny really. But needless to say, my daughter wasn't really sick. I think she just had gas pains.

[Ragana]

Thanks for all of your input! I am just coming off of having DD2 home for 2 days last week & DD1 home for 2 days this week. Luckily, they read, do homework, rest, watch some TV, get some computer time, etc. so that I can still work. This time there were obvious symptoms for each. It just sucks that viruses seem to last so long now - or am I imagining things? I swear we've been fighting this one since winter break. Hope everyone is healthy today!!

[BinkieFinder]

I keep mine home if they have something that is highly contagious to others (pink eye, stomach flu, sore throat and fever, etc) or if they're so ill that I don't think they're going to get much out of going to school.  I also keep them home if I feel that sending them will cause their illness to worsen, such as if they have the beginning of bronchitis.  It seems as though they miss at least 12 days a year - which I think is a lot.  However, they've never fallen behind and the school hasn't ever had any issues with their attendance.

Luckily my kiddos love school (and hate to miss) so they don't fake illnesses. (yet)