When do you keep your child off school sick?

The vast majority of working mums admit to having sent their kids into school when they are not in tip top health, with most saying they only send their children in with mild symptoms of illness, according to a Workingmums.co.uk poll.

Of the over 450 mums who took part in the poll, some 36% said they had sent their children into school with mild symptoms such as colds or coughs and 31% had sent them in with a mild temperature. Another 27% said they had sent their children in sick, but did not specify the nature of the illness, while only 6% said they had never sent their children to school when they were ill.

The survey comes after Public Health Wales issued a controversial health guide giving parents advice on when to keep their kids off school. It states that there is no need to keep them at home if children have conditions including hand foot and mouth, conjunctivitis, glandular fever, head lice, threadworm, tonsillitis and slapped cheek. However, for illnesses such as flu it recommends children are kept at home until they are better and for diarrhoea or vomit-related illnesses it suggests a 48-hour period from the last episode.

The guide asks people to think what they would do if they had the same condition and to act accordingly.

The NHS website recognises that it can be hard deciding whether or not to keep children off school. It advises parents to use their “common sense” and to ask themselves the following questions:

– Is my child well enough to do the activities of the school day?
– Does my child have a condition that could be passed on to other children or school staff?
– Would I take a day off work if I had this condition?

It adds that children with a raised temperature should be kept off school.

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