Mome reads Mommy, My daughter's way to spell it when she was younger... It stuck. My son calls me Mome... just like it looks. I now sign all my notes to them "Love, Mome". It's our inside secret and makes them smile. I always want them to smile.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

I Sent My Kid to School SICK

I did it. Trying to blame others won't change the outcome. It was unintentional but a learning experience nonetheless. I will listen better to my child and not assume "it's nothing". Only I can prevent similar situations from reoccurring. I'm sharing the story with you so your child will not have to go through the same thing.

I was woken early Friday morning by my 6 year old son. He complained of a sore throat. He did not have a fever or any other symptoms. I gave him some ibuprofen and snuggled him back to sleep.


When he woke at 7am he seemed fine. He did not complain about his throat or any other ailments. We went about our morning routine and just before leaving for school, I gave him another 1/2 dose of ibuprofen in case the sore throat should come back. This was my first mistake. My son has only complained of a sore throat on one other occasion and it turned out to be strep.


Off to school he went.

I received a call about 10:30 from the school nurse that he was in the clinic and had thrown up...all over himself. She suggested I bring a change of clothes when coming to get him. I got to the school 10 minutes later, with a change of clothes. My poor baby was lying down looking pathetic. I could tell he REALLY didn't feel well. We got him home and bathed. Put him in some warm pj's and he went right to sleep. He slept for the next 5 hours, only waking to throw up, then falling right back to sleep.


During one of his brief awake times, I questioned him as to what had happened. Did he feel sick all morning or did the nausea come on suddenly? He claimed that he had told the teacher he "wasn't going to make it" and requested to go to the nurse. He was told "No". He then proceeded to vomit all over himself while sitting in his seat as told. Hearing this sent me over the edge. It was like a mama bear protecting her cub. How dare a teacher not allow my son to see the nurse. How dare she make him sit in his seat and throw up all over himself, in front of his classmates. How dare she!

I posted my PO'd status on Facebook and immediately had all my friends rallying around me, insisting I needed to march right back up to the school and demand answers. I'm a little calmer than some, and realize the negative impact my over-reacting could have on my poor first grader. I decided to e-mail the teacher and get her take on the situation. I felt this was the fair way to go.

I politely told her what Boog had told me and asked if it was true that he was not allowed to see the nurse. I also asked for any other details she may want to add so we could work together to insure this didn't happen again.

She responded.

Boog had complained of a sore throat pretty much from the get go. She allowed him to get water when needed. She and the teacher aide had felt his arm and forehead "as they usually do" and felt he had no temperature. This is mistake number 2 on my part. I should have sent a note. I should have let the teacher know that he had complained of a sore throat, and mostly that I had given him ibuprofen. Maybe this would have allowed a different outcome. Of course he didn't feel feverish, the medicine was preventing that. If only I had let her know. I won't make that mistake again.

I probably won't even think about sending him the next time he has a sore throat.

I feel awful.

I won't make the mistake again.

12 comments:

  1. Don't beat yourself up. It's hard even for teachers to figure out if kids are just playing it up or not. She probably learned her lesson too, that if a kid asks to see the nurse that she'd better let them go. I don't see her forgetting that lesson any time soon, either.

    Mostly because she likely had to clean up the puke.

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  2. Yes, do not beat yourself up. Hopefully the next time a child wants to see the nurse, that teacher will comply....or she will be cleaning up again. I hope your child is feeling better.

    I am following you from MBC! Great blog

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  3. Oh man, I would feel guilty too. It didn't sound really serious, I would have done the same thing. Teachers are overwhelmed with huge class sizes and sometimes let incidences like this slip through the cracks.

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  4. Dont feel too bad! I took my 2 1/2 year old to her preschool orientation, knowing she wasn't feeling good! I thought it was allergies and gave her some ibuprofen and allergy med. Later we realized she was sicker and took her to the doctor she had strep throat! Menearfamily.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. I really like your blog and have one lovely blog award for you! Stop by my site if you'd like! Menearfamily.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi, this is my first visit here and i found your blog thoughtful. I know it will be benecial for me if i will be here.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Don't worry, it happens to every mom. And it makes clear he can't get away with trying to stay at home when nothing is the matter.

    I'm amazed by the choice of ibuprofen. We're hesitant here to give our children as young as 6 nsaids.

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  8. Welcome to motherhood about sums it up. I doubt there's a Mom out there that hasn't sent their child to school when they shouldn't have. I'm glad you didn't take the FB advice ad march back into school to confront the teacher. Parent do that far too much. There are always 2 sides to the story, and as sweet and adorable as our little ones are....there isn't one that doesn't lie from time to time. Sometimes they don't even realize there are.

    The other caution I might throw out, having a fever or not is not an indication of how sick your child is or isn't. Children sometimes (often with strep) are sick as dogs and do not carry a temp. Other systems often don't accompany strep, either to make it even harder to know what's going on. Use a small flashlight and look at the throat. If it's swollen, red and inflammed, or has white bumbs the child is probably contagious and should not go to school...or anywhere else. The real bummer though is...even if they develop a fever, he was probably contagious the day before. Sadly, thats how things get so out of hand with spreading so quickly through classrooms.

    My daughter is a teacher, her rule of thumb is if a child feels bad enough they need any meds beyond (asthma or something they take routinely) they shouldn't be in school. It always goes sour.

    The teacher probably is not the one who cleaned it up, it's usually the school's custodian.

    Does your school have a full time nurse? That too would be important to know. If not, they might have been while she said no. Typically they rotate through multiple schools, a morning here an afternoon there etc, maybe when he asked she knew the nurse wasn't there.

    Hope he's feeling better now.
    Sandy

    ReplyDelete
  9. Welcome to motherhood about sums it up. I doubt there's a Mom out there that hasn't sent their child to school when they shouldn't have. I'm glad you didn't take the FB advice ad march back into school to confront the teacher. Parent do that far too much. There are always 2 sides to the story, and as sweet and adorable as our little ones are....there isn't one that doesn't lie from time to time. Sometimes they don't even realize there are.

    The other caution I might throw out, having a fever or not is not an indication of how sick your child is or isn't. Children sometimes (often with strep) are sick as dogs and do not carry a temp. Other systems often don't accompany strep, either to make it even harder to know what's going on. Use a small flashlight and look at the throat. If it's swollen, red and inflammed, or has white bumbs the child is probably contagious and should not go to school...or anywhere else. The real bummer though is...even if they develop a fever, he was probably contagious the day before. Sadly, thats how things get so out of hand with spreading so quickly through classrooms.

    My daughter is a teacher, her rule of thumb is if a child feels bad enough they need any meds beyond (asthma or something they take routinely) they shouldn't be in school. It always goes sour.

    The teacher probably is not the one who cleaned it up, it's usually the school's custodian.

    Does your school have a full time nurse? That too would be important to know. If not, they might have been while she said no. Typically they rotate through multiple schools, a morning here an afternoon there etc, maybe when he asked she knew the nurse wasn't there.

    Hope he's feeling better now.
    Sandy

    ReplyDelete
  10. I really like your blog and have one lovely blog award for you! Stop by my site if you'd like! Menearfamily.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  11. Dont feel too bad! I took my 2 1/2 year old to her preschool orientation, knowing she wasn't feeling good! I thought it was allergies and gave her some ibuprofen and allergy med. Later we realized she was sicker and took her to the doctor she had strep throat! Menearfamily.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. Don't beat yourself up. It's hard even for teachers to figure out if kids are just playing it up or not. She probably learned her lesson too, that if a kid asks to see the nurse that she'd better let them go. I don't see her forgetting that lesson any time soon, either.

    Mostly because she likely had to clean up the puke.

    ReplyDelete

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