Half of parents send sick children to school

Half of all parents in the UK admit to sending their sick child to nursery or school, a new survey has found.

The main reason given by two thirds of parents was the belief they would start to feel better once they were at school. One in five parents questioned did so because they had no childcare, while 18 per cent said it was because of work commitments.

In a complete turnaround, over two thirds of the same parents surveyed complained that the number one reason for their child falling ill was germs caught from classmates.

The survey of 1,042 parents was carried out for BUPA's ‘How Are You Britain?’ report.

Close to 1 in 5 also said they thought infectious illnesses such as diarrhoea and vomiting are not reason enough to keep their children at home.

Most UK schools advise that children should not go to school if suffering from diarrhoea and/or vomiting, and should not return until they are symptom free for 48 hours.

And some six in 10 parents said they would keep their children home if they had conjunctivitis, which the Health Protection Agency advises is unnecessary.

BUPA Health and Wellbeing medical director, Dr. Annabel Bentley, said: “Parents should keep children with vomiting and diarrhoea off school or nursery for 48 hours to protect other children’s health.

“For conjunctivitis, which is usually viral, medical guidance is that a child can go to school or nursery.”

This article was published on Mon 13 September 2010