The high temperature – when is ill, not ill

This week, I had the fear as I picked up my phone and saw the call coming through was from nursery.  That phone call that all working parents dread.

Our nursery isn’t bad when it comes to illness.  In this case, N had a high temperature.  He’d been stripped off, and it was still high, so they ring to check that they can give calpol.  All well and good, although I know that calpol never really works for N, and never within the 30 minutes that they allow.  So off I had to go to pick him up.

They said he was a little subdued, had still eaten lots of lunch (always my check as to how ill he is), but had then had 30 minutes sleep.  Of course, as soon as I got him home the calpol had obviously kicked in and he was on fine form.  Jumping all over the place, rocking, playing and just generally being himself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI18hyzEpPE

Being sent home with a temperature then means he can’t go back until 24 hours past the temperature.  Luckily I can do my job from home if needs be, and he was obviously off colour as his cough and snotty nose came out.  He had a snooze on the sofa, and mostly watched dvds all day while I worked.  A bit of time outside with his dad on the farm after he’d perked up a bit in the afternoon, and by evening again he was back to normal.

I do find that it’s hard to know what to do.  This morning he was bounding around like a nutter, so he was definitely well enough to go to nursery.  It’s horrible thinking of all that money spent on his nursery day while he’s not there, plus if he’s not ill enough to just sit and mope, it’s harder to keep him entertained while I work.  I have been sitting on tenterhooks all day wondering if the nursery call will come again, but he’s obviously been ok and it was just his cold coming out.

Hopefully he’ll be rid of most of the cold by the weekend as we’ve got lots to get up to