School rant again sorry: Why oh why are... - Asthma Community ...

Asthma Community Forum

21,714 members24,480 posts

School rant again sorry

10 Replies

Why oh why are school so stipid when it comes down to asthma practice? My Ryan at present is having ot have his brown and green inhalers in school as well as anti-bios. These ar eonly to be done at lunch time and then he is to still have his blue inhaler as required and at least 10 mins before PE today. Well they didn't give hiim his inhaler before PE and they did it out-side in the cold and they refused to allow him to wear his coat on top of his PE kit. Well I guess you can tell what happened next? Yeap he had a asthma attack and instead worse of all they made him walk inside school to get his inhaler as they didn't take it out-side with them. They know how bad his asthma is and they know at present he is on infection management action plan until further notice due to him being treated for a chest infection but Ryan refuses to take time off school as he believes if he can walk to school and only us the inhaler once we get to school then he is OK to attended school whcih I feel is far enough as he does enjoying being around his peers. Well they had to give him his blue nhaler 3 times before he started improving. I then didn't fin dout about the attack until I was told by Ryan on the way home. I am going ot speak to his teacher again tomorrow and make it clear to her that even though he is having the preventors at lunch he still needs to the blue inhaler before PE or the other opton is I write a letter making it clear that Ryan does not do PE until further notice which isn't far on Ryan. When are schools going ot learn that asthma is not just a thing that parents make up to make things hard for them at school it is real life or death medical issue. This has made more interested in fin dout what the teachers do know about asthma when I do the asthma in limelight day.

OK rant over thank you for reading everyone I just needed to get it off my chest and out to other parenst that know how I am feeling right. Off the soap box until tomorrow know

Read more about...
10 Replies
yaf_user681_23350 profile image
yaf_user681_23350

Good Luck, been there and got the t-shirt. I printed a load of info off the web about my Sons type of asthma, scared them all to death.His teacher wanted him to go away with the school in November and was so angry when I said NO WAY ON EARTH, we booked a holiday abroad instead!I said I would think about it for next year in the Summer, we'll see how they look after him in September first.

Try and get a letter from the consultant, we got one and it basically says do or he'll die.I expect you've had the teacher that says ""it's ok my child has asthma, beware I got caught out with this one before. Kept giving him one puff of ventolin at a time, said he seems fine. straight after school he would be on neb then ambulance, oxygen, hospital and 4 months of steroids and off school for 3 months. If she had given him the 4 puffs required, he would have been fine.One of his teachers is great, her Daughter has severe asthma and she understands (only works one day a week). I was also told that they cant give him his nebuliser, I said there is a letter in the cupboard from my husband and I, we've both signed stating we give you permission to give my Son ventolin. There is no excuse, we will only sue if we hear you didn't try.We have had the whole P.E thing, my Son now has a bricanyl inhaler which is small and doesnt need the aerochamber with it. It goes with my Son everywhere. It can only be used 4 times a day and needs a space of about 5 hours between doses(I think). Fab for sports as it fits in his pocket, great for when at cubs too.

Hope tomorrow goes well, I had an asthma attack in the meeting as I was so angry and upset!

Go get em girl

Kate x

Yeah I had a right brake through. Ryan's teacher feels as guilty as anything and has said from know on she will pass PE around the 3 asthmatic children in her class. Me and the other 2 parenst of the other 2 kids in Ryan's class told her staright that we don't mind them doing PE out side as long as they have 1) Had there inhaler at least 10 mins before PE, 2) They were their coats as yes they are running about but they are breathing the cold air in which will in the end if not imediatly affect there asthma and 3)They take the inhalers out-side. I found one of those pocket asthma forms you can get here ealier today. I have filled it in and I am going ot give it his teacher tomorrow and tell her or do it myself to pin it to the wall for everyone to see and make sure the satff know it is there and why it is there. I have had to tick, coughing, breathless, tight chest and other. As ryan always seems to get tired/sleepy just as he is about to go into an attack. I am seein gthe doctor on Friday about my asthma so I am going ot chace him u as well about Ryan's copies of his 4 action plans and make sure he prints them on different colour paper so all I have to do is go in to school and inform them which colour action plan we are on and tell them I will inform them when the plan changers instead of me having to talk to the teachers ove and over again about what to do and when to do things. Ryan had another bad day at school though but this time it wasn't the teachers that messed up it was one of the kids. They punched Ryan in the chest and coursed him ot have an asthma attack that was 1 minute away from them dialling 999 but thankfully the inhalers kicked in and started working.

So far I haven't had the ""I nkow whatis like talk froma teacher as so far none fo the teachers have a child with asthma. There is only my husband and a family support worker in the school that can say that truthfully but this week the school have had fun anyway as my husband hasn't been in school because he is really ill with a virus so they haven't had there teaching assistant on site that knows how to manage and assist a child in an attack which has opened the schools eyes loads to the fact that they need training

Another rant sorry guys

OK so today I spoke to Ryan's teacher again about asthma management and gave her Ryan's asthma attack advice card and she was not impressed at all. I basicly told her she either took the card and put it on display until her and the other staff are 100% confident in recognising when Ryan is having an asthma attack or I speak to the head-teacher about this issue as I am fed up of them treating my son as if he has a horrid disease taht they don't want to know or be educated about. The card was the most easiest way to help them understadn when Ryan is to be given his inhalers other than when we have already told them. She then went on to say how Ryan is very indepenant and goes and takes his inhalers as and when he requires them and they just suporvise him to make sure he takes the right amount. I tod her that was 100% fine as we don't administor his inhalers ourselves anymore at home unless he is really bad and doesn't have the strenght to administor the inhalers hsielf as only he can say when he needs his inhalers before he fully goes into the attack as we have taught from from a very young age that it is best to prevent and treat an attakc before they are in full motion IYKWIM. She then went on to say how she owuld prefer it if we continue to tell her verbally and in writting when there is any change in his treatment as thsi is the best way to do it. Yes this is the best way to do it when there is a change that needs to be recorded and reported but surely doesn't want me taking up vital time every morning to tell her there is no change in the treatment plan today. This just seems to stupid to me. I also found out to day that the school doesn't have an asthma policy or procedure. They are starting up a parent forum and we can talk about school policies and procedures so I have decided I am going ot done the forum and thsi is one policy I am going ot demand gets implemented in the school for the safety of the asthmatic children they have in the school at present and for the future asthmatci children that come to the school. I ma also goin got push that the staff get trained to deal with asthma dueing one fo the inset days in the future.

OK rant over thank you for reading it is just so frustrating

AsthmaBoy007 profile image
AsthmaBoy007

I had the same story with my son's school. Headteacher my son has asthma i know how to handle it got sucked in that they knew what they were doing. Many times i picked my son up from school and as he walks out the classroom door i can see that he is in need of his medication, that happend more than once. Every time I bought this up I got told they will look into it. My son also needed medication at school and never told me needed some again at home and after i gave it to him he said he needed it at school aswell, i phoned the school up straight away and was told he did need it and his class teacher was suppose to inform me about it well she never did.

I eventualy took my son out of the school as he was left in their care and picked him up from a function they had at school all the kids started coming out and i was looking for my child eventully i went inside to look for him and he was sitting on the floor struggling to breath, with 3 teachers in the same room as him and 1 of them his class teacher from the year before so she knew him well and the head teacher. When they saw me and saw what was happening to my son they all had this panic look in their eyes. I gave him his meds and walked to the car park as we got there he neede meds again gave him is stronger dose and drove home on the way home he got worse i needed to phone an ambulance for him needles to say my son landed up in HDU for 5 days. I took my son out of that school imediately.

I have nothing but praise for the school I then put him in they realy looked after my son and even phoned the ambulance as they followed his protocol to the T. He then moved up to the Junior side (different school same grounds) and still nothing but praise for this school.

As a norm i send the respiratory nurse that works with the consultant that we see to the school to give the whole school training and his school welcomes it as the training they get from the school nurse is just basic so if you have a child with bad asthma send someone to train the school then they have no choice but to follow the protocol from the asthma nurse.

hope you get sorted with your son's school

Wow red bull thank you for sharing your experience. Tomorrows the last day at school then 2 days at hom egetting the care he needs and I have already decided that if his asthma doesn't improve over the weekend to my satisfactory then he is back at the doctors Monday. When I picke dhim up from school toinight I was pulled a side from his teacher and imformed that he had his inhalers at lunch as told and that he didn't require his blue inhaler at all over the day which is so much better than it has been this week. I think his chest infection has finally cleared after 2 weeks on anti-bios and 5 days on preds. I think we are finally getting somewhere for know that is. LOL

yaf_user681_23350 profile image
yaf_user681_23350

Red Bull what a nightmare!!Duty of care, where did that go eh, I bet you were furious!!Glad it's getting better Asthma family, My Sons teacher came over and said how well Matty is at the mo and but he had heard his peakflow had not been good a few weeks back.It's great He knows what's going on as He doesn't always teach him. I have already explained we will be taking him away somewhere in the autumn again as He must agree my Son has been at school a lot longer the last 4 months so far!!

Hope you have a good weekend

Kate

I must admit that my son's school is brilliant at managing his asthma. He has a medical plan drawn up by the school nurse which tells the school exactly what to do when he has an attack (he doesnt wheeze so it is very difficult to recognise when he is having an attack), he also carries a red medical alert card which school provided which means the staff know straight away to get help........Do you know who your school nurse is?? it may be worth trying them to put pressure on school to deal with it properly.

I have spoken to the school nurse and she says that the school know what to do when a child has an asthma attack and most of the time they are very good at noticing when a child is in an asthma attack. But I am not the only parent to complain resently about the class teacher and all complaints have been about the same class. I do know that there are 3 children in Ryan's class with asthma all classed as cronic or seaver and each child has a completely different action plan for school. Which must be confusing for the teachers. The school nurse does Ryan's height and weight once a month because of how skinny he is. He knows mesures in at 116cm and only weighes in at 14KG which is a 3KG drop in only 6 months. He eats like mad and at the moment we have him on a high carb/calorie and protein diet just to try and build him back up but on top of that we have just been informed that he is showing signs of soemsort of attention defiact issue and we are know in the process of having meeting sot sort out getting him assessed and getting him the help he needs in school

Yeah school was great today. Ryan didn't have 1 attack at all today which is a massive improvement lets hope this continues to be the case and school are being a lot more supportive when it comes down to the inhalers. We are on the 7 day post infection process of his infection action plan so hopefully as long his his asthma stays controlled this si the last week of him having to have his brown and green inhlaer in school and they only have to manage the blue inhaler and remember to givehim it before PE, swimming, football and golden time on a friday afternoon. Although school ar eknow in the process o fgetting him refered for assessment as they fel he is showing very strong signs and symptoms of some sort of attention deficiat issue. He is very hypo, attention span of a 2 year old, cn't stay on task, very easily disturbed, 12-18 months delayed in his education and is just a right handful but not in a bad way or at least I didn't feel it was a bad way. He doesn't sleep very well but I always put it down to the ashma but it looks like I might have been wrong with him. I have alwasy said ""He's bound to be boystuss the first word says it all BOY

Just venting again

Well I have had to speak to the head-teacher again today. Ryan had an asthma attack at school yesterday dueing PE. They gave him his inhaler before PE but for some reason he just couldn't manage PE yesterday. I then foun dout this morning by his teacher about this as PE is just before the end of school so she told her head-TA to inform me or who ever collected Ryan about the attack. The TA didn't tell me and Ryan forgot all about the attack. He is forgetting a lot of stuff at the moment about his asthma and everythign else which is very concerning. His class teacher informed me and aggreed that from know on if it happens just before the end of school she will place a little note in his book bag and if it happens beofre afternoon play then she will ask the school receptionists to drop call me and let me know about the attack in the future. I can understand why she didn't do this as it was in the last hour an dhalf before hometime so I didn't mind her not ringing in the incident but I am thinking about starting a diary at school that they can write in every day to say when he used his inhalers and when he has attacks

You may also like...

chronic infections and trying to be a primary school teacher

didn’t know this existed until a week ago and it’s good not to feel so alone! I have been a...

A lung irritant in schools?

on this! :) My son's new school has been severely triggering my asthma even just during brief drop

Query asthma- advice needed

diagnosed with asthma shortly after he turned 5, for the most part, his asthma is well-managed and...

Confusing advice from consultant

also refused to agree that the cough was asthma. I said when he has a wet cough it's fine, we know...

What would you do next?

an hour until just before I fell asleep, and I didn't wake up coughing and breathless until about 5...