What to do when your kids have the sniffles and you've run out of sick leave

Sarah Ryan can't afford to get sick again.

So far this year, she's had to take 18 days off from work four for herself and the rest to look after her children, fourand seven, when they have been exhibiting symptoms of illness.

And while Ryan understands the importance of not sending her children out to spread disease, it also leaves her in a bind: If a kid has the sniffles and she can't take time off work, what is she supposed to do?

"I mean, I'm feeling pretty burnt out," she said from her home in Kamloops, B.C.

While the B.C. Federation of Labour is calling for an expansion of B.C.'s mandatory paid sick leave from five to 15 days, for now, parents are limited in the amount of time off they can take off without receiving a financial penalty, which has parents like Ryan feeling stretched thin.

The last time her kids came down with a cough,"I was ready to just quit everything, quit my job. I'm also a student. I'm doing my master's right now. I was ready to quit that. I just felt like I was at the breaking point."

To cope, she's reduced her hours to part-time, a move she says is "scary" given the financial climate but also one that feels necessary if she's going to navigate another year of respiratory illnesses.

And with health officials warning of an unprecedented wave of influenza and other childhood diseases hitting the province, she's not alone in trying to figure out how to manage.

Dr. Laura Sauv, apediatric infectious disease specialist at B.C. Children's Hospital, says there's been a shift in the way people think about childhood disease that's good for public health but stressful for working parents who have limited time off.

WATCH | How parents can navigate thsi year's unprecedented flu season

How parents can navigate this year's unprecedented flu season

2 years ago

Duration 5:18

Dr. Laura Sauv of B.C. Children's Hospital offers some advice on how to tell when to keep your kid home and when it's OK to send them to school again.

"Before the pandemic, we used to always send our kids to school almost no matter what, even if they were feeling quite sick," she said.

"I think that people have shifted to try and keep kids at home as much as possible ... But that's easier to say than to implement."

Dr.Sauv spoke to CBC News about how parents can navigate this year's cough and cold season. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

What sort of symptoms should parents be looking for to know whether or not their child should be staying home?

Any new cough, fever or feeling unwell should definitely prompt families to keep their kids at home.

Often coughs can linger on after a viral illness, so if they've been sick with a fever or cough and then they're feeling better but still coughing a bit, that's usually OK to send kids back because that's often just some irritated airwaves more than still having virus that you're spreading.

Brand-new runny nose should be a signal to try and keep kids at home but recognizing that lots of kids get runny nose from allergies, too. It's not practical to keep them home for every single runny nose.

If your child is ill, what sort of time frame should you keep them home?

Different respiratory viruses can be spread for different amounts of time.Usually, you can anticipate a minimum of two or three days.

I would say kids should stay at home for as long as they are feeling sick, certainly as long as they have a fever, and if possible, until most of their symptoms have gone away.

Any advice you would give for parents feeling pressure?

I would say, first of all, doing what we can to avoid respiratory illnesses. So making sure we have all our vaccines, making sure we wear our masks, making sure we stay home when sick to not spread things.

Wearing a mask is not mandated, but when we're in an environment where there's lots of people that we don't know that are inside, that can really help.

But I wish I had better solutions for parents who are in that uncomfortable situation of having a sick child and not a lot of sick days.

I know it's so hard for families, but as much as possible ... we really want to do our best to keep kids home when sick.

Doctor's offices, emergency departments, hospitals are all full of children, so we all need to do everything we can right now to try and slow transmission.