My son has been off for much of this week with various non-specific ailments, none of which seemed cause for alarm. But last night he discovered via friends on facebook/myspace/bebo/MSN that swine flu has broken out at his school. (Before you ask, I did confirm it with my own eyes).

Now I feel guilty. Should I have taken his symptoms a little more seriously? Was that tummy upset really just a reaction to the heat and/or a possibly dodgy bbq? Was that slight cough something more sinister? Am I sweating because it's so muggy today? And when should we paint the red cross on our door?

One thing we won't be doing, though, is holding a 'Swine flu party'. Any mums who do this must need their grey matter testing. Swine flu isn't like chicken pox. It's an unknown entity. Inviting other children round so they can 'catch' it is tantamount to a game of Russian Roulette.

As ever, though, the main problem is confusion and conflicting information. I've been using the NHS Direct symptom checker and to be honest, I'm not really any wiser. As LivingwithKids' Dr Clare Heggie told me recently, the problem is the symptoms are so similar to other forms of 'flu it's hard to know what you're looking for.

All you can do for now is make sure they're washing their hands and covering their mouths with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. 'Don't kiss or hug anyone,' I warned my son this morning, as he rolled his eyes. (So far, the school hasn't closed.)

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.