Sick Kids From A Physician's View

[drseuss]

Quoted from the article:

"If we really want to support working families, then we are going to have to tackle this problem. We need to find a way to change the culture of daycare and understand that minor illnesses are part of life -- and very much part of early childhood.

We need to find a new middle ground, one that takes care of not just children, but families."

If you really want to find a middle ground, how about we start educating parents on what THEIR responsibilities are and what the PROVIDERS responsibilities are.

Parents need to start stepping up and start paying their providers what they are really worth and stop bitching left and right about the high cost of children THEY choose to have.

If you really want to support working families then maybe working families need a MAJOR lesson in priorities so they understand that their child is only a child for a short while and putting that paycheck before their child's needs is an embarrassment to our entire society.

The culture of daycare doesn't need to change.

PARENTS do!

Parents need to come to understand that if they didn't try to pull a fast one on their provider, or didn't keep their kids up until midnight, feed them crappy foods and park them in front of their DVD players, i-pads and video games, and stay the he77 home once in a while instead of racking up more miles than Dale Earnhardt Jr on a Sunday afternoon, then maybe JUST maybe.... these kids wouldn't be sick as often as they are.

I am so sick and tired of daycare being the problem but NEVER the solution when WE (DC providers) do THE most for a child. Children that aren't even ours.

Yet, we're the bad guy that needs a lesson in early childhood illness...

Seriously?!

Just keep telling yourself that Dr McCarthy. Because while you bring home the big dollars and point your finger at us...WE are the ones raising YOUR child.

PREACH it.

[daycare]

Could other children get sick from being near the child?


So we are supposed to take in sick kids and let all the others get sick too.

I disagree with this article. the only way to stop the spread of illness is to keep sick kids home.

what was not covered by this doctor that most of these parents are getting sent to see the doctor because the child is having the runs for 3-4 days at a time.

I don't require parents to go to the doctor unless they have been sick for more than 7 days and the illness is not improving.

It is 100% up to the parents if they want to take their child to the doctors, but if they do, yes I will want to see a note of diagnosis. In my eye, if you felt that your chlid was so ill they needed to see the doctor, then I need to see a note.

No one is ever happy, they say we are too strict and if we were not then we would be getting slammed for allowing it................

[debbiedoeszip]

<<<Besides, if your daycare would take care of your child if she gets sick, then at least you won't have to worry about missing work.>>>

The line above (from the article) really takes the cake. I'm running a daycare, not an infirmary. I'm not a nurse, and I'm not the parent. I also don't want to be trying to figure out how to rush a kid to the hospital, a kid who is having a febrile seizure (because his "low fever" suddenly spiked), with four other kids in tow. Not my flippin' job, thank you very much.

[Blackcat31]

Could other children get sick from being near the child?


So we are supposed to take in sick kids and let all the others get sick too.

I disagree with this article. the only way to stop the spread of illness is to keep sick kids home.

what was not covered by this doctor that most of these parents are getting sent to see the doctor because the child is having the runs for 3-4 days at a time.

I don't require parents to go to the doctor unless they have been sick for more than 7 days and the illness is not improving.

It is 100% up to the parents if they want to take their child to the doctors, but if they do, yes I will want to see a note of diagnosis. In my eye, if you felt that your chlid was so ill they needed to see the doctor, then I need to see a note.

No one is ever happy, they say we are too strict and if we were not then we would be getting slammed for allowing it................

THIS (the bolded part) could be solved immediately if the parent simply took the time and allowed the child to get good rest and good food at the very beginning of the illness so that the illness isn't allowed to grow and get so bad that the daycare provider ends up "forcing" the parent to go to the Dr.

The Dr visit wouldn't have been necessary if the parent had been proactive in the first place at the first inkling of illness.

[craftymissbeth]

Here's my "middle of the road" suggestion:

Open daycares that cater specifically to ill children. All providers must have a nursing degree, at minimum. No parent will need to miss work.

Of course, the cost for a daycare like that would EASILY be double the going rate for well-child daycares.


Not enough families would enroll due to the high rates needed for that level of care and the place would shut down quickly.


Parents need to understand that if they want a daycare to accept ill children they better be ready with their wallets open. I'm not introducing illness on a consistent basis into my home without some serious money behind it. Again, parents already want the cheapest child care possible... there's NO WAY they're going to pay for sick care.

(Even the "right" amount of money wouldn't convince me to allow it... my family's health is just way too important. Just making a point)

[Blackcat31]

Here's my "middle of the road" suggestion:

Open daycares that cater specifically to ill children. All providers must have a nursing degree, at minimum. No parent will need to miss work.

Of course, the cost for a daycare like that would EASILY be double the going rate for well-child daycares.


Not enough families would enroll due to the high rates needed for that level of care and the place would shut down quickly.


Parents need to understand that if they want a daycare to accept ill children they better be ready with their wallets open. I'm not introducing illness on a consistent basis into my home without some serious money behind it. Again, parents already want the cheapest child care possible... there's NO WAY they're going to pay for sick care.

(Even the "right" amount of money wouldn't convince me to allow it... my family's health is just way too important. Just making a point)

We had one of those. Strictly for mildly ill children. NO regular attendance

The child could only stay for a max of 4 hours per day and it was strictly drop in for those times in which parent HAD to wrap up things at work or had to go in for a bit to get some work done.

It was run by two pediatric nurses. It closed down within a year.

They couldn't keep enough staff on site to maintain ratios...

Why?

Because everyone kept getting sick :: :: ::

[KiddieCahoots]

I thought the whole purpose of quality child care and the efforts behind QRIS was for improvements, especially in consideration to children's safety.
Isn't it a safety issue for us to contain illnesses?
Of course it's going to be the parents of sick children that complain!
I know my parents are happy and trust in me to exclude the sick child, to help keep their child and other's healthy.
And it's not like we're running to call parents to pick up their children from the first sight of a runny nose.....please!

Funny thing.....one of my clients had the same pediatric doctor as my children. I always exclude for unknown rashes, especially when accompanied with a temp. And when I had to exclude this clients child for a rash, the pediatrician agreed 100% for rash exclusion, and gave the client a list of the possible reasons why. Never again did this client question exclusions for rashes.

[nannyde]

We had one of those. Strictly for mildly ill children. NO regular attendance

The child could only stay for a max of 4 hours per day and it was strictly drop in for those times in which parent HAD to wrap up things at work or had to go in for a bit to get some work done.

It was run by two pediatric nurses. It closed down within a year.

They couldn't keep enough staff on site to maintain ratios...

Why?

Because everyone kept getting sick :: :: ::

The problem sick bays have is that they have little attendance on Monday and Friday. On Monday the kid has been home so provider is unaware the kid is sick so the parents dope and drop and get by till after nap. On Friday the worst thing that can happen is the same thing that happened monday. The provider isn't going to exclude the next working day do it's worth the risk.

They have to make their money Tuesday through Thursday.

[Indoorvoice]

When I was a teacher and my husband and I were planning when to have our first, one of the first things we discussed was what our backup plan would be when our child couldn't go to daycare because neither of us could take many days off. It was never even a THOUGHT that we would send our child to daycare sick. I wouldn't want that for my provider or for my child. When or backup person was no longer able to watch our child on short notice, we changed OUR lifestyle and I became a provider so that our jobs would not have suffer from us taking days off. If you have a job and have children it is YOUR responsibility to juggle them. I don't understand the argument that parents lose their jobs because the providers wouldn't provide care when the child was sick. The provider did not choose for that parent to have the child, the employer did not choose; the parent did. Their problem and their problem only.

[NeedaVaca]

Everyone should share their opinions with the Dr! Here is the Facebook link

https://www.facebook.com/ClaireMcCarthyMD

[daycare]

Everyone should share their opinions with the Dr! Here is the Facebook link

https://www.facebook.com/ClaireMcCarthyMD

-I just see so many children excluded from daycare for illnesses that are truly minimal.

yeah well I would rather be safe than sorry. Especially when it comes to rashes that are unexplained.

[craftymissbeth]

-I just see so many children excluded from daycare for illnesses that are truly minimal.

yeah well I would rather be safe than sorry. Especially when it comes to rashes that are unexplained.

See, but what she's not understanding is we aren't normally qualified health professionals therefore we cannot determine when an illness is "minimal". And oftentimes those "minimal" illnesses wipe out our whole daycare, family, and US.

[SunshineMama]

What a stupid article. Kids can stay home if they have "frequent vomiting?" Ummmm, I'm not trying to clean up more than one vomit episode per day, and I certainly don't want to go through it with lots of other children who get sick from it. Not to mention, if I get sick, then ALL of the parents are going to miss work, which has happened from them bringing their kids in with the stomach bug. If you bring get a sick kid in my daycare knowingly, you get termed on the spot.

[CraftyMom]

Most of us providers don't jump the gun and keep kids home for every tiny instance like is suggested. We keep them home when they can not participate fully or need more attention than we can give or WHEN OUR STATE POLICIES SAY WE HAVE TO!

We aren't stupid. We understand that by the time symptoms show the others MAY HAVE CAUGHT THE GERMS but not always, and by keeping the sicky in daycare we are prolonging the exposure to kids that MAY NOT have caught the illness if the kid stayed home.

If parents wouldn't LIE so often about their kids' illnesses, if they would just be honest...ugh!

This is a hot topic for me, but I'll just stop now. This has been a HUGE issue in my daycare and since I have tightened down on my illness policy kids are getting sick much less. I'll keep doing it my way.

[Play Care]

-I just see so many children excluded from daycare for illnesses that are truly minimal.

yeah well I would rather be safe than sorry. Especially when it comes to rashes that are unexplained.

Ask me how infantago spread through my day care a few years ago