Illness Policy

[kelliskiddiekare]

I am new to this group (thank you), but have been a daycare provider for three years come February 2015. I am working to update my illness policy due to one family that is CONSTANTLY bringing in illness and have reviewed LOTS of policy samples.
I am finding that for stomach bug/vomiting, the standard is allowed to return 24 hours after vomiting has stopped. However, I came across the following on http://www.stopthestomachflu.com:

"Since people are still contagious with stomach bugs for 3 days after symptoms have stopped, ideally, your child needs to be well for at least 3 days before you send them back to school or day care. That means that it has been 72 hours since they last vomited or had diarrhea. If they are not eating normally and don't have normal poop, they are still sick and are still contagious.

Parents are often confused about how long to keep a child home from school after a vomiting illness. It is common today for parents to send their kids back to school or day care as soon as they are feeling better. This is the main reason the stomach flu (viral gastroenteritis) spreads like wildfire. If you send them back to school only 24 hours after their last episode of vomiting or diarrhea, they will still be contagious and they may not be done having vomiting or diarrhea. There is often a delay between the vomiting and diarrhea segments of the stomach flu. A child may be up all night throwing up, be fine the next day, and have the diarrhea start on the following day. I have personally experienced a 24-hour period of calm between the vomiting and diarrhea. It would be a terrible idea to send your child to school during that time.

48 hours is the absolute minimum amount of time to wait to be sure that your child is done being sick."

Thoughts?

[craftymissbeth]

Although my symptom policy is very strict, it's just that... a symptom policy. I do not exclude for illnesses, but for the symptoms of the illness. Since there is absolutely no way for me to know 100% what a child has (even with a doctor's note, quite frankly) I can really only exclude for a symptom. So for me, it is 24 hours after the last vomiting/diarrhea episode if a parent chooses to keep them home and 48 hours if I have to send them home.

It would just leave things too open for parents to say "she just has food poisoning" or "it's just diarrhea from teething" or "she was just crying too hard and vomited"... see what I mean?

[KIDZRMYBIZ]

Welcome, KellisKiddieKare! Are you licensed? I, too, am in the state of Nebraska, and we are now required to have a rather lengthy, very specific paragraph on this in our handbooks per the state.

If you would like mine, you may private message me with an e-mail address and I will e-mail it to you (it's on my super slow laptop that I do not use for this forum).

But...I think you will have a hard time retaining clients with your illness policy. The norm is 24-hours fever/puke/diarrhea/discharge free, then back to daycare they go. I would love, love, love it if each parent and/or other family member or close friend would take 1-2 days off each and keep the DCK away from us for the rest of the week. I've suggested it, but it hasn't and probably never will ever happen. I just do my best to keep the suspected sickie away from others and out of my own face.

Of course, that's the beauty of owning your own business. You can have your own policies, and either your clients agree with them and sign on or not. I'm just trying to let you know what my experience has been on what DCFs are expecting and what the standard is, at least around my part of Nebraska. HTH

[kelliskiddiekare]

Welcome, KellisKiddieKare! Are you licensed? I, too, am in the state of Nebraska, and we are now required to have a rather lengthy, very specific paragraph on this in our handbooks per the state.

If you would like mine, you may private message me with an e-mail address and I will e-mail it to you (it's on my super slow laptop that I do not use for this forum).

But...I think you will have a hard time retaining clients with your illness policy. The norm is 24-hours fever/puke/diarrhea/discharge free, then back to daycare they go. I would love, love, love it if each parent and/or other family member or close friend would take 1-2 days off each and keep the DCK away from us for the rest of the week. I've suggested it, but it hasn't and probably never will ever happen. I just do my best to keep the suspected sickie away from others and out of my own face.

Of course, that's the beauty of owning your own business. You can have your own policies, and either your clients agree with them and sign on or not. I'm just trying to let you know what my experience has been on what DCFs are expecting and what the standard is, at least around my part of Nebraska. HTH

Thank you for your response. Yes I am licensed, but newly at that and did not realize it had to be a detailed policy. I am not requiring my parents to keep their kids out for more than 24 hours, but wanted opinions on it. There is so much illness right now and no matter how much I sterilize, SOMETHING is being spread.