Fever? Puking? No Need For a Sick Day
Here’s some relief for working parents, from the same paper that vilified us last week. Today USA today has a quick quiz to help parents and teachers figure out when a sick child needs to be sent home from daycare, based on guidelines from Pediatrics.
The answers are not what you think. And if your kids childcare is anything like the majority of centers and home daycares, you’ve been called to pick up a sick kid who could really have stayed put at school.
Vomit? Diarrhea? Fever? Keep ‘em, says the American Academy of Pediatricians. Basically, doctors think kids should only be sent home if they present a clear contagion risk to others or are so unhappy they can’t participate in the group activities.
For example, a happy toddler with a fever can stay through the afternoon, but one with runny poop leaking out of her diapers should be sent home.
Childcare providers commonly send kids home for mild illnesses like pink-eye, stomach viruses and common colds. By the time these kids show symptoms, they’ve already had days to contaminate their playmates, so sending them home at the first sign of a runny nose costs parents money, disrupts schedules and doesn’t really do the kids any good.
I’ve personally been called to pick a child up from day care because of a diaper rash. I’ve also been on the other side as a teacher, sending kids home for mild issues like conjunctivitus or low fevers, because the state’s health rules about when to send a child home are pretty strict.
What do you think? Should childcare providers be more lenient about letting sick kids stay, or do even mild illnesses warrant a sick day?
Photo:Mollypop
More by Sierra Black:
At daycare, you aren’t only responsible for your OWN sick child, but you are also responsible to not get OTHER people’s children sick. Whether they may have contaminated the place already shouldn’t matter. They don’t need to continue to spread germs. Also, if your kid is sick, they want YOU, not the day care worker. They want to be in bed, or at least at home to get over whatever is ailing them.
I think it all depends on the center and the child. As a parent I really don’t like when somebody sends their obviously sick child to school. It never fails that my kids will end up with it. But I agree that something that isn’t contagious, such as a sinus infection, or an ear infection causing a slight fever, doesn’t mean the child needs to go home. The other thing that makes it hard is the fact that so many symptoms can be caused for different reasons. My daughter frequently gets mild direaha from antibiotics for ear infections. Should she have to stay home for the 10-20 days that she is on antibiotics. The same idea with my son, he gets frequent sinus infections due to allergies, so by some school standards he shouldn’t go to school the entire fall and spring, since he has a constant runny nose and red eyes, and really bad cough. But he isn’t contagious, in fact he isn’t really sick. I think the school directors need to evaluate each case separately and make a individual determination for each child.
I agree with Heather. The schools and parents should exercise common sense, and parents should keep up a common dialog with the teachers or admin staff with what’s going on. Communication is key. For example, if I know my kid is on anti bs, I let the school know that they are, what the side effects are, and why my child is on anti bs. Chances are the school will cut you a lot more slack. And, conversely, if my child suddenly spikes a fever, has a sore throat, and is lethargic, I’d want to know (sooner rather than later) so I can take my child to the pedi as needed).
i’ve had to pick up my daughter for things like coughs and runny noses… which was SO annoying because these are kids in daycare and they get coughs and runny noses. its part of working with kids.
i wish there was a way to determine what was actually a contagion risk, rather than going on symptoms, because as other people pointed out, symptoms looks similar between contagious and noncontagious illnesses.
Gastro bugs shed virus as it exits – via vomitus or diarrhea – and continue to shed a very hardy bug for at least 48 hours after the victim is feeling better. There is no way on earth these guidelines make any sense.
And PINKEYE?!?!? highly contagious! I’ve seen that go around a classroom – twice – in one month.
God, USA Today could not be a more asinine news source. I swear it scares me that anyone would take to heart what they publish.
Sick kids in the schools/daycares mean lost work for parents – PLUS there are sometimes (often?) children with immune problems, asthma, and other serious secondary things they can get if exposed to “eh it’s harmless” viruses willy-nilly.
I’m impressed by our local schools that are stricter about these things; and most daycares are very strict. That’s good for the school overall (not to mention the teachers!).
On the other hand, who wants to deal with a kid who is probably fussing because they aren’t feeling good. Especially when you’ve got however many other kids to deal with. A lot of daycare employees don’t get paid very much and may not feel like it’s their job to coddle a sick child who they think should be at home. And then all the other parents give them the stinkeye for letting the sick kid contaminate their kid… I would be tempted to send a snotty kid home too.
My personal feeling is that a common cold is pretty much community property, and anything worse is not nice to share with your friends. I don’t have kids, but I do a lot of childcare, and these are the rules I give for when I’ll watch your kid — both for the kid’s health and for my own!
On the side of caution, I see three arguments. One is that it’s tricky to know who presents a contagion risk, given a particular set of circumstances. It’s true that many flus are contagious well before symptoms appear, but the noroviruses that have plagued my area — and are so miserable! — are mostly transmitted by being around someone in the midst of symptoms (or someone recovering, actually).
The second is that once a kid is more than mildly sick, someone’s making decisions about how to handle that: how high a temperature before I give or offer Tylenol? Should a sniffly kid get a decongestant or cough suppressant? Is it ok to give Gatorade or Pedialyte to a kid with the runs? Given that people have lots of strong feelings in these arenas, it doesn’t seem fair to push the decisions on caregivers — or to force them to keep huge books of info! Of course, this could be different in a smaller care situation, but even so, with people who I don’t know well, even one-on-one this can be tricky.
The last reason is that it’s always possible that your kid’s best friend has a parent living with HIV or undergoing chemo or lives with a grandparent or tiny baby — someone who might suffer serious effects from what is just an inconvenience to me or my family.
That said, we all make decisions about each other’s health all the time — this is just a particularly clear-cut example of it.
I have sent my children to day care with many a runny nose/dry cough/other minor cold symptoms. Honestly, if they were excluded for that they wouldn’t be able to attend from November through April. However, I would never want them to keep my child if he/she were throwing up! That kind of thing is hella contagious and really unpleasant for affected families, albeit usually not serious. Conversely, I sometimes had a hard time persuading my day care to call me if my child seemed miserable, even if there was no fever.
Know how many times I got sent to the office to call my Mom to come get me because I was “sick” in first grade? Pretty much every day for three solid months because I have allergies. Mom put her foot down after leaving work to get me the fourth time. Took me to my ped, who wrote me a clean bill of health but explained that I had allergies and what the symptoms were, and that I was NOT contagious. Mom took me right back to school, had some words with my teacher, and it ended there.
That is what gets me, I wish people would just use some common sense. Parents and teachers alike. If you are a teacher and have a kid come in with a runny nose and red eyes, don’t just assume they are sick. Sure call the parents and double check, but don’t just say they need to go home. On that same note, parents need to understand that if their child has something contagious then YES they need to go home. They are not getting anything out of being in school/daycare if they don’t feel well anyway. I am sure all a sick kid really wants to be at home snuggled up with a favorite blanket or toy resting, not trying to keep up with all the other kids.
It’s not only the other kids, teachers get sick too. Try running a daycare or school where half the teachers are home (unpaid, of course) but all the kids are there, but none of THEM are sick, of course.
The usual remedy for common cold is just lots of water, fruit juice and also vitamin-C tablets.*:*
I have a home daycare and I dont think that parents understand how sending a sick child can affect my day. I understand that you cant keep them home for every runny nose or common cold,. But they dont realize that if your child is miserable and cranky and overtired that I dont have the time to give them the extra attention that they need. If i only had one child then fine, but I have four other children to take care of. If they cant participate in the activities or needs constant attention, then he needs to stay at home. On another note, i have spent many days wiping a runny nose a hundred times. I think common sense is the key. I honestly wouldnt send my chilld to daycare if there nose was pouring out or if they were miserable. I wouldnt want them to be miserable and crying all day at a daycare.