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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Have You Ever Termed For Constant Sickness?
robinsoninfl 04:42 AM 04-12-2011
I've posted before about my frustration with a little boy who is constantly sick!!! He's a year old and teething so he's putting everything in his mouth and constantly sneezing/coughing and leaving a snot trail on everything in my home. I've tried to quarantine him as nannyde suggested but its not working. He just screams and has a fit about it all day. He gets a cold and it lasts 2 weeks or more and then he's better for a week and gets another one. I'm wiping his nose every 5 min and of course using hand sanitizer on his hands every time I wipe his nose because he smears the snot all over his hands typically before I can grab a tissue. This morning he showed up extremely fussy and his cold that he's now had for over 2 weeks seems to have gotten worse! The parents keep using the excuse that its allergies but he's no longer on any allergy meds because they claimed the allegra that he was on wasn't helping. That tells me it's probably not allergies. He's just a very sick little boy with an apparently weak immune system. I realize that I can't be continuously telling the parents he can't come here over a cold because they wouldn't have jobs if I did that. I've been on the other end of the stick before working full time and dealing with kids and sickness so I know how frustrating it can be for a parent. I feel a little cold hearted for considering this but I think I might just need to terminate. Have any of you ever terminated for this reason?
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Lilbutterflie 05:52 AM 04-12-2011
I can really sympathize. My DS, now 3, had the same problem up until he was about 18 mo. It was a vicious cycle of colds, and I was working full time at that time. It seemed as though finally his immune system kicked in around 18 mo and now he gets sick maybe once every 2-3 months. Thank goodness!

I know it's super frustrating, but do you think you could hold out another 6 months? The first year of life their bodies are working really hard to fight all of these strains of viruses and bacteria that they've never dealt with before. I read somewhere that there are like a million different types of cold viruses out there, but once your body has to fight it; you are immune to that particular type of virus for a while. I hope the parents have gone to his dr. to make sure nothing else is wrong to cause all this sickness; but if everything else has been ruled out I'm sure it's just his immune system hasn't become immune yet to all of the millions of cold viruses he's been exposed to.

In the meantime, keep doing what you are doing! Quarantine him as much as possible, sanitize his toys as often as possible. Wash his hands frequently, and wipe that nose! I would not hesitate to send him home for yellow/green discharge from the nose, excessive coughing, or fever over 100 since those things are in my handbook. Try to hang in there, unless something else is wrong with him I am sure the colds will become less frequent in about 6 mo!!
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dEHmom 07:09 AM 04-12-2011
i can't find the thread where I posted a link about this, but kids will get so many colds for each year of their life basically. But because they generally don't get sick before 6 months of age, the last 6 months of the first year they get the most illnesses, so they seem to be sick constantly, and so on. Each year the amount of colds/flus will reduce a few, and so on. It's part of building the immune system. Not much you can do, and I don't think it would be fair to term, unless there are other issues, or you could inform the parents that if he does not see a doctor soon to rule out serious illness, then you will have to terminate.

i think its the parents neglectful attitude or brushing off as allergies that would be the reason.
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nannyde 07:20 AM 04-12-2011
Originally Posted by robinsoninfl:
I've tried to quarantine him as nannyde suggested but its not working. He just screams and has a fit about it all day.
It takes more than a week or so to get them used to it. If he has the choice to be unconfined he will protest constantly. It's for his safety as well as the other kids. If he catches everything that comes his way or spreads it to the other kids it's best for everybody.

If you don't want the fit then you have two choices: deal with the constant illness or term.
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Tags:sick - always, terminate - sick policy
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