The preemie that I have just turned 1 two weeks ago. Ive had nothing but issues with this family (being very late dropping off and picking up, being early at drop off, no calls, late payments, dcd that has no brains, dcg chews on everything I own etc...) and now I have a new one. The dcg has very bad breathing problems. She is always snotty and I go through a box of tissues every week shes here and shes here just 4 days a week. On her 1 year doc appt her mom pushed real hard for her to get a breathing machine. I find thats great and proactive and I really hope it helps. Her doctor granted the breathing machine. So heres where it affects me. Her mother told me yesterday that the dcg will need this breathing machine every 4 hrs and that shes going to bring it and show me how to use it. That the doctor told her if I use it with her dcg then she can completely write off care. She will pay me upfront and the state will reimburse her. I was a little taken aback. For these reasons:

A) She is already very discounted through me. I needed her business so I knocked off 25$ a week to get her to bring her kid here.

B) She is now down to 4 days a week so that knocks down another 30$ a day as her family needs to "save money". So that puts me at a bind because I filled her thinking that Id at least have a 5 day a weeker. Now Im out $220 a month from these people.

Do I go back and charge her the full time rate I orginally advertised for now that the state will reinburse her and insist she goes back to full time? If so, I dont have anything like this stated in my contract as Ive never had a issue like this before and how do I go about bringing this up? This will take away from the other kids in my care as this needs to be done for 10min at a time. Her mom informed me dcg fights it so its best to do it when shes sleeping. Thats all fine and dandy but what about the other times I need to do it and its not nap time? The girl is with me 10hrs a day. So there will be at least 2 times, maybe 3 thatll Ill need to do this.

Also, because Im just certified in Child development, CPR, AED and First aid, I have not certs in any other "developmentally impaired" field though and I dont know if Im even legally allowed to give this type of treatment. I dont know if it matters on the legal standpoint anyways as it could be just like with giving medication, as long as I have parent consent. When she interviewed me she insisted that the only things the dcg was behind on was feeding (this is a complete separate issue anyways. Ill get into that one later. These people are winners let me tell you) but I kinda figured shed be slow developing in other areas and was ready to help with anything physical or mental that I could with the education I have.

What would you guys do in this predicament? My husband has had it with this family and wants me to start advertising asap to get a full timer in here willing to pay a full rate or at least be here full time. Im kinda on board with him because its been one fail after another with this family and I dont want to be used as a way for them to get something for nothing. She seemed really gung-ho that the state would pay her back so I want to be gung-ho and get my full rate too. Id love to terminate this family overall though and just be done with the headache. If I can but its been hard to get clients. So till then, what would you do?

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