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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Sickness in your home daycare/center
mac60 03:44 AM 11-05-2009
Just wondering how everyone is faring in the sickness category. This week I have had 3 out, 1 all week, 2 today. The flu is widespread here. Over 100 out in the high school, out of approx 750. Not saying it is the HINI virus, as no one is testing anymore here. If you have some of the symptoms, they are saying you have it......from what I understand not much difference in HINI than the season flu, other than may get vomiting/diahhreah with it, or the fever last longer.

I have been dilligent in cleaning daily, bathrooms, toys, doorhandles, spraying lysol, washing things up, etc, and am not sure what else to do. I have always done these things, but now do it double or triple each day. I have put some toys on time out for a few weeks, things they tend to put in mouth or are harder to clean.

So far, no one has had a fever when here, thankfully, but from what I was told yesterday, you can still be contagious up to several days after your fever is gone. I know our schools are really bad.

There was a picture in our paper a few days ago, of a janitor's hands spraying disinfectant and cleaning a drinking fountain at a local elementary school. The headline was something like "Taking extra precautions at the school",.....I thought what the hell, you should be cleaning the drinking fountains throughout the day, EVERY DAY! Not make it be a big thing when a sickness outbreak occurs. My sister works at the same elementary school, she said the custodians were actually wiping down the bannister railings, can you imagine how many hundreds of kids hands slide down that bannister handle daily. YUCK, especially after they sneezed in their hands or wiped their nose on their hands...yuck yuck yuck.
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judytrickett 03:48 AM 11-05-2009
I haven't had anyone out sick yet. I have had every dckid (except one) out because of my mandatory 48 hour exclusionary period after they are vaccinated. AND, one of those kids had an adverse reaction. But no one sick from any bugs going around.

I'm not treating this year any differently, with concern to my sick policy, as any other year. If you're sick you can't attend - period. And yep, I will turn kids away at the door.
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mac60 04:00 AM 11-05-2009
this is the first it has hit my dc. it is widespread at the schools.
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Janet 10:52 AM 11-05-2009
H1N1 is a pain in the butt!!! Aside from sanitizing stuff and washing hands alot it's out of your control. The CDC states that the virus can live on surfaces for between 2 and 8 hours but it's more like between 3-4 hours. I've been rotating toys throughout the day and bleaching them daily that way they are always clean. Also, be strict on your illness policy! My daughter got the virus and her temp. would go away for a few hours and then spike and she was sick from a Tuesday until the following monday night. I am an adult, infant and child CPR/First Aid/AED/Blood borne pathogens instructor with the Red Cross and I've been giving my students the same advice (I do classes for a ton of day care providers) Don't worry about making parents upset about closing or anything, they'll thank you for it later when their kids stay healthy.
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