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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Sick Kids From A Physician's View
Josiegirl 03:17 AM 06-27-2014
Impetigo, scabies, bronchiolitis, stomach bugs, chicken pox(back in the day), not to mention all the green nosed colds and common viruses; these are just a few of the things that have gone through my daycare in the past 30 years. Some kids have had to be hospitalized for the exposures, even my own 18 month old(broke my heart watching her walk down the corridors hitched to an IV and the mother of the sick child she caught it from WAS a doctor!!). I once told a part time dcm that chicken pox was going around and asked if that was a concern. She chose to keep her child out of daycare until the incubation period was well over. Why? Because she was also caring part time for a child with leukemia that absolutely could not be exposed.

There is more to an illness than us simply sending home a child with a green nose. There is so much more to consider. This doctor is taking it all out of context and not thinking of long term ramifications, how it could filter down and cause other problems within other families.

I am not one to exclude over a couple loose poops, or a green nose but if that same child won't get up off the couch, eat, join in at all, then home with a loving parent who has time to care for them, is obviously where they need and want to be.

Wouldn't schools do the same thing? Who can nurse a child when there are other children to care for? And what is fair about exposing all the other children, plus families, plus who knows who else they touch along the way to wellness??? And most of all, how is that fair to the sick child? Isn't taking care of a sick child part of raising a child, part of showing you care about a child? How does that child feel when they're shoved off to school or daycare, sick as a dog, nobody to really care for them??? THESE are the kinds of caring acts we do as parents. It's not necessary to buy them McDonalds or a tv for their bedroom or all the toys in the world....but what is necessary is showing them you care enough to love, nurture, take care of them. We do what we can as providers but we are NOT their parents.

Idiot doctor.
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KidGrind 05:15 AM 06-27-2014
Originally Posted by Littleplanet:
I know this is an older post but I thought I would share my experience with HFM that went crazy through my daycare.
June 2014.
On a Monday, a parent brought a child in with a rash that he woke up with. She thought it was bug bites, which it did look like. He was miserable all day and I told her it didn't look like bug bites. On Tuesday, she said she thought it was Poison Ivy. She gave him an oatmeal bath the night before and it seemed to help him. No fever and it did look like poison Ivy. (I should have said to keep him home then) Wednesday, my husband called-he stayed overnight for work and said he thought he might have what the child had so I called the mom and told her she needed to take her son to the dr because whatever it was, it must be contagious. She said she had called the dr the night before and they told her to bring him in the next morning. she was still going to bring him over and call for an appointment. I told her no he had to be seen first. So, she takes him to the dr. It was HFM but not contagious anymore. She brought him back to the daycare and he stayed the rest of the week with blisters and tons of bumps. But the dr said he was fine. Now, with no experience with this before I let him stay.
Friday comes and my 20 year old daughter who works with me, gets a sore throat and becomes very sick on Sat. We suspect she has it. Then I get it, my 23 year old son gets it on Sunday. I call the daycare families and tell them we are closed until Wed because we all have it. We go to the dr. on Tuesday, can't get in until then. And the dr. closes us down until the following Monday. Now, my 20 and 23 year olds get it really bad with the blisters in the mouth, on the hands and feet and it is very itchy and very painful. I have spots and mouth blisters and then my 24 year old comes down with it. My husband did in fact have it, which at first the dr. told him he had an allergic reaction. So, my whole family came down with it even though we washed our hands and disinfected everything. We lost over 1200 dollars that week because a dr. told us the first child was not contagious and he was.
June 26th. My daughter is still healing from this. Her hands and feet and peeling. I have never seen anything like this before. I also had to tell a family they had to stay out the next week because they had the signs for it.
I learned a huge lesson this past month. No rashes are allowed to come in until seen by a dr. I'm not even sure the drs. know what they are talking about on this.
Just thought I would share since it is very contagious.

Thanks for sharing! You made me realize how lucky I am. In May, one of my parents called to tell me DCK had HFM. I told her no return until oozing had stopped. I went into bleach clean Queen mode. I cleaned and cleaned and then cleaned again. Some DCFs were like whatever when I gave them notice and others went bonkers.

Not one of my DCKs came down with it nor any of my own family. THANK GOD!
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Unregistered 07:01 AM 06-27-2014
I had one too. First momsaid he was soo sick and would be out all week. Next day she calls to say he will be there "BECAUSE DOC SAID IT IS ONLY HFM"!

I held my ground and said no. Doc and mom came up with three more diagnoses over that week:
It might be infected mosquito bites, or ringworm, or lyme disease

i said no daycare until whatever it is is scabbed over. I have a little baby in care, besides all the other kids. No one caught it, whatever it was.

so - diagnosis I will take into consideration. But I will exclude by using the big picture.
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nanglgrl 08:22 AM 06-27-2014
I had a dck come down with HFM and was around my child and another dck for just enough time for them to catch it. She was fine in the a.m., starting showing symptoms, was sent home within an hour and within a few days my child and the dck came down with it. I decided to close for a week so I could give my child the attention he needed. He was really uncomfortable and not eating much and the dck got it so bad he had to be hospitalized because he couldn't drink or eat. None of my other dck's got it. This is one of the reasons I hate the whole "they've already been exposed" argument. Don't they realize that every child is not in daycare every day or that even if they are all there together it doesn't necessarily mean they touched a toy or item that the sick child touched. Letting sick children come to daycare basically guarantees exposure and that the majority if not all of the children will come down with the illness. Maybe the article is just Dr. Quacks way of guaranteeing income.
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KiddieCahoots 10:23 AM 06-27-2014
Well the saying goes...."all publicity is good publicity"
This doctor just got all of our attention.

Either she's very clever or very ignorant.

I have a very ignorant doctor story.
Had a family of 3 siblings. They supposedly had genetically small tear ducts. They shared pink eye back and forth for 9 months straight, (especially one of the children in particular), and yes I had also caught it at one point.
My other clients were not happy, and one family threatened to find other child care accommodations if I didn't rectify the situation.
Throughout those 9 months, I received over a dozen doctor notes giving clearance for return.
The horrible treatment I heard mom describe she was receiving from the doctor's office was constant, the story was always changing too, making it difficult to understand.
To the point that mom had informed me that the doctor wanted to talk with me, but mom would not carry through and sign medical/confidential release for me to do so.
I had enough, and regardless of my family resource telling me I had to accept the doctor's letter of return, threatened termination. Mom had backed herself into a corner with story inconsistencies, and finally took my advice to see my pediatrician. Who is great! Would not provide mom with notes, sent her child to the specialist, and the problem was solved.

Why did mom do this? Because mom was not taking the children to the recommended specialist and playing the doctor office and day care against each other to buy her time. Because she could not take the time off to accommodate the necessary time off needed for 1 of her children to obtain opening of the tear duct surgery, (this child was the main culprit of the pink eye). They had already taken two vacations in a 6 month time frame, (both times to Disney Land), otherwise she would lose her state voucher, and possibly her job. Which in the end, she did lose her voucher for abusing the system.

There is more to the story, but my point is......
This doctor was ignorant and instead of insist that mom have her child seen by the specialist to end the problem, fell for this particular mom's devastating plight of a day care needing notes, making it difficult for her job, and voucher, and continually supplied her with notes, possibly like the good doctor that wrote this article.
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NightOwl 04:14 PM 06-27-2014
The good doctor had finally responded on Facebook....
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Tags:article, doctor's note, nannyde, sick policy
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