Let’s Keep Our Daycare Healthy!!

We have had a long string of illnesses passing in and out of the daycare and back and forth from child to child in the past few months. Parents have been getting sick and I have ended up sick myself, as well, quite a few times. It has been a terrible winter with the weather all over the map and illnesses are taking a huge spike this year. It is very hard for me to stop all illnesses from coming in and out of my home but I do try the best I can. I need the support of you, as parents, to help prevent illnesses from entering the daycare so we can stop this viscous cycle.

If you refer back to your contract under the category of illnesses you will find the following:

- I will provide childcare to children who are suffering from a minor
cold. This includes a bit of a runny nose and a minor cough. Any
other illness will not be permitted within our childcare home.
Including but not limited to:

o Extreme congestion; where a child is having a hard time
eating and/or sleeping due to a stuffed up nose. Any kind
of yellow or green mucus coming out of the child’s nose as
this is a clear sign of an infection.
o Chronic coughing; where the child is coughing constantly
or very frequently. When coughing causes the child
to gag.
o Any FEVER whatsoever.
o Vomiting and/or nausea.
o Diarrhea (other than food related diarrhea)
o Fatigue; changes in the child’s energy levels.
o Eye infections and/or throat infections.

- Please keep in mind that this is not a full list and that I may refuse
to provide childcare for a child even if the symptoms are different
from the ones on this list.

- Please do not send your child to daycare until they are free of
symptoms for 24 hours.
 This means if your child has a fever and it
breaks at 9pm on Sunday night, the child CAN
NOT attend daycare on Monday. Tuesday
morning he/she will be accepted back into care.
 This means if your child is up all night throwing
up and he/she has their last bout of throwing up
at 3am Sunday night and seems to be free of
symptoms when you wake them up in the
morning your child still CAN NOT attend daycare
on Monday. Tuesday morning he/she will be
accepted back into care.

o Please note that I aware of when a parent tries to mask a
child’s fever with Tylenol in the morning to get them into
daycare. These are the children who out of nowhere end
up with a spiked fever two to four hours of being in my
care. This is completely unacceptable and can result in
termination as it is a deliberate violation of my policies!
Please be sure to follow my childcare policies!

I know it can be tough at times having to take a sick day from work to stay home with your child when they are sick, however, when a sick child is brought into my home several other children end up catching this illness and several other parent’s end up having to take sick days off work. I too sometimes end up catching these illnesses and in which case I have to close down the whole daycare which in term causes an inconvenience for everyone involved.


If your child suffers from a medical illness such as asthma or seasonal allergies please be sure to fill in the details of this in your CHILD INFORMATION FORM. Any medical illness that causes severe coughing or congestion should be reported in your child information form and will help me to better determine when a child is contagious or not. Bringing in a doctor’s note will also benefit the determination of whether a child should be in care or not due to the symptoms they are showing. Let’s all work together to make this daycare experience a healthy one!!
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __


Please sign and return this portion of the reminder of ******** Daycare Illness Policy.

I have read and understand all areas in the reminder that ******** provided me with in reference of her Illness Policy. I agree by signing this form to follow these policies and all areas covered within the policy for the duration of my child’s stay at ******** Daycare.
Parent’s Signature__________________________________________
Date_____________________________________________________

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Very detailed and professional...I LIKEY!!!!

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Thanks...I appreciate it!

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Is this just a reminder?? Honestly, I must be ADD because I do not have the attention span to read the whole thing. Are you just repeating what is in your PHB? If so, I would just start enforcing the rules more and stand your ground. Most daycares have the same policies and really only have issues when parents try to push the limits....I say verbally remind parents and tell them you WILL be calling them to come pick up if necessary or they will be denied service at the door if they do not follow your rules.

I think illness and exclusion should be common sense but we all know that is not true. I have learned over the years that the ONLY way to np the vicious cycle cause by illnesses is for the provider to be firm and allow no exceptions. When I call a parent to come pick up for whatever reason, the child may NOT return the next day. It apparently does the trick because this year I have only sent 1 kid home and have no repeat cycles of any illnesses. I never even got my yearly head cold and have had one every year since I opened 15+ years ago.

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Yes it is a reminder of what is in my contract under illness policies. One of the big reasons why I am sending out this reminder is because I am VERY convinced at this time that most parents have not even read over this portion (or the contract) itself because parents are constantly trying to break this policy. I feel that if I send out a reminder perhaps MOST parents will read it and being that they have to sign it will not be shocked when I enforce my policy as this has been the case lately.

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Gottcha! I agree that most parents do not read the PHB that is given to them. Guess I am just frustrated because of that so I just decided to get really tough about standing my ground. I sent a 1 yr old home this morning because of an enormous amount of green snot and the gross factor (he mouths EVERYTHING) and he was digging uncontrollably in one ear and is crabby as all get out and the parents left looking completely confused as to why I called them! Grrrrr!

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I had to do the same thing about a month ago. EVERYONE was sick, and EVERYONE kept coming while they were sick. One day I sent 4 home!!!

Anyway, your reminder sounds a lot like the one I sent home when all this was going on. I also typed (in red) a sign that said "PLEASE REMEMBER TO KEEP YOUR CHILD AT HOME UNTIL HE/SHE HAS BEEN SYMPTOM FREE AND FEVER FREE FOR AT LEAST 24 HOURS TO PREVENT THE SPREAD OF SICKNESS!"

I printed 2 copies of it, laminated both, and used packaging tape to make a double-sided sign on the front door. Since then, I haven't had to send a single kid home or ask a single kid to stay home.

Several parents (the ones who would NEVER think of sending their kids sick) have thanked me for the reminder, and one pointed to the sign and said "THAT'S why we bring ****** to you."

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AWWWWWW! So nice of them to say that...so often parents forget to mention the good things.

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I REALLY like this!!! My whole family got sick from one of my dck that the parent brought sick and masked the symptoms. Once the child said they had been given "pink medicine" I called dcp for pick up! Then my youngest got it, husband, me, and my oldest... took 4 weeks for it to go threw my house to get rid of it... and I ended up losing a family over it... because I had to close because I ended up with strep and then a nasty virus! So, this week I have put my foot down with my sick policy. I sent home a child this morning because of her nasty green nose and cough (but I was informed at drop off she had a "small cough" and clear nose)... yeah once I saw the nose... she went home. I'm sick of my parents taking advantage of me and I can't afford to lose another family because of sick kids.

Do you mind if I borrow this? I would love to print this and give it to all of my families as a reminder.

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Yes absoulotely...I'm glad that you like it and I feel much more comfortable handing it out at this point!

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I think that the sick policy should be brought up and read and signed by parents at the time they sign on with you. Make a copy for them and keep the original in their folder. Also post the sign at entrance of your home.

Tell then right off the bat that this is enforced to the max! Once you make a point of having them sign it when they sign on with you and you have this posted at your entrance it will be easier to enforce.

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