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Crazy In Mo 12:53 PM 12-13-2012
Im curious to know what other providers policy is on pink eye......may return 24 hours after starting antibiotic? After draining from the eye has stopped?
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Mom&Provider 01:17 PM 12-13-2012
We recently went through this and in my contract it just says simply that they cannot attend with pink eye. I like to leave this one simple since it leaves it open to discussion vs saying yes come back 24 hrs after the start of antibiotics. Pink eye is very contagious and if they continue to have lots of redness and weeping from the eye, which can happen for a couple of days even after they start antibiotics, I prefer they do not attend. Once they are on antibiotics and it has started to clear and have no more weeping they are able to come back. Some cases are really bad, while others don't seem as bad...so I like to give myself some room to move within the rule - this can be an advantage sometimes and depending on the parent sometimes not.

If I were re-wording my contract again now, I would say something like they may return after antibiotics have been administered for at least 24 hrs AND weeping has stopped, accompanied with less redness.
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Crazy In Mo 01:22 PM 12-13-2012
How you would re-word your contract is exactly what i was thinking. Thanks for your response!
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Twinvillageiowa 01:42 PM 12-13-2012
Pinkeye can actually be viral so antibiotics are not always needed and over use of antibiotics can cause drug resistant infections. Sometimes meds are good but not always!
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Blackcat31 02:04 PM 12-13-2012
Schools and child cares here no longer exclude for pink eye.

Most doctor's do not treat it either unless it is bacterial as then antibiotics are necessary to clear it up.

The only exception we have for exclusion is if the pink eye occurs in conjuntion with a fever.

I have a friend who DOES exclude for pink eye but only because she has had a cornea transplant and cannot afford to have any type of eye infections or issues.
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Mom&Provider 03:12 PM 12-13-2012
Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
Schools and child cares here no longer exclude for pink eye.

I'm shocked at this!? We had to keep our son home from school until it had cleared up. There were also other students in his class that were sent home and all children in the class were checked as soon as one was found.

Most doctor's do not treat it either unless it is bacterial as then antibiotics are necessary to clear it up.

Both my son and myself (along with another DCK) got it all within days of each other. We were all given meds by our Dr's. It's sometimes difficult to tell the difference between viral or bacterial until you wait it out (sometimes it goes away and sometimes it does not), either way BOTH are contagious, so I am surprised again why they would not exclude children with it.

The only exception we have for exclusion is if the pink eye occurs in conjuntion with a fever.

I have a friend who DOES exclude for pink eye but only because she has had a cornea transplant and cannot afford to have any type of eye infections or issues.
I think if you want to exclude I would....your daycare your rules. It's not nice, can go around over and over and requires alot of monitoring to ensure the child isn't putting anything near their face or it spreads to everything! I exclude 100% and wouldn't consider changing my rules on this. I'm sure any parent would appreciate that I exclude. Even though their child has likely already been in contact with it, at least the cause is out and things can be cleaned etc. without the same child reinfecting the place over and over with everything they touch!
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Unregistered 07:30 PM 12-13-2012
I just did Pink eye as part of a healthy/safety/nutrition class for ECE and in CA it says it is recommended that children must be excluded from care if one or both eyes are noticably pink, runny/crusty or has any discharge for at least 24 hours or as long as those symptoms are present. You may want this in a general mildly ill child policy.
The three questions they said to ask yourself about accomidating care for a mildly ill child:

1. Is the child’s disease highly infectious or communicable at this time?
Active conjunctivitis (which means a child with noticeable discharge or pink whites of the eye) is highly contagious to other children due to direct contact or sharing items an infected child may have touched after touching the eyes/face.

2. Does the child feel well enough to participate in the ECE program?
Other than an irritated eye with some discharge, change in vision, and discomfort in the eye most children with conjunctivitis are usually physically well enough to participate in activities.

3. Can the teacher provide adequate care?
For a family child care provider to adequately take care of a child with conjunctivitis along with other children who do not- a teacher would have to either be able to isolate the child from the rest of the group but still keep an eye on the ill child or keep track of every time the child touches their face and make sure that the child keeps a safe distance from other children and doesn’t share food, glasses/sunglasses, masks, clothing, pillows/blankets, or any face ointments/lotions. In a group of more than 2 or 3 children this may be too difficult to do properly.

So I would just say they are excluded until symptom such as pink scleras (whites of the eyes) or any unusual crusting/tearing/discharge disappear.
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Blackcat31 08:05 AM 12-14-2012
Originally Posted by Mom&Provider:
I think if you want to exclude I would....your daycare your rules. It's not nice, can go around over and over and requires alot of monitoring to ensure the child isn't putting anything near their face or it spreads to everything! I exclude 100% and wouldn't consider changing my rules on this. I'm sure any parent would appreciate that I exclude. Even though their child has likely already been in contact with it, at least the cause is out and things can be cleaned etc. without the same child reinfecting the place over and over with everything they touch!
Personally, I exclude but I asked my local elementary school nurse why the school doesn't exclude and she said it takes about 1 to 12 days after exposure for symptoms to begin so the contagiousness of it is BEFORE the kids even know they have it and unless a child has a fever or pus coming from their eye, there is no exclusion requirment.

Parents can choose to keep their child home and daycare providers are certainly allowed to decline attendance but schools and daycare centers here won't typiclaly send a kid home or deny attendance.
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