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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Sickness Help!!!
Unregistered 12:38 PM 06-01-2018
I am so sick of sickness running through my daycare I could scream and I have no idea what to do or how to stop it!! So I just reopened my home daycare in Jan of this year because I had a baby. Well since I would say the end of March every week one of my 3 youngest are sick. I completely take every toy and every shelf out of my daycare room every weekend clean with hot soap and water and sterilize everything only to hav e a sick kid show up the following week. I have battled. The flu, strep twice, lots of colds, a stomach virus, pink eye and now to top it off a mom brought her kid with croup!!

I need any ideas on what to do to stop all the sickness. I can honestly say only one kid had pink eye and I sent her home, one one child had the flu and I sent him home and two different children had strep but one was in March and the other was last week. So I feel like I am stopping it from spreading but I feel like all I do 24/7 is sanitize and clean! Only for some new contagious illness to come in. The parents seem like they are starting to get frustrated with me and I don’t know what else I can do! I have a very specific sick policy and I follow it but I feel like this sickness is constant and always something different.

When I had my home daycare before I had my daughter, I never sent anyone home or had any sickness go through my daycare! I am just frustrated, lost and fed up with all the sickness!!

I would love any and all advice because at this point I am lost!
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BrynleeJean 01:01 PM 06-01-2018
I'm currently closed about to have a baby in the next week actually so i haven't tried this yet BUT i recently heard another provider share her recommendation of just saying if you bring your child sick its grounds for term. not that they get sick here or you didnt know but its obvious to all or they drug and drop mean they dose with tylenol in the morning and they have that mid day fever spike thats notorious. I'm actually revamping my policies for when i reopen to include just this because i feel you, this is an issue that gets old QUICK!

id put out a notice that a policy will be in place starting now, not 2 weeks from not but now like this after noon, type it up and stick in on your door and id say something like the policy will state that you if you bring you child in to the childcare home sick (or with any of the symptoms you exclude which can be as broad as you want right down to runny nose) this may be grounds for immediate termination of parent/provider contract.

the lack of just respect for my home and my family and the other families wouldn't sit well with me.
good luck!
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Blackcat31 01:03 PM 06-01-2018
24 hr exclusion if parent chooses to keep the child home
48 hr exclusion if the child is sent home from day care

Works fantastic!

I also believe that over sanitizing creates more issues than it’s worth and sometimes it’s important to be exposed to things since the best way to build an immune system is to use your immune system.
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BrynleeJean 01:07 PM 06-01-2018
Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
24 hr exclusion if parent chooses to keep the child home
48 hr exclusion if the child is sent home from day care

Works fantastic!

I also believe that over sanitizing creates more issues than it’s worth and sometimes it’s important to be exposed to things since the best way to build an immune system is to use your immune system.
here here about the immune system thing. they say something like for every percentage of bad germs you kill with the anti bac stuff you kill all those good ones trying to kill those bad ones.

and the exclusion times is a good idea ill have to try that out as well
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LittleExplorers 01:23 PM 06-01-2018
Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
24 hr exclusion if parent chooses to keep the child home
48 hr exclusion if the child is sent home from day care
This is awesome! Totally using this when I resume care in the fall.
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Blackcat31 01:58 PM 06-01-2018
Originally Posted by LittleExplorers:
This is awesome! Totally using this when I resume care in the fall.
It was awesome advice from Cat Herder.

It puts the onus back onto the parent to make the right decision in the first place and not risk everyone else's health by dropping their "sorta sick" kid off at daycare and just hoping they make it through the day.

Excluding for 48 hours after symptoms are gone also impacts the parent as they are now having to find back up or use two days of PTO verses one.

It really does work like a charm
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Josiegirl 03:18 PM 06-01-2018
Originally Posted by Blackcat31:

I also believe that over sanitizing creates more issues than it’s worth and sometimes it’s important to be exposed to things since the best way to build an immune system is to use your immune system.
I agree with this 100%!!! Course the other reason I don't overdo it on the sanitizing is because so many times you can clean clean clean all you want, then the dcks sit down at the table to eat, and all it takes is 1 kid to sneeze across the table without covering their sneeze with their elbow and boom.....everybody's contaminated anyways.

I do like BC and Catherder's sickness policy. I don't use it but can see how it would work out very well.
I live on echinachea when I know I'm exposed to something. Lots of Vitamin C, healthy eating, water, and sleep. Good old-fashioned taking care of our bodies.
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Cat Herder 03:36 PM 06-01-2018
The 24/48 rule helps a lot.

I also clean and sanitize with https://www.bettymills.com/q-128-det...referer=search . It is rare that I have illness spread from one child to another. One case ($84) lasts me a little over three years with non-stop use.

I mop with it, use it as a toy soak and keep it in the spray bottle for lunch/changing tables and handwashing sinks before the *required 2 minute bleach spray soak and rinse. It is literally mixed 1 part solution to 128 parts water. I prefer the lemon scent but that has become hard to find. The pine is not heavy and smells clean, though.

Great for pet areas , too.

Be sure you are also washing all stuffed animals at least weekly. Those are the worst. I firmly believe they are used as tissues more than for snuggles.
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LysesKids 04:06 PM 06-01-2018
Originally Posted by Cat Herder:
The 24/48 rule helps a lot.

I also clean and sanitize with https://www.bettymills.com/q-128-det...referer=search . It is rare that I have illness spread from one child to another. One case ($84) lasts me a little over three years with non-stop use.

I mop with it, use it as a toy soak and keep it in the spray bottle for lunch/changing tables and handwashing sinks before the *required 2 minute bleach spray soak and rinse. It is literally mixed 1 part solution to 128 parts water. I prefer the lemon scent but that has become hard to find. The pine is not heavy and smells clean, though.

Great for pet areas , too.

Be sure you are also washing all stuffed animals at least weekly. Those are the worst. I firmly believe they are used as tissues more than for snuggles.
I can't use anything pine scented... and stuffed animals are not happening here for the exact reason stated. I use an EPA, hospital grade product called Benefect; Way more spendy than your stuff & plant based, but is a scent I can deal with and it also kills MRSA & HIV. I don't seem to have a big issue with illnesses here, but then I also diffuse my Thieves oil every morning before a child arrives lol.
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Ariana 05:15 PM 06-01-2018
I am in the camp of there is not much you can really do. Germs spread long before illness presents as symptoms so when the kids are not visibally sick is when the viruses are being passed around. Constant cleaning is a total waste of time for the most part unless you are cleaning every toy that every kid touches before another kid picks it up which is impossible.

Viruses and bacteria are in the air and weakened immune systems are the reasons people get sick. Stress, too much sugar, not enough sleep etc all contribute to it. I battled everything going this fall and winter and finally I am doing better. The kids have all had colds and I have managed to stay healthy since February!
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Cherylwhit 08:08 PM 06-01-2018
Thank you all! Y’all have given me a lot of great advice and I truly appreciate!!
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Tags:germs, sanitizing, sickness
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