I have a few questions

When kids have a fever, at what temp do you send home?

If you do send them home and the parent responds, my child has not had a fever since they got home, I have not given them any form of meds., can they come back tomorrow, will you let them come back?

I send home when the temp gets 100.1 and above. I also take a pic of the thermometer and text it to the parents.

Last question:
what is your policy on illness pick up? I require pick up within 1 hour of the time the call was placed to let you know that you need to pick up.

Thanks so much

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My temp is 101. If I send them home I expect them out for at least a ful 24 hours (and they can't come back in the middle of the day). Pick up within one hour of my call or else they start to pay "sick child care" fees...$10/hr or partial hour I believe. I've never had to use this. I rarely even have to send kids home. We just don't get sick here.

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I send them home at 101.0 F

No, then can not return because they DID have a fever when I took it.

I also take a photo of the thermometer and text it to the parent.

I also require a specific amount of time. I allow 45 minutes. NONE of my parents work farther than 15 minutes away.

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I send home at 101 and I have learned to ALWAYS take the temp right in front of the parents as the child is leaving. A picture just isn't good enough.

I normally wouldn't allow the child back the next day because they DID have a fever less than 24 hrs before. But I might make an exception depending on the family and their history with illnesses, etc.

I expect children to be picked up within an hour of being notified.

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I don't have a "sick child care" fee. But I agree with the rest of this post. I have 101 is my set 'sick' temp. Parents ALWAYS try to get away from the 24 hour rule. They claim they never had a fever at their house the rest of the day, and played normal and they feel their child should be allowed back. I think if you make the mistake of letting them back once, then you set yourself up to fail because they will always abuse this rule. Make sure if you're sending them home, you're willing to stick to the 24 hour rule.

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101, home for a full day after I send them home (if I send home on Monday they can't return until Wed at the earliest.) 1 hour from the time I call (based on my cell phone).

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Mine is 101 also and they get a call. I expect that they come get them and they can not come back unless they have been fever free for 24 hours.

Speaking of fevers, I have had a couple parents tell me that their child spiked a fever when at home either after having one here and had to come get them or had a fever like on the weekends at home and they didn't seem to concern about it, did not take them to the Dr or even had given them anything to bring the fever down....when they told me their child's temp was 104 or above,one was 106 and they did not seem to concerned or take the child to the Dr, but did call the Dr and he said that they should get too concerned until the temp reached that 107..... Has anyone else heard that? I always thought that even that at 102, you take them in right away and that anything higher was very dangerous.

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I see that all 5 of you that responded in regards to fever of excluding at 101.

I got my temp cut off from the county health dept. of anything over 100.0, I added 1 degree because I use an ear thermometer.


Do you think that 100.1 is too low?

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Adding that .1 isn't adding a degree....

Adding a degree to a temp of 100 under the arm would make it 101.0

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I used to have my cut off at 100, but upped it to 101 as sometimes like with my own son,his normal temp was 99, so when it was 100 it didn't seem so high. So I went to 101 knowing that 101 was a bit high and needed attention.

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lol sorry I added .1

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If you want to stay at 100 and above, I think you should say something like "ANYTHING over 100."

That way, even 100.1 is still excludable.

My cut off is anything over 101 so a temp of 101.1 is excludable and child must go home.

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I asked hubby MD and he said at the hospital they consider anything of 100.0 a temp and that I should continue to exclude at that temp.

Thanks for all of your feed back. It's been a rough start to my week.

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Here it is 100.0 oral- so 99.0 under armpit and 101.0 rectal (I don't do those). If I see they have a fever here they are out a min of 24 hours. If kids run high I will adjust and I have occ let kids with NO other symptoms stay if they are under 100.4

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I have mine set at 100. I've found that anything above a normal temp reduces my dck's in to hot messes

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If I call the parent and get VM I leave a message and try every number for the parents. Then I give them 15 min to respond and try again, then call emergency backups. I don't have any families who work jobs where they cannot answer their cell phone and most have their own office phone. If I had a family who worked in a factory or in retail I would give them more time as needed.

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My sick policy is anything over 100 and I give the parents one hour to get here. I currently don't have anything in my policy about not returning until 24 hours off of meds - however, I am thinking about adding that.

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Anything over 100 is considered a fever here. I text a picture and then take a quick temp at pick up. I use a forehead thermometer (have a tempanic as well but I find it unreliable).

Parents are required to P/U within 30 minutes, unless they work farther away and I know ahead of time it will be longer.

I charge $5/15 minutes if they are past 30minutes late without prior consent from me.

If I send home, a child can NOT come back the following day under ANY circumstances. I don't care if the head of the CDC says they are free of communicable disease. A FULL 24 hours without medication.

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Mine is anything of 38C (100.4). I will add a degree (C) to the under arm temp.

They have to be out for 24 hours and it's not my rule (I work for an organization), so I do sometimes have a parent who tries to bring them back the next day if they went home early.

They are supposed to come right away, but they MUST get there within 90 minutes. I have parents that work in the city and take busses, so it might take 90 minutes to get home.

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My exclusion is 101.0 also and I have my policy say their return is at my discretion. Depends on if we know what caused the fever and it depends on if the child has oer symptoms and how they are feeling the next morning.

But if they have a high temp and many other symptoms, they have to stay out for 24 hours after the fever and other excludable symptoms are gone.

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I send them home with a fever of 99 or 100, depending on the child's behavior. If the fever is at 99 and the child is acting okay, I may hold off and check his temp every so often. Once it hits 100, I send him home. If he's cranky and miserable and his temp is only 99, I send him home without waiting to see if it gets any higher. Usually, it's just a matter of time before it does go higher. If I know a virus is going around and there's a high probability that the child has caught it, I'll also send home with a fever of 99 istead of waiting to see if it goes higher.

I agree with Blackcat and others as far as not allowing the child to come back until 24 hours has past even though the parents says the child hasn't had a fever at home. They did have it at day care and can't return for 24 hours regardless of what the parent says is happening at home.

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Above 100.
If I send home then they are out 2 full days. Have 45 mins to get here and after that it is $1.00 per minute.
I do not send pics of the thermometer and will not argue. No temp? Thats great. See you in 2 days then!

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