Stay or send home

[little rascals]

I have an almost 2 year old here today who has almost no voice and has been coughing and has chest conjestion. He is obviously sick but still plays and runs around like a regular day! Do I send him home or let him stay? Any thoughts ?

[apples and bananas]

I'd probably let him stay unless he had a fever, was not able to participate in the daily routine or had a weezing sound in his chest. I have a little one that has a minor chest infection and he's been playing fine, but mom took him to the walk in due to the weezing. He's now on puffers.

If I was the mom, I'd at least want a phone call to let me know about the chest congestion.

Good luck! I hate it when they're sick, but it seems like they almost always are. I'm tempted to put a sign in my front hall some days "germ free for ___ days" lol

[Spixie33]

If he is up and playing/running around and active I would let him stay.
If he suddenly gets lethargic and feverish then contact the mom.

He seems fine but it might be that mom gave him Tylenol before sending him so maybe that is why he is active thus far. Keep an eye on him and call mom if fever or tiredness suddenly appear.

I have a bunch of kids that arrived back today (first day I was open since Easter) with runny noses and coughs. I guess the sudden weather changes don't help the poor kids

[little rascals]

Well he was already somewhat sick last week and a lot worse this week. I will keep an eye and see how he does. Thanks ladies

[Crayola kiddies]

I agree if it does not affect his play then I would let him stay but if a fever suddenly appears then yes it is likely he was given Tylenol or advil and I would question the parent cause the parent shouldn't medicate without telling you...... And in my opinion if a child needs Tylenol or advil for anything other then teething they shouldn't be at daycare.

[michellesmunchkins]

I would let him stay too unless I noticed a fever. I have one little one who is constant runny nose and wheezing. I'd never see him if I had to send him home each time haha. I'm too lenient with illness though...I don't tend to send home unless absolutely necessary..

[Momof4]

I have the same rules, as long as there is no fever you are pretty much sure that it is a virus and you can't escape those. Unfortunately, it's probably going to run through your whole daycare because this little guy is running around spreading his germs freely amongst his friends and you!

[sunnydays]

I would be careful as I had a little one come like that awhile back and he woke up having difficulty breathing during naptime...it turned out he had croup. It was very scary because he was wheezing and trying to get air and crying. He also had a cold and then the first sign of croup was that he lost his voice. The fever came later when he woke up at naptime. Now, if a child loses their voice, I am very very careful and monitor them closely.

[little rascals]

An update... He did end up getting worse. Was constantly crying prob bc throat was hurting and just wanted to lay on the floor. I called mom to let her know and she decided to pick him up. He ended up having a fever in the evening and still has it so he will not be coming in today.

[Inspired by Reggio]

Oh poor guy ... I would have handled that the same way - sometimes kids act like that just cause they are 'teething' or fighting of a virus that you cannot 'treat' anyway ... so in absence of any concrete signs of communicable disease I would not have told her he HAD to go home but just called to up date her on how he was feeling and give a 'heads up' that something might be brewing and if he goes down hill further - aka a fever develops or he is really not coping and so forth - he might need to go home ... I generally find most clients who can will arrange to pick up in those scenarios and if they truly cannot leave work they will say 'I have a meeting / commitment this morning but will give my boss a heads up just in case - please call me back if anything changes and I will make arrangements to get there ASAP' type things.

[little rascals]

I am now down to one child lol. All the rest are at home sick with same symtoms. Hopefully it stops there and everyone is good to go on Monday.

[Momof4]

Oh no, I hope you don't get it too! But you did all you could do in the situation yesterday. However, when the family returns to daycare, hopefully Monday, if I were you I would take the time to tell them that you are still learning, but you really have to insist that they consider next time their child is feeling that ill whether they should bring him to daycare. Remind them that they would not like somebody else coming to daycare with such a bad virus and infecting their child and that's exactly what they did! You are there to protect ALL the children. That's exactly what I tell my daycare parents, but thankfully I have great ones at the present time and they keep their children home for serious colds.

[Crayola kiddies]

Even if they didn't bring him yesterday it is likely the rest would have still got it as they had been exposed to him the day before..... Your damned if you do and damned if you don't .... Hope you don't get it.

[little rascals]

I really hope I don't get it! Thanks everyone for your replies. I've been loading up on the vitamin c lol.

[mom-in-alberta]

*Sigh*... such are the perils of home daycare, huh?
Hope it passes quickly! I also give the parents a "heads up" if the kid is kind of looking under-the-weather. Most parents (the good ones!) will finish what they need to and get back as soon as they can. But it can be a tough call.

[Inspired by Reggio]

Quick recovery vibes!

I had a set of siblings have the tummy bug last week and the second sibling over Easter weekend but thankfully none of the others or myself have shown any symptoms because they were home when they 'started' and stayed home 24 hours symptom free before returning to care.

I hate the tummy flu!!!!!

[little rascals]

Thanks Reggio, glad you didnt get the stomach flu. That is definitly one of the worst flus!!