Diarrhea

How do you define diarrhea in your daycare? Is it the number of bowel movements, the consistency, the overall behaviour of the child (ie. fussy or not) or a combination of all these things? Do you consider one very loose stool to be diarrhea if it is not normal for the child? Would you send a child home for one very loose stool in absence of any other symptoms (ie. child is acting normal and eating etc). Would you send a child home for 3-4 BM's in one day if that is not normal for the child?

In centre care it was defined as 'two or more abnormal bowel movements'.

At home for me I go on a combination of things .... what is 'normal' for that specific child, is it an 'increase' in actual movements compared to normal, AGE of the child and could it be teething related and over all behavior and other symptoms and if there is a 'bug' going around where diarrhea is a symptom ~ all these factor in to my decision to exclude a child.

So if a child had 3-4 bowel movements which was more than 'normal' but they were not 'loose or liquid' and the kid seemed otherwise fine I would not necessarily send them home but I might CALL and ask the parents if something changed in the kids diet or if anyone else in the home had been 'sick' just to give a heads up that something was 'off' about the kid .... maybe they overate treats the night before or they had a dinner of crap the day before, maybe they tried a new food or what not .... and than go from there to decide if the child is brewing something of concern or just 'full of it' that day so to speak ;)

I consider 2 or more watery bm. I actually sent 1 home today who had 2 watery bm within an hour and a half. That's not normal for this kid AT ALL. I don't care if it's due to teething or not, it had an extremely strong smell and there were 2 in less than 2 hours. I'm not dealing with that all day long.

I go with the if it can be contained within the diaper and happening less than hourly they stay but parent is called to give them a heads up after the third one - most will try to come. If there are other symptoms then I do my best to isolate. For an infant I am in control of where they are and what they are doing I usually keep them because there are so many reasons other than illness for the loose stools. For an older child they need to go home because I can not justify to them keeping them in a confined space so they don't spread germs and they are more likely to be sick.

Yes Playfelt that is so true .... containment is another KEY cause we cannot be cleaning 'feces' up from all over the house while trying to watch multiple children safely :(

Lots of things I can multi task in my day but 'cleaning chemicals and children' do not mix and you cannot clean up 'feces' without some sort of disinfectant!

Kids poop can be all different shapes sizes colours and consistencies depending on what they ate. So, I define it as several poops in a short period of time, mostly wet. Or if somethinig was so explosive it went right out of the diaper I'll let the parent know by txt but won't require a pick up. The second explosive needs a pick up cause I only take one extra set of clothes.

Most diarhea, IME, accompanies a fever or at the least an upset tummy making the child not act like thier normal bubbly self.

My policies say diarhear... my policies also say that I send home at my discretion.

sunnydays, I've had children in care for about a week with what I consider to be diarrhea and a couple of parents kept their children home a couple of days when they seemed to be feeling bad but they couldn't take a week off for loose stools. They were playing and eating well all week, just treating me to really awful diapers!

I stick to my fever policy and no vommiting for sure, but I sent all the soiled clothing home in a bag when it squirted out of the diapers as we discussed in our Rinsing Thread. Sometimes you do your best and draw the line when the children are really sick.

But after working outside the home all my life I know exactly how crappy bosses make you feel as a Mom when you tell them you have a sick child. It's sad but true.