Need advice about sick policy

[kindertime]

I am very strict for certain things. I send kids home for fever (within 24 hours), vomiting, diarrhea and if they are unable to follow the routine. Otherwise, they are allowed to come. Sometimes, parents will complain that their child gets sick because other parents send kids to daycare with colds. However, most parents do it, I don't like it, but if you have a child with 10 colds per year, it can be really hard to take that much time off work/school. So I understand from that perspective. If they can participate, they can come. I have had kids come and be active during the day but still are miserable, can't breathe for being stuffed up and coughing up a lung, but they still come. And I will make the report at the end of the day, "he was miserable because he can't breathe." We go through a lot of Kleenex. I have also arranged for the sick kids to be at the table most of the day, so they aren't playing with all the toys and climbing over the other kids. Playing with table top toys spreads less germs.

You, on the other hand, are free to be as strict as you want to be. My suggestion is to write down what you expect of parents and when they can come or not come. Give it out to everyone and then stick to it yourself. If you want to prevent kids from coming with a cold, be prepared for push-back from parents. And of course there is always the debate of whether its a cold or not. When a child is running around all day, their symptoms may be worse, so the cold seems worse to you but at home, if they are sitting, the symptoms may be better and so not seem like a cold at all to the parents. Colds are tricky. They say there is no cure for the common cold. But of course there is... stay away from other people!