Quote Originally Posted by bonnie View Post
However, my policy is that once the child vomits, he needs to be home for at least 24 hours symptom free. I'm not in a position to determine why he is vomiting. Also it is a sanitary issue. The parents understand my policy.
Same here and I would apply the policy even in this odd situation.

Have any of you been in this situation? Is it still ok for me to keep sending the child home if he vomits again even though he has a doctor's note saying he is ok? I want to be fair. I think it's reasonable to send him home because I don't want other kids touching his vomit. At the same time I feel bad for the parents who have to miss work every time he pukes.
I have had a child who vomited randomly at times. I felt that it was due to over excitment/over eating/over heating however while that was my suspicion, there was no way to know for sure if these were the causes and that was the whole reason I sent him home each time. I could have been an illness. It could have been the beginning of something more. And while there's a risk of it being connected to anything which might affect the group, then I don't take chances which is why my policy is what it is.

I too felt bad that the parents had to miss work - however - they are the parents and unfortunately, parenting isn't always convenient. I would have felt much worse if I had let the child stay and then the whole group became ill over the following days. That likely would have meant, instead of cleaning up vomit from one child, I would have been cleaning up vomit from each of them while waiting for their parents to arrive to collect their child.

It doesn't often happen that a child vomits without cause and while this means that those prone to it are inconvenienced more than the norm, that's just life. As when a child gets a fever due to teething and they are sent home in case it's something more going on. Just the luck of the draw for parents as to how their child's body reacts in some situations.

I would really encourage you not to second guess the policy. The moment you do, you are in a position of weakness should a different client's child vomit and you want immediate pick up from them. I know whenever I've relaxed a policy for a client, it's bitten me in the butt, enforcing the same policy when that child is really ill or when a different client tells me their child over heated/over ate and I know that's not the case.