Need a tissue anyone?Spending the majority of the last two weeks home with a sick toddler brought to mind a question raised by a Childhood 101 Facebook friend;
“When are your kids too sick to play with others. I’m sick of taking out healthy kids and bringing them home germ ridden.”
Personally, I don’t take Immy out to visit friends or to activities with other children if I believe she is coming down with something or if she is clearly unwell. For many common childhood illnesses, the child is contagious before the onset of major symptoms and that is why I tend to quarantine us as much as possible from the time I first think she may be coming down with something.
In my work as Director of a child care centre, we gave parents the following guidelines for excluding children who were likely to be sick from the group;
In particular parents are asked to support staff by excluding children suffering from;
- Fever: a fever is a sign that the body is fighting an infection, it is not an illness in itself.
- Severe or continuous coughing
- Diarrhoea
- Vomiting
- Thick green discharge from the nose
- Respiratory symptoms with difficult or rapid breathing
- Undiagnosed skin rashes.
We require that children are free from fever, vomiting and/or diarrhoea for at least 24 hours prior to returning to the Centre.
Children should not require Paracetamol in order to be well enough to participate in the Centre’s program of activities (oh, yes, there are parents who dose up their child and hope we won’t notice until almost four hours after they arrive that they are unwell!)
As well as excluding children who are exhibiting the signs and symptoms of illness, it is important that all children are taught those preventative behaviours which help to break the cycle of infection;
- Thorough, regular handwashing technique
- When and how to use a tissue and to dispose of it right away
- Covering nose and mouth when sneezing or coughing, and then washing hands
- Not sharing food, cups or utensils with other children
Now it is over to you, when are your kids too sick to play with others?
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Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.
At the moment, every time he attends kindy, he catches another bug from obviously sick kids :-( He's getting sick about every 10 days. I wish other parents could be even a little bit considerate.
We often hear stories of parents dosing the child then scooting them off to care. It's crazy. If you find there is a hint of something, keep them home for a day or two. They will actually recover far quicker when you do this than if you prolong it. You've given the child much needed rest and they get extra special tending care from mummy or daddy. And the bonus is you've avoided spreading it as much as possible.
if it is a play date with a friend I will always ALWAYS warn the friend if someone is not 100%. I am not bothered by a visitor with a runny nose or persistent cough most of the time, but sometimes, like right now when I am a gazillion weeks pregnant I'd prefer to stay away from illness as much as possible. So I think it is only polite to let people know and give them the option to opt out!
It used to annoy me when I would take my kids to a childcare centre and they would inevitably end up sick for the next two weeks. It would be great if other parents could be considerate and do the same; it's hard work and can be worrying when your child is sick.
I usually find it easy to tell when my child should be home, they are fragile ie. easily upset and usually less active than normal.
With the best of intentions, of course, sometimes I am certain that we do infect other people - I have three kids and usually need to tote the sick one/s with me when picking up & dropping off the healthy one/s, so sometimes I'm sure we are guilty of "lobby contamination". I think that is unavoidable on occasion. However, when one child is particularly ill (especially with anything involving the dreaded gastro!) I arrange lifts for the healthies to try to minimise even this factor. I just think it is the considerate thing to do.
The only scenario in which I could imagine dosing a child with Panadol before sending them to an activity would be where the issue is simply pain / discomfort, and the child isn't ill. My kinder girl had to have a dose of Nurofen each morning for a week after she severely sprained her ankle - it just really hurt her. But with the Nurofen on board, she was able to enjoy her kinder program and obviously was not contagious, so I felt it was the right call to send her. With a younger child, if it arose, I might do the same if, for instance, teething was giving great discomfort but I was confident there was no actual illness.
That being said, simple colds are a fact of life with a young child, runny noses don't bother me anymore. But I do think it's nice of parents to let you know beforehand. My friend always lets me know before I come over if one of her kids are sick, even if I don't really care at the moment. Might feel differently if I had a baby with me, but haven't got to that stage yet :)