Sending Children Home Sick

Here's a question frequently asked:

Q: My child was sent home from his child care situation three times one week because he was not feeling well. He had a headache but no fever. Is really necessary to send him home for that?

Answer: Yes. Good child care situations will always send children home when providers even suspect a child is ill. It’s not a matter of choice. It’s a matter of responding to the child. And good parents are also quick to respond to the needs of their ill children.

The first and best reason for sending children home where they can be watched one on one is a good provider doesn’t know if a child has a headache because he’s tired, is getting the flu or has the beginnings spinal meningitis.

It’s the same with stomach ache. Is it upset stomach from flu, constipation, or appendicitis?
Leaving either of the worst scenarios to develop is neglect—even if it’s ignorance.

This is really a parent question more than a provider question. The one and only choice a provider has is to send any child home whose behavior indicates that he or she needs more than day care or school care. Teachers are not nurses, and other children are at risk.

Day care policies on illness might vary, but the state board of health does not. Children who are ill cannot be around other children. Illness is: fever of 99, stomach ache, vomiting, lice, earache or infection, and a host of other things too numerous to list.

The hard calls are the non specifics like “puny.” An old word to express the idea that something is not right. A child is puny while he is coming down with something, when he’s ill for sleep deprivation, or very upset about something he can’t talk about. He really needs his mommy.

Besides, sending Sarah home when she is puny will probably save ten children from coming down with what Sarah is getting. And if Sarah is sleep deprived, then a good rest in her own bed will do more for her than a nap on a cot at day care.

But sending a child home won’t help if mom doesn’t take the child home. Work is no place for a child who is ill. The child who at this point is hyper susceptible is ripe for double trouble.

Another hard call is the chronically ill child. Wentworth has thirty seven earaches every year. Then Wentworth may have to see his doctor thirty seven times. These kiddie complaints are real. They can’t just go untreated. A child losing his hearing or a child spending his energy treating his own pain is a child who is being neglected.

Anne has “allergies” that come with lots of coughing, sneezing, and visible drainage—all winter long. It’s amazing how many children catch Anne’s “allergies.” Anne needs to be treated if such “allergies” are infected—the first time—and again every time—even if it means five trips to the doctor. Anne also needs a note from the doctor that says she can play around other children.

The best thing providers can do for parents and children is to create a policy that says: When a child is having trouble playing, learning, or participating because she is obviously not in her usual healthy state -- she goes home -- to be observed by a loving adult.

The best rule of thumb a parent can go by is: if my child needs medication in the morning—Tylenol, cough syrup, antibiotics to bring down fever, Kayopectate, Peptobismal, or ear drops to stop the pain, any over the counter meds just to get him up and moving, he doesn’t belong in child care.