question for those with kids in daycare

[mistylavon]

For those of you that take your kids to daycare, do you immediately take them out if anyother kid there has a cold or signs of a cold coming on? My girls go to a home daycare and there's usually only 2 other girls there during the day. Another child that's there is starting to get a cold and I'm more worried now. We just found out 2 1/2 wks. ago Morgan has CF. But she was going to a different home daycare before, since about August and there was always some kid w/ a runny nose, cold, ect. I never worried about it before but am more worried now. She had RSV in March 2005 and has only caught one cold since then.

Am I just worrying too much???

 

[mistylavon]

For those of you that take your kids to daycare, do you immediately take them out if anyother kid there has a cold or signs of a cold coming on? My girls go to a home daycare and there's usually only 2 other girls there during the day. Another child that's there is starting to get a cold and I'm more worried now. We just found out 2 1/2 wks. ago Morgan has CF. But she was going to a different home daycare before, since about August and there was always some kid w/ a runny nose, cold, ect. I never worried about it before but am more worried now. She had RSV in March 2005 and has only caught one cold since then.

Am I just worrying too much???

 

[JazzysMom]

I am the one with CF, but my daughter went to daycare for about 18 months when I returned to work after having her. I worried about the kids & the daycare provider getting my daughter sick who would bring it home to me. I dont think you cant avoid it all together. In reality you have parents that dont care if their kids are sick & parents that have limited options when their kids are sick. If you were to keep your child home from daycare everytime another child there was sick, I bet you would never had her there. I would hope that your day care provider is taking as many precautions as possible with handwashing, wiping things down etc. Maybe to put your mind at ease you should sick down & talk with the provider. I figure it cant hurt.....Good Luck!

 

[JazzysMom]

I am the one with CF, but my daughter went to daycare for about 18 months when I returned to work after having her. I worried about the kids & the daycare provider getting my daughter sick who would bring it home to me. I dont think you cant avoid it all together. In reality you have parents that dont care if their kids are sick & parents that have limited options when their kids are sick. If you were to keep your child home from daycare everytime another child there was sick, I bet you would never had her there. I would hope that your day care provider is taking as many precautions as possible with handwashing, wiping things down etc. Maybe to put your mind at ease you should sick down & talk with the provider. I figure it cant hurt.....Good Luck!

 

[anonymous]

Hi Misty,

my children are not in daycare. There are a couple of moms here who do send their Cf child to daycare and they could perhaps tell you what they do. A couple suggestions I have are providing the daycare with Purell hand sanitizer. Also, those Lysol antibacterial wipes to wipes off toys , surfaces etc. Educating the dcp about CF the CFF website has a printout for teachers you could give them about what CF is , the importance of good hygiene, and lots of good info about CF. I printed this out to give to my daughter's ballet teacher and babysitter.

You have to do what you are comfortable with.

Rebecca(mom to Sammy 7 no CF and MAggie3 with CF)

 

[anonymous]

Hi Misty,

my children are not in daycare. There are a couple of moms here who do send their Cf child to daycare and they could perhaps tell you what they do. A couple suggestions I have are providing the daycare with Purell hand sanitizer. Also, those Lysol antibacterial wipes to wipes off toys , surfaces etc. Educating the dcp about CF the CFF website has a printout for teachers you could give them about what CF is , the importance of good hygiene, and lots of good info about CF. I printed this out to give to my daughter's ballet teacher and babysitter.

You have to do what you are comfortable with.

Rebecca(mom to Sammy 7 no CF and MAggie3 with CF)

 

[anonymous]

Misty,

I do not think you are worrying to much, but in some ways you have to consider that her whole life, your child is going to be around colds, people who are sick etc. I think the suggestion to provide Purell, etc. to the daycare, and perhaps have the provider teach kids about washing thier hands alot, etc., is a good idea. When your child gets older she will know how to protect herself from sick people and take precautions, but we all have to remember that no matter HOW hard we try, we can protect ourselves from everything. For example, I am 22 and SO CAREFUL, but I caught a horrible cold/virus a few weeks ago---completely beyond my control. You cant put her in a bubble or else you will just freak out all the time, and start obsessing about it- and chances are at some point she will still get sick, and you will never realy even know where she got it from. The best you can do is take measures to make the daycare sanitary/clean, and let it go from there. Plus, if she is relatively healthy, a cold is probably not going to be the worst thing in the world.

Caitlin
22 w/ CF, b. cepacia

 

[anonymous]

Misty,

I do not think you are worrying to much, but in some ways you have to consider that her whole life, your child is going to be around colds, people who are sick etc. I think the suggestion to provide Purell, etc. to the daycare, and perhaps have the provider teach kids about washing thier hands alot, etc., is a good idea. When your child gets older she will know how to protect herself from sick people and take precautions, but we all have to remember that no matter HOW hard we try, we can protect ourselves from everything. For example, I am 22 and SO CAREFUL, but I caught a horrible cold/virus a few weeks ago---completely beyond my control. You cant put her in a bubble or else you will just freak out all the time, and start obsessing about it- and chances are at some point she will still get sick, and you will never realy even know where she got it from. The best you can do is take measures to make the daycare sanitary/clean, and let it go from there. Plus, if she is relatively healthy, a cold is probably not going to be the worst thing in the world.

Caitlin
22 w/ CF, b. cepacia

 

[thelizardqueen]

I agree with Caitlin. I at the moment don't work, and stay at home, and I caught a very nasty cold that had me down for 3 weeks. Yes, day cares may be more likly to catch colds there, but short of living in a bubble, you will get sick from pretty much anywhere. Using the hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes is a good idea too.

 

[thelizardqueen]

I agree with Caitlin. I at the moment don't work, and stay at home, and I caught a very nasty cold that had me down for 3 weeks. Yes, day cares may be more likly to catch colds there, but short of living in a bubble, you will get sick from pretty much anywhere. Using the hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes is a good idea too.

 

[anonymous]

My daughter goes to daycare and has since she was a year old. Her CF doctor has never asked us to pull her out and actually encouraged us to get her there. I try not to worry about her getting a cold, she could get that from anywhere and I can't make her stay home all the time. If it's been reported to me that a child at daycare has something serious then I watch her carefully and call the cf doctor if I notice her having the same signs. They are great about making the children wash hands, toys, etc. and ds loves the interaction with all the other children.

 

[anonymous]

My daughter goes to daycare and has since she was a year old. Her CF doctor has never asked us to pull her out and actually encouraged us to get her there. I try not to worry about her getting a cold, she could get that from anywhere and I can't make her stay home all the time. If it's been reported to me that a child at daycare has something serious then I watch her carefully and call the cf doctor if I notice her having the same signs. They are great about making the children wash hands, toys, etc. and ds loves the interaction with all the other children.

 

[rose4cale]

My kids were in a daycare center during Cale's diagnosis. He and my daughter were always sick with a cold. Always! Shortly after the diagnosis my husband was transferred and we moved. At that point we both decided that I would stay home with the kids. The illnesses did seem to vanish, for the most part. They obviously still got germs from places like shopping carts, playgrounds, parks and playmates. It is inevitable. I started doing daycare myself in our home and have 4 other children in my care. All, including Cale are on antibiotics at the current time. We handwash and disinfect more than most I would say. I understand that he is going to catch colds and that is ok. I can't prevent them all. If my kids were still in daycare it would be virtually impossible to pull them out every time one of the kids had a runny nose. You may as well stay home or get a private sitter/nanny if that is the case. For us, it has worked out well for me to do daycare and stay home with the kids so that there is more control over the environment, he is still exposed to other children and I more or less make the same amount of income I had while working outside the home.

I had a lot of anxiety at first, but like someone else said, they are going to be exposed throughout their life times, and you can't stop everything.

 

[rose4cale]

My kids were in a daycare center during Cale's diagnosis. He and my daughter were always sick with a cold. Always! Shortly after the diagnosis my husband was transferred and we moved. At that point we both decided that I would stay home with the kids. The illnesses did seem to vanish, for the most part. They obviously still got germs from places like shopping carts, playgrounds, parks and playmates. It is inevitable. I started doing daycare myself in our home and have 4 other children in my care. All, including Cale are on antibiotics at the current time. We handwash and disinfect more than most I would say. I understand that he is going to catch colds and that is ok. I can't prevent them all. If my kids were still in daycare it would be virtually impossible to pull them out every time one of the kids had a runny nose. You may as well stay home or get a private sitter/nanny if that is the case. For us, it has worked out well for me to do daycare and stay home with the kids so that there is more control over the environment, he is still exposed to other children and I more or less make the same amount of income I had while working outside the home.

I had a lot of anxiety at first, but like someone else said, they are going to be exposed throughout their life times, and you can't stop everything.

 

[anonymous]

DS is almost 3 and has been in a daycare center since he was about 3 months old. We were concerned that we'd have to make arrangements for a nanny or I would have to quit work and stay home with DS, but his doctor pointed out that CFers WILL get colds, they will get sick, you just have to stay on top of it when symptoms arise. Also, what about when it's time to go to school? Eventually he's going to have to interact with kids. I'm more comfortable with a day care center with kids divided into different age groups, than say a home based day care where all kids of all ages are around -- a coworker constantly complains about the daycare her infant granddaughter is and how the toddlers are always "helping" give her her bottle, toys, pacifier with their snotty noses dripping all over.

First year was a little nerve wracking 'cuz the flu hit early and hard and DS wasn't able to get his flu shot until December. Ditto with the chicken pox shot, which he couldn't get until he turned a year old. He'd gotten his RSV shots. Our daycare director has a zero tolerance policy about bringing kids to school sick. Think DS was sent home only once because of other children being sick and that was because they were having a tough time with a nasty GI bug going around and they sent home all the babies (those who didn't go outside yet), so they could sterilize the place. One thing I noticed early one is when they change diapers -- the caregiver wears gloves, they've got lots of purell around...

I'm more nervous about indoor playgrounds and mainly it's because there are sooo many people these days who choose not to vaccinate their children (homeschoolers?). There was a nasty whooping cough (pertussis) epidemic going around our area a couple years ago that they attributed to lack of vaccinating. Another case in an adjacent state with polio. Liza

 

[anonymous]

DS is almost 3 and has been in a daycare center since he was about 3 months old. We were concerned that we'd have to make arrangements for a nanny or I would have to quit work and stay home with DS, but his doctor pointed out that CFers WILL get colds, they will get sick, you just have to stay on top of it when symptoms arise. Also, what about when it's time to go to school? Eventually he's going to have to interact with kids. I'm more comfortable with a day care center with kids divided into different age groups, than say a home based day care where all kids of all ages are around -- a coworker constantly complains about the daycare her infant granddaughter is and how the toddlers are always "helping" give her her bottle, toys, pacifier with their snotty noses dripping all over.

First year was a little nerve wracking 'cuz the flu hit early and hard and DS wasn't able to get his flu shot until December. Ditto with the chicken pox shot, which he couldn't get until he turned a year old. He'd gotten his RSV shots. Our daycare director has a zero tolerance policy about bringing kids to school sick. Think DS was sent home only once because of other children being sick and that was because they were having a tough time with a nasty GI bug going around and they sent home all the babies (those who didn't go outside yet), so they could sterilize the place. One thing I noticed early one is when they change diapers -- the caregiver wears gloves, they've got lots of purell around...

I'm more nervous about indoor playgrounds and mainly it's because there are sooo many people these days who choose not to vaccinate their children (homeschoolers?). There was a nasty whooping cough (pertussis) epidemic going around our area a couple years ago that they attributed to lack of vaccinating. Another case in an adjacent state with polio. Liza

 

[anonymous]

My daughter has been in daycare since she was 3....yes, she caught more colds once she started daycare, but still didn't catch as many as my friends children who were all at home with her. They don't have CF and were sick at least 6 times per year. My daughter was sick at most 4-5 times. So, I think it just depends on the child and the center. You can also make sure that all the other parents are aware of CF...make them understand why they need to be extra careful when their child is sick.

 

[anonymous]

My daughter has been in daycare since she was 3....yes, she caught more colds once she started daycare, but still didn't catch as many as my friends children who were all at home with her. They don't have CF and were sick at least 6 times per year. My daughter was sick at most 4-5 times. So, I think it just depends on the child and the center. You can also make sure that all the other parents are aware of CF...make them understand why they need to be extra careful when their child is sick.