This is a hard issue for all of us, I would guess. I wish I had an answser for you. It comes down to striking a balance between keeping your child healthy and meeting all his or her other developmental needs, including the need to play with other children. I would say the decision should be based on what you know about your child's susceptibilities. I work, and my children go to daycare. Yes, they sometimes catch colds from daycare, and we increase treatments, and they recover. I suspect this is exactly what will happen when they go to school. But if we respond to colds with additional treatments and airway clearance, they do fine. My oldest (5) has lung functioning that is over 120%. Her one hospitalization occured during a time when she was not at daycare, but home with me everyday (I teach college, so I have spring and summers at home). It was brought on by seasonal allergies (which we did not realize she had), which created enough goo in her lungs for something nasty to grow. The lesson for me was this: I can't really prevent her from getting sick, no matter how many times I sanitize every surface in the house. I don't control this (a scary thing for me to admit, as I am a wee bit of a control freak).
Now she has recovered (it has been several months and lung function is back to previous levels) and she is going to a day camp for two weeks. It was a tough decision for me, because I am still a little traumatized by the experience of the first hospitalization and the three weeks at home with the i.v. But I also know that my daughter has a very high social need; she is extremely outgoing. She loves camp; they swim every day, play outside, go on field trips... and I am not there to make sure she washes her hands. But I pack a little bottle of sanitizer in her lunch and snack bag, and I remind her every morning and ask every night if she remembered to use it. I don't know if this is the right thing to do, but I do know that she is doing great right now. Her lungs are clear and she is very, very happy.
I want her to grow up seeing CF as something she will live with, not something she will die from. It is very important to me that she always imagine herself having a long, healthy future; treatments are what we do to keep her healthy. So I try to always send the message to her that she is strong and healthy, and that she can do almost anything any other child can do.... as long as we always do our treatments and our airway clearance. At the same time, I would lie if I did not say that I struggle with a lot of guilt; I always wonder if I had made different choices, maybe I could have prevented the hospitalization. Then again, they finally gave us Pulmazyme and a Vest, so there was a silver lining to that experience, as well, I suppose.
In the end, make the best choice you can, know you love your child, and that you can do no more than your best.
That is my two cents, for whatever it is worth!
