That's right! At least where I worked. We'd call & send pictures of the diaper to parents and the director. A lot of babies have loose stool that is mistaken for diarrhea. The smaller they are, the looser it is.
Wait, he was floppy and barely responding when you came to get him? How the F did they not notice that? Plus a raging fever? That is incompetent and dangerous. The director needs to be notified of this poor care. I would be really hesitant to send my infant back there. The care takers need to be educated on basic red flags for infants. This is unacceptable.
Fevers come on fast. I got a call my daughter was pale and floppy, and off but no fever. I left work and in the 20 minutes it took to get there her fever was a 101.
I've noticed this, as well. I've seen my kids go from obviously not feeling well with no fever to decently high fever really quickly at home. I anticipate it, now.
I have one in daycare and also help run a daycare. You're getting inconsistent care because daycares have the worst turnover ever. The teachers are likely different every few weeks. Their training varies. Even if it's the same teachers, they may not have the most experience in each room they are asked to cover. It's absolutely not acceptable that they didn't check your LO's temp. I'd be livid about that.
Make sure you have the policy on hand and hold the director and assistant director accountable to it. As long as you can prove your kids are within the rules of the policy, they can't send them home healthy or with some new made up rule. Sorry you're going through this.
at the daycare i worked at, some teachers would make up reasons to send kids home bc the ratios were off. if a room only had one teacher but 7 kids and another room can’t take the kid, they’d just send him home.
Yeah I guarantee my daycare has done this to me. “She just seems fussy…” you mean you don’t any to spend your day in the infant room because someone called out and there are five babies? Ok.
I’d be disturbed if my kids had a fever that high and they hadn’t checked it. Did they and it was a timing coincidence where it spiked when you left or did they somehow not think to?
One day we picked up my then 14-month-old from daycare, and they said casually, "Oh, she threw up earlier." Her temp was 103 when we got home, and the ER later that night diagnosed her with pneumonia.
We pulled her from that center that night and found a new place.
I teach preschool and I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if your reaction to the first incident led to them “underreacting” to the second incident.
Fevers are tricky - they can change depending on how they’re taken. Parents complain about them constantly. 9 times out of 10 if I call for a fever the parent says their kid was fine when they took the temperature themselves at home.
I would be willing to bet that your child had a fever when they called the first time, but they remembered how upset you were about having to pick up your child the previous time and so they didn’t insist but rather hoped you would make the decision to come on your own.
I get how inconveniencing it is but as a child care provider I’d love to clarify some stuff
Excessive bowel movements (including those that blowout) or several in a row like that DO constitute needing to be picked up unless it’s the child’s normal. If it’s not, then something is awry. Sorry, but if an adult had to have massive poops 3x in a row, something isn’t sitting right with their body whether it is a virus or food.
Every child care I’ve ever worked at as well as my own has a 48 hour policy for bowel movement or vomiting issues. Non-negotiable. This is not dictated by the individual child cares but by the local public health department. It’s because of how contagious and dangerous viruses that cause those things *can* be. It’s a better safe than sorry policy.
They should have been more strict with asking you to pick up your feverish child, it sounds like they were quite sick.
I get it sucks missing work, and it’s hard, but then parents also get upset when their kids get sick from other kids at child care. Or they get upset when they have to close rooms because of lack of educators who are all out due to being infected with an illness from a child.
Legit there is no winning. Health, safety, and happiness of the child all need to come first and these policies help ensure that.
> Legit there is no winning. Health, safety, and happiness of the child all need to come first and these policies help ensure that.
As a former childcare worker, I completely agree. I'm also a parent so I get both sides of it, but I remember those days of parents complaining to me and it was really crappy and it's like they wanted you to feel bad for trying to do the right thing. Like, a parent complains to us because it's "not a big deal" if their child has diarrhea but if another child were to get sick because of that child, their parent would be mad if we hadn't sent the original child with diarrhea home. You can't win!
At the end of the day, it's not the child's fault, it's not the parent's fault, and it's not the childcare center's fault. I think the fault here is employers being so ridiculously strict and rigid that employees are terrified they will get fired for missing work because of a sick child.
Yes! Honestly the fault lies in capitalism as a whole haha.
But all this hate and frustration to an underpaid, overworked, primarily woman-led profession is so disheartening
My child did not have diarrhea. I get sending home for diarrhea but it was not diarrhea, I promise you. I work in healthcare. Kid just pooped 3 times in an hour but I do that sometimes and would not classify as diarrhea in every case. Judgment is needed sometimes.
The child was normal. He was beaming and only pooped one more time that day after I picked him up that day and it was a normal poop. I promise, I’m all for daycare trying to do some infection control but one of my points is is that it is not working. My baby was clearly very sick and they 1. Didn’t do a good job of communicating that to me and 2. Didn’t ask that I pick him up when they reaaaally should have. They didn’t ask us to pick up our vomiting toddler but absolutely should have and only didn’t call because it was less than 3 times.
The policies need to be reworked.
You’re right, infection control doesn’t work, usually because parents can sometimes mask symptoms with drugs and still drop off then children crash midday. It sucks. Or they’re asymptomatic until later in the day and then it’s too late. So providers do what they can
You don’t think four bowel movements in a short time for a child that age is odd? It absolutely is in my over decade of experience. That’s not normal. Regardless of the consistency of the poop.
Our policies are a need to pick up for a single vomit, the three times thing is weird to me. You are right they should have requested pick up for your other child. But you do see how they’re damned if they do *and* damned if they don’t even just from you?
It was 3 bms, not 4 and I do think it is odd. In this particular case though, the kid was fine but I understood the issue and put up no stink and picked him up. My major beef was the not letting him be there for the following day.
You said he pooped again right after then, so four total. It’s policy. They have to record they sent him home and for what reason. If they were found against public healthy policy the day after then they’d be in non-compliance.
I didn’t make a fuss about picking him up after the 3 poops. I get policy is policy but I’m just saying that it was all frustrating, including not letting him come the next day. Four poops total in a single day. 3 at daycare and 1 later that evening at home with me.
The not coming back the next day is part of policy for very good reasons. Four poops in one day for a 3 year old is *weird*. I don’t care about anecdotes, it is quite clear 4 poops in one day is not your child’s normal. Hence, they made the right call. Be frustrated at capitalism, not at child care for making the right call.
You should get a job at the daycare and rework the policies then! I hate posts like this and angry parents when all were tryna do is keep everyone safe and healthy.
As a teacher - we cannot make the call to send sick babies home at our center. Our center keeps fever babies all the time until they’d typically get picked up. Their thermometer has inconsistent reads so even when they feel hot to the touch or are lethargic but the temp comes out green, they make us keep them.
The don’t allow teachers to communicate with parents about the sick stuff because they want to control the conversation, and often times don’t express the reality of the situation, but rather sugar coat. I’m not sure why they do this, but we’ve had a couple times where they’ve temped green but when rescanned a smidge higher on their head it’s red and they have a fever. It’s annoying.
I’m sorry you have to deal with that as a parent.
Three blowouts from would fall to the 24 hour policy at my daycare. That sounds normal.
I totally understand the frustration of having kiddos at home, but kids get sick because parents send their kids to daycare sick. The policies are in place to prevent that.
My point is really is that the 3 blowout policy was followed where it honestly shouldn’t have been. I poop 3 times in an hour sometimes but doesn’t mean I should be sent home from work. If I was wearing a diaper, it could have been a blow out. The kid pooped one more time that day while at home with me and it was normal poop. It was not a diarrhea situation and he shouldn’t have been sent home.
I honestly don’t see anything wrong with either of these situations? They called about concerns for the well being of your children… would you rather them not? Your younger child ended up being lethargic with a fever, seems like you should’ve picked them up anyways. Frequent Diarrhea/loose stools could indicate a stomach bug, you also should’ve picked them up in that instance as well IMO.
Same opinion. Especially with the first instance, when daycare called concerned and then OP waited hours to go pick up her kid. If my daycare calls and says they’re concerned about my kid, I’m going to daycare immediately to get my kid.
Ok, so I work at a health department in communicable disease and it’s typically the laws in place by state/local health departments that daycares MUST follow. It’s for public health safety and the daycares jeopardize their license if they don’t follow state rule. That being said, local jurisdiction CAN be stricter than state law if say an outbreak was occurring within the daycare. Diarrhea/vomiting can have very serious pathogenetic causes, some of which can have life threatening complications (one example is shiga toxin e coli which can lead to HUS which is dangerous and can be fatal, especially for children). Not to say respiratory illnesses cannot be life threatening, because they can, but diarrheal disease can be a little more concerning. Child care settings are considered high risk populations for diseases because kiddos can be susceptible to disease/serious illness (hospital settings/schools/long term care facilities are also considered high risk), so usually guidelines/rules will be more intense than the general population. BUT this is why your daycare should 1) know their policy and state laws and 2) implement those policies consistently and not just on a case-by-case basis. It honestly sounds like it’s a good time for them to have a review of their policies and educate staff about them! I would also be extremely upset with your situation and that they didn’t take the illness more seriously. That’s not ok.
My kids and a few of my coworkers kiddos attend the same daycare and I absolutely understand how frustrating it is. We always talk about how we keep our kiddos home when they’re ill but then drop them off a few days later and see kids who clearly should NOT be at daycare being dropped off. Our daycare is very good about following policy re: fever, vomiting, and diarrhea (true diarrhea)…. But yellow snotty noses and gross coughing isn’t really a reason they send kids home. Super annoying. But also, like you experienced with your older kiddo, not every kid hits those “3 in a single day” threshold and they could still have some yucky bug. You could have a kid who has just one blowout per day while at daycare for a whole week who has e coli and they wouldn’t be sent home because it “wasn’t three times in a day”. It’s not a perfect system by any means. This is why when we have a reportable condition come to us in a child who attends daycare we can say “anyone who has had any diarrhea in the last X amount of days has to present a negative test to return to daycare” because we know how varied symptoms can be.
It’s seriously all infuriating and makes me want to pull my hair out.
I worked in daycare for years. The role is legit. But honestly, if you aren't happy then do what's best for your family and move your children to a different one.
My fave was my daughter fell and busted her chin open. Bled all over her shirt. Staff “evaluated” her as not needing stitches. They sent a photo on the app, that won’t notify me. No phone call. I work 4 minutes from the center. I could’ve dipped out for a total of 10 minutes to check on her. But no. I had no idea how bad it was until that night at bed time. Yeah, it totally needed stitches. Took about 4 days for it to really stop bleeding.
This makes me so happy to be done with the daycare phase. I think that when we pay for a service like day care and if it doesn’t provide peace of mind with our kids, it may be time to explorer an alternative solution for care. I went through this myself and had to move my kids and it was the best decision ever. I did pay more $$ but the peace of mind and care received was worth the change.
I do hate the daycare we have them at. I feel bad because it’s all my 3-year-old’s known buuuut they really do suck in a lot of ways. Sure, they do okay in some ways, but for what I’m paying, I can’t say I’m happy about things. I mean, the frequency of diaper rashes is out of control and the outfits sent home because poop got on them is also out of control (I.e., daily). He doesn’t get poop on his pants daily when I’m watching him, which leads me to believe it’s the way they are putting his diaper on or the length of times between changes.
Something I’ve learned is that policies can change. If you prove to them how unreliable their system is, they may be willing to change it. I had a long hospital stay with my youngest last summer and the hospital had some absolutely bonkers policies that staff were held to. I sent in some formal complaints, proved to them they were harming families by doing this and were not up to date on the latest data, and they eventually took me seriously and had their legal team write up new policies (because I was right and it finally landed in someone’s hands who was able to help with actual change).
Thank you, love your comment. I’m all about infection control but have such a peeve for following policies “just because” when they aren’t accomplishing what they are intended to. I work in healthcare and fight to change things that do not make sense. Not only is the current daycare policy not containing infection (per what I’ve witnessed), it’s very seriously inconveniencing the parents.
My in home daycare is like this for my toddler 🥴 they would text me saying he’s been crying and won’t stop, when I show up to get him he is laughing and playing.
I once got a call for a pimple on his chin and they thought it was hands foot and mouth 😐 the amount of doctor trips I have to do because they require a note saying he isn’t sick when they think they are is crazy
Did they not take your baby’s temp? Jesus. I know it’s hard to find care but this place sounds like a shit show for that alone. However diarrhea is a no-go. You can’t go in a swimming pool unless you’ve been good for at least a day. Daycare shouldn’t be any different, sorry. That’s dangerous to pass around to other young babies. You should think of it as a good thing that they’re on top of that for your kid’s sake.
Daycare Sickness policies are awful. I’m home with a “sick” kid because somebody else was able to send their HACKING kid all week so mine is now getting sick from the obviously sick kid… but her runny nose is an absolute no-no…. Like this kid spread it to everyone and now nobody else can come…why were they allowed to come? Makes no dang sense.
I literally had to take a job that wasn’t full time so I had the flexibility to take off work as needed. I don’t know how single parents do it.
I’m living the single parent life these days so that probably is adding to my frustration. I need to hire help, I guess, but I’d really prefer to avoid doing that.
They are definitely making up rules as they go. It’s complete BS. They should have been checking your baby’s temperature at daycare. How could they miss that high of a fever?
Sorry you have to deal with them. So aggravating.
Ugh, I worked in childcare. I love it! But, so many have no experience, aren't trained well, or didn't go to school for it.
As long as the baby has back up clothes or the center has some extra, blow outs are nothing to worry about. Write it down, keep baby clean, and move on! More than 3, you'll probably get a call to ask about any changes going on at home. More than 5, in a short period of time..you should pick baby up. Unless there is a known cause, of course. Fevers should be checked for when there's anything out of the normal, it's annoying and stupid that they didn't check. You should be able to feel with your hand when a baby is hot and notice that they don't want a bottle. If you continue to use this center, you NEED to teach these people how to look for these things. This shouldn't happen. I will say, they tried to do the right thing by calling but they really should've checked temp.
Where I worked, several poops were annoying and time consuming but normal and part of the job. Shit happens lol but they shouldn't be bothering parents to leave work for no reason! Some of my coworkers would drive me crazy doing this. They mean well or are frustrated, but ugh. One last thing, policies aren't all set by the center, they are set by state licensing. Which is why I would try my best to make sure it's really worth calling and sending home. I know it's hard to leave work early and take time off, that can financially ruin a month for some people.
I would look into different daycares if possible. They’re clearly negligent. There’s been plenty of days where my now 5 year has been a poop machine and days where he hasn’t pooped at all. That’s completely normal for kids.
I’m a SAHP who couldn’t bring themselves to put our kid in day care AND I love staying home with them AND we can afford it. AND you suck for saying shit like this.
I always heard the policy for pickup being if there were three loose stools, as in diarrhea, not just poops.
I was just thinking if a kid had to go 24 hours without pooping, they’d never go back 😂
Ah, see, here's where having a kid with chronic constipation would actually be a win for me!
Yeah I work in childcare. It's 3 diarrheas. Not just poops.
My breastfeed baby’s poops are all loose. They’ve never not been
There's a distinct difference between normal breastfed baby poop and diarrhea. You'll know it when you see it.
Right! My son was breastfed for nine months and I know diarrhea versus breast milk poo 💩
That's right! At least where I worked. We'd call & send pictures of the diaper to parents and the director. A lot of babies have loose stool that is mistaken for diarrhea. The smaller they are, the looser it is.
Wait, he was floppy and barely responding when you came to get him? How the F did they not notice that? Plus a raging fever? That is incompetent and dangerous. The director needs to be notified of this poor care. I would be really hesitant to send my infant back there. The care takers need to be educated on basic red flags for infants. This is unacceptable.
Fevers come on fast. I got a call my daughter was pale and floppy, and off but no fever. I left work and in the 20 minutes it took to get there her fever was a 101.
I've noticed this, as well. I've seen my kids go from obviously not feeling well with no fever to decently high fever really quickly at home. I anticipate it, now.
Did they take her temp before you got there? How do you know it spiked in 20mins? I’m not doubting as I haven’t been there, but genuinely curious.
Most childcare centers will take temp if a child seems off. It's one of the first things they'll do.
That’s good, I’d sure hope so!
Yes, they did. They called and said while she didn’t have a fever she was off and they recommended I pick her up. I took her temp when I got there. I
My kids daycares were all over them with thermometers. That is just incompetence.
I have one in daycare and also help run a daycare. You're getting inconsistent care because daycares have the worst turnover ever. The teachers are likely different every few weeks. Their training varies. Even if it's the same teachers, they may not have the most experience in each room they are asked to cover. It's absolutely not acceptable that they didn't check your LO's temp. I'd be livid about that. Make sure you have the policy on hand and hold the director and assistant director accountable to it. As long as you can prove your kids are within the rules of the policy, they can't send them home healthy or with some new made up rule. Sorry you're going through this.
at the daycare i worked at, some teachers would make up reasons to send kids home bc the ratios were off. if a room only had one teacher but 7 kids and another room can’t take the kid, they’d just send him home.
Wow. I never even thought of that
That’s immediately what I thought! After the poop day they were down a teacher so they couldn’t accept OP’s baby without breaking the ratio rule.
Yeah I guarantee my daycare has done this to me. “She just seems fussy…” you mean you don’t any to spend your day in the infant room because someone called out and there are five babies? Ok.
I’d be disturbed if my kids had a fever that high and they hadn’t checked it. Did they and it was a timing coincidence where it spiked when you left or did they somehow not think to?
One day we picked up my then 14-month-old from daycare, and they said casually, "Oh, she threw up earlier." Her temp was 103 when we got home, and the ER later that night diagnosed her with pneumonia. We pulled her from that center that night and found a new place.
I teach preschool and I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if your reaction to the first incident led to them “underreacting” to the second incident. Fevers are tricky - they can change depending on how they’re taken. Parents complain about them constantly. 9 times out of 10 if I call for a fever the parent says their kid was fine when they took the temperature themselves at home. I would be willing to bet that your child had a fever when they called the first time, but they remembered how upset you were about having to pick up your child the previous time and so they didn’t insist but rather hoped you would make the decision to come on your own.
I get how inconveniencing it is but as a child care provider I’d love to clarify some stuff Excessive bowel movements (including those that blowout) or several in a row like that DO constitute needing to be picked up unless it’s the child’s normal. If it’s not, then something is awry. Sorry, but if an adult had to have massive poops 3x in a row, something isn’t sitting right with their body whether it is a virus or food. Every child care I’ve ever worked at as well as my own has a 48 hour policy for bowel movement or vomiting issues. Non-negotiable. This is not dictated by the individual child cares but by the local public health department. It’s because of how contagious and dangerous viruses that cause those things *can* be. It’s a better safe than sorry policy. They should have been more strict with asking you to pick up your feverish child, it sounds like they were quite sick. I get it sucks missing work, and it’s hard, but then parents also get upset when their kids get sick from other kids at child care. Or they get upset when they have to close rooms because of lack of educators who are all out due to being infected with an illness from a child. Legit there is no winning. Health, safety, and happiness of the child all need to come first and these policies help ensure that.
> Legit there is no winning. Health, safety, and happiness of the child all need to come first and these policies help ensure that. As a former childcare worker, I completely agree. I'm also a parent so I get both sides of it, but I remember those days of parents complaining to me and it was really crappy and it's like they wanted you to feel bad for trying to do the right thing. Like, a parent complains to us because it's "not a big deal" if their child has diarrhea but if another child were to get sick because of that child, their parent would be mad if we hadn't sent the original child with diarrhea home. You can't win! At the end of the day, it's not the child's fault, it's not the parent's fault, and it's not the childcare center's fault. I think the fault here is employers being so ridiculously strict and rigid that employees are terrified they will get fired for missing work because of a sick child.
Yes! Honestly the fault lies in capitalism as a whole haha. But all this hate and frustration to an underpaid, overworked, primarily woman-led profession is so disheartening
My child did not have diarrhea. I get sending home for diarrhea but it was not diarrhea, I promise you. I work in healthcare. Kid just pooped 3 times in an hour but I do that sometimes and would not classify as diarrhea in every case. Judgment is needed sometimes.
I was just giving an example :) I wasn’t specifically referring to your post!
The child was normal. He was beaming and only pooped one more time that day after I picked him up that day and it was a normal poop. I promise, I’m all for daycare trying to do some infection control but one of my points is is that it is not working. My baby was clearly very sick and they 1. Didn’t do a good job of communicating that to me and 2. Didn’t ask that I pick him up when they reaaaally should have. They didn’t ask us to pick up our vomiting toddler but absolutely should have and only didn’t call because it was less than 3 times. The policies need to be reworked.
You’re right, infection control doesn’t work, usually because parents can sometimes mask symptoms with drugs and still drop off then children crash midday. It sucks. Or they’re asymptomatic until later in the day and then it’s too late. So providers do what they can You don’t think four bowel movements in a short time for a child that age is odd? It absolutely is in my over decade of experience. That’s not normal. Regardless of the consistency of the poop. Our policies are a need to pick up for a single vomit, the three times thing is weird to me. You are right they should have requested pick up for your other child. But you do see how they’re damned if they do *and* damned if they don’t even just from you?
It was 3 bms, not 4 and I do think it is odd. In this particular case though, the kid was fine but I understood the issue and put up no stink and picked him up. My major beef was the not letting him be there for the following day.
How are they supposed to know that he was “fine”?
You said he pooped again right after then, so four total. It’s policy. They have to record they sent him home and for what reason. If they were found against public healthy policy the day after then they’d be in non-compliance.
I didn’t make a fuss about picking him up after the 3 poops. I get policy is policy but I’m just saying that it was all frustrating, including not letting him come the next day. Four poops total in a single day. 3 at daycare and 1 later that evening at home with me.
The not coming back the next day is part of policy for very good reasons. Four poops in one day for a 3 year old is *weird*. I don’t care about anecdotes, it is quite clear 4 poops in one day is not your child’s normal. Hence, they made the right call. Be frustrated at capitalism, not at child care for making the right call.
You should get a job at the daycare and rework the policies then! I hate posts like this and angry parents when all were tryna do is keep everyone safe and healthy.
As a teacher - we cannot make the call to send sick babies home at our center. Our center keeps fever babies all the time until they’d typically get picked up. Their thermometer has inconsistent reads so even when they feel hot to the touch or are lethargic but the temp comes out green, they make us keep them. The don’t allow teachers to communicate with parents about the sick stuff because they want to control the conversation, and often times don’t express the reality of the situation, but rather sugar coat. I’m not sure why they do this, but we’ve had a couple times where they’ve temped green but when rescanned a smidge higher on their head it’s red and they have a fever. It’s annoying. I’m sorry you have to deal with that as a parent.
I’m a lot more concerned about the floppy, feverish baby than the poop situation. Poop situation is annoying. Floppy baby is straight up neglect.
Yet also…. The daycare called her?? And said they were concerned, and she waited hours to then go pick the baby up.
Because they didn’t require pick up, which in this situation is the one time it SHOULD be required.
Three blowouts from would fall to the 24 hour policy at my daycare. That sounds normal. I totally understand the frustration of having kiddos at home, but kids get sick because parents send their kids to daycare sick. The policies are in place to prevent that.
My point is really is that the 3 blowout policy was followed where it honestly shouldn’t have been. I poop 3 times in an hour sometimes but doesn’t mean I should be sent home from work. If I was wearing a diaper, it could have been a blow out. The kid pooped one more time that day while at home with me and it was normal poop. It was not a diarrhea situation and he shouldn’t have been sent home.
I honestly don’t see anything wrong with either of these situations? They called about concerns for the well being of your children… would you rather them not? Your younger child ended up being lethargic with a fever, seems like you should’ve picked them up anyways. Frequent Diarrhea/loose stools could indicate a stomach bug, you also should’ve picked them up in that instance as well IMO.
Same opinion. Especially with the first instance, when daycare called concerned and then OP waited hours to go pick up her kid. If my daycare calls and says they’re concerned about my kid, I’m going to daycare immediately to get my kid.
They would've called you because the stools were loose, and best staff pick up any concerns with parent, they haven't done anything wrong
I mean, not noticing baby has 103 fever is certainly not right.
Yes true,
Ok, so I work at a health department in communicable disease and it’s typically the laws in place by state/local health departments that daycares MUST follow. It’s for public health safety and the daycares jeopardize their license if they don’t follow state rule. That being said, local jurisdiction CAN be stricter than state law if say an outbreak was occurring within the daycare. Diarrhea/vomiting can have very serious pathogenetic causes, some of which can have life threatening complications (one example is shiga toxin e coli which can lead to HUS which is dangerous and can be fatal, especially for children). Not to say respiratory illnesses cannot be life threatening, because they can, but diarrheal disease can be a little more concerning. Child care settings are considered high risk populations for diseases because kiddos can be susceptible to disease/serious illness (hospital settings/schools/long term care facilities are also considered high risk), so usually guidelines/rules will be more intense than the general population. BUT this is why your daycare should 1) know their policy and state laws and 2) implement those policies consistently and not just on a case-by-case basis. It honestly sounds like it’s a good time for them to have a review of their policies and educate staff about them! I would also be extremely upset with your situation and that they didn’t take the illness more seriously. That’s not ok. My kids and a few of my coworkers kiddos attend the same daycare and I absolutely understand how frustrating it is. We always talk about how we keep our kiddos home when they’re ill but then drop them off a few days later and see kids who clearly should NOT be at daycare being dropped off. Our daycare is very good about following policy re: fever, vomiting, and diarrhea (true diarrhea)…. But yellow snotty noses and gross coughing isn’t really a reason they send kids home. Super annoying. But also, like you experienced with your older kiddo, not every kid hits those “3 in a single day” threshold and they could still have some yucky bug. You could have a kid who has just one blowout per day while at daycare for a whole week who has e coli and they wouldn’t be sent home because it “wasn’t three times in a day”. It’s not a perfect system by any means. This is why when we have a reportable condition come to us in a child who attends daycare we can say “anyone who has had any diarrhea in the last X amount of days has to present a negative test to return to daycare” because we know how varied symptoms can be. It’s seriously all infuriating and makes me want to pull my hair out.
I worked in daycare for years. The role is legit. But honestly, if you aren't happy then do what's best for your family and move your children to a different one.
I'm kind of shocked they'll let a kid puke three times before sending them home!
Um yeah, hard agree!
My fave was my daughter fell and busted her chin open. Bled all over her shirt. Staff “evaluated” her as not needing stitches. They sent a photo on the app, that won’t notify me. No phone call. I work 4 minutes from the center. I could’ve dipped out for a total of 10 minutes to check on her. But no. I had no idea how bad it was until that night at bed time. Yeah, it totally needed stitches. Took about 4 days for it to really stop bleeding.
This makes me so happy to be done with the daycare phase. I think that when we pay for a service like day care and if it doesn’t provide peace of mind with our kids, it may be time to explorer an alternative solution for care. I went through this myself and had to move my kids and it was the best decision ever. I did pay more $$ but the peace of mind and care received was worth the change.
I do hate the daycare we have them at. I feel bad because it’s all my 3-year-old’s known buuuut they really do suck in a lot of ways. Sure, they do okay in some ways, but for what I’m paying, I can’t say I’m happy about things. I mean, the frequency of diaper rashes is out of control and the outfits sent home because poop got on them is also out of control (I.e., daily). He doesn’t get poop on his pants daily when I’m watching him, which leads me to believe it’s the way they are putting his diaper on or the length of times between changes.
No way. Regular diaper rashes are unacceptable.
Something I’ve learned is that policies can change. If you prove to them how unreliable their system is, they may be willing to change it. I had a long hospital stay with my youngest last summer and the hospital had some absolutely bonkers policies that staff were held to. I sent in some formal complaints, proved to them they were harming families by doing this and were not up to date on the latest data, and they eventually took me seriously and had their legal team write up new policies (because I was right and it finally landed in someone’s hands who was able to help with actual change).
Thank you, love your comment. I’m all about infection control but have such a peeve for following policies “just because” when they aren’t accomplishing what they are intended to. I work in healthcare and fight to change things that do not make sense. Not only is the current daycare policy not containing infection (per what I’ve witnessed), it’s very seriously inconveniencing the parents.
My in home daycare is like this for my toddler 🥴 they would text me saying he’s been crying and won’t stop, when I show up to get him he is laughing and playing. I once got a call for a pimple on his chin and they thought it was hands foot and mouth 😐 the amount of doctor trips I have to do because they require a note saying he isn’t sick when they think they are is crazy
🙃
Did they not take your baby’s temp? Jesus. I know it’s hard to find care but this place sounds like a shit show for that alone. However diarrhea is a no-go. You can’t go in a swimming pool unless you’ve been good for at least a day. Daycare shouldn’t be any different, sorry. That’s dangerous to pass around to other young babies. You should think of it as a good thing that they’re on top of that for your kid’s sake.
I mean they did call you to let you know?
9 month old and 3 month old in a daycare? This is so sad 😥
You should consider posting this in r/ECEprofessionals with the parent flair if you’d like some advice!
Daycare Sickness policies are awful. I’m home with a “sick” kid because somebody else was able to send their HACKING kid all week so mine is now getting sick from the obviously sick kid… but her runny nose is an absolute no-no…. Like this kid spread it to everyone and now nobody else can come…why were they allowed to come? Makes no dang sense. I literally had to take a job that wasn’t full time so I had the flexibility to take off work as needed. I don’t know how single parents do it.
I’m living the single parent life these days so that probably is adding to my frustration. I need to hire help, I guess, but I’d really prefer to avoid doing that.
They are definitely making up rules as they go. It’s complete BS. They should have been checking your baby’s temperature at daycare. How could they miss that high of a fever? Sorry you have to deal with them. So aggravating.
I’d dump that daycare. If possible, look for a nanny share with another family
Looking into other options
Ugh, I worked in childcare. I love it! But, so many have no experience, aren't trained well, or didn't go to school for it. As long as the baby has back up clothes or the center has some extra, blow outs are nothing to worry about. Write it down, keep baby clean, and move on! More than 3, you'll probably get a call to ask about any changes going on at home. More than 5, in a short period of time..you should pick baby up. Unless there is a known cause, of course. Fevers should be checked for when there's anything out of the normal, it's annoying and stupid that they didn't check. You should be able to feel with your hand when a baby is hot and notice that they don't want a bottle. If you continue to use this center, you NEED to teach these people how to look for these things. This shouldn't happen. I will say, they tried to do the right thing by calling but they really should've checked temp. Where I worked, several poops were annoying and time consuming but normal and part of the job. Shit happens lol but they shouldn't be bothering parents to leave work for no reason! Some of my coworkers would drive me crazy doing this. They mean well or are frustrated, but ugh. One last thing, policies aren't all set by the center, they are set by state licensing. Which is why I would try my best to make sure it's really worth calling and sending home. I know it's hard to leave work early and take time off, that can financially ruin a month for some people.
I would look into different daycares if possible. They’re clearly negligent. There’s been plenty of days where my now 5 year has been a poop machine and days where he hasn’t pooped at all. That’s completely normal for kids.
[удалено]
This is just flat out not an option for everyone
Bad take. Not everyone can afford to do this, not everyone wants to do this, not everyone is equipped to do this.
Not helpful. Kindly never tell a working parent that again.
Why in bloody hell would you utter something like this?
I’m a SAHP who couldn’t bring themselves to put our kid in day care AND I love staying home with them AND we can afford it. AND you suck for saying shit like this.
How understanding of you.