DCP pushing antibiotics

[Megan73]

My DCP sent my 14-month-old home yesterday because she says he has pink eye. I took him to the family doctor who said it is not, in his opinion, pink eye but instead some kind of viral infection that was passing because the eye was clear. He said that my son was fine to return to daycare.
The DCP provider had said he could return after 24 hours of treatment with antibiotics but is now saying he has to be out for the rest of the week because we're not treating it with antibiotics. Well of course not! The doctor thinks it's VIRAL!
Obviously I'm not willing to demand the doctor give my son unnecessary antibiotics for a viral infection that has passed – his eyes are now clear and dry.
Am I being unreasonable here? I really feel strongly that we should all avoid unnecessary antibiotics.

[rivkah]

I am sure your doc would write a note saying that ds is fine to go to school.

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

If your PED says not anti's, then thats HUGE. Alot of Docs are quick to just perscribe them (Esp for ear infections) without knowing for sure if there is a bact infec.

I hope you otherwise like your DCP, because that would tick me RIGHT OFF!

Get a note from your doc.

[Quinalla]

Definitely get a note from your doctor. It's ridiculous for them to suggest to you to use antibiotics on a viral infection and you are not overreacting in the slightest. Overuse of antibiotics is a huge problem!

[Megan73]

Thanks, mamas.
A note is a good idea – I should have thought of it but I assumed she'd take my word for it. I am lucky to have doctors who don't give antibiotics willy-nilly. We go to a teaching practice so we see residents who are supervised by experienced family docs and I would really recommend that model.
This has been an ongoing problem with the DCP. She's called us saying he has a fever but the doctor says it's so slightly elevated it's not even a fever. When he had a few loose stools – but was otherwise well – she insisted we take him home, even though the doc said there's no risk of making other kids sick if my son is diapered and she's washing her hands well.
BUT he loves her, the DC is right near our house and I don't want to put him through adapting to a new place.
Sigh.

[Geofizz]

Here the law for that is they have to bar the child until they've either gotten antibiotics for X days, or they are cleared to return by the doc. Our daycare would accept a fax from the doc, which generally meant the issue was resolved within minutes.

[StephandOwen]

Originally Posted by Megan73

Thanks, mamas.
A note is a good idea – I should have thought of it but I assumed she'd take my word for it.

I work in a daycare. You would not believe how many parents we've seen who have SICK SICK SICK kids, who insist they've taken them to the dr and the dr cleared them for daycare. Nu-huh. I don't believe it in most of the cases. It's always safer to bring a note, and we insist on it, so that everyone is clear on what's going on. We had one child who had consistant 102-103 fever for days, hacking cough, horrible poopy diapers (exploding from toes to head every 30-40 minutes!). The mom insisted she took him to the doctor and "it's just teething". Uhhhh... no. I've seen plenty of teething babies. Teething does not cause that. We insisted she come pick him up and take him to the doctor. He was out for over a week after that because he was so sick the doctor wouldn't clear him for daycare So, unfortunately, we can't take parents word.

Originally Posted by Geofizz

Here the law for that is they have to bar the child until they've either gotten antibiotics for X days, or they are cleared to return by the doc. Our daycare would accept a fax from the doc, which generally meant the issue was resolved within minutes.

Yup. And please understand that we do this for ALL the kids safety. We had one parent drop off her child with chicken pox. She insisted she took her child to the dr and the dr said it was just a rash. When push came to shove, she did finally admit it was chicken pox and she just really had to go to work that day. That sucks for her, but it would suck even more if those itty babies in the next room (one of whom was a preemie with a sucky immune system as it was) got the chicken pox from her child.

[mauri456]

my daughter had a field trip today and i was talking to the mom who said she was coming down with something and her daughter was too so after the field trip they were going to see the pedi......

seriously? why are you here?

so - while you are a responsible parent, unfortunately there are others who are not. i think the daycares do need to protect the kids and so sometimes overly strict rules are the only way to do it.

[zebra15]

Our Dr's office will give you a 'return to school/work' form on your way out.

[JL83]

I'm on the DCP side here.

My DD goes to daycare and I'm very glad they are strict about the sick kids. If a kid gets dropped off and ends up being sick they get taken to the staff room until they are picked up. They don't allow sick kids. If they send your kid home, you either keep them home for a reasonable number of days or need a doctor's note to bring them back.

[jlpumkin]

Originally Posted by Megan73

Thanks, mamas.
This has been an ongoing problem with the DCP. She's called us saying he has a fever but the doctor says it's so slightly elevated it's not even a fever. When he had a few loose stools – but was otherwise well – she insisted we take him home, even though the doc said there's no risk of making other kids sick if my son is diapered and she's washing her hands well.

I agree to get a note. And don't take this personally. In fact each of the incidents that you've listed above are actually covered in our rules here, so any licensed provider would have required the same things.

[Mosaic]

I agree... get a note if you can. Around here, kids need to be on antibiotics OR symptom-free for 24 hours OR have a note from the doc saying they're not contagious. The emphasis isn't to make sure the kids get antibiotics they don't need but rather to ensure that children coming to daycare are healthy and won't get other children (or daycare providers) sick.

[JL83]

I'm confused as to why your doctor didn't think that a virus could be contagious. Just because it's a virus doesn't mean it won't spread to other kids.