Sickness at daycare: how much is too much?

[LROM]

DD is 18 months and has lately been in a round of constant something: runny nose, cough, sneezing. Seems like just as one symptom finally disappears, another shows up. And yesterday she started her 3rd or 4th bout of pink eye in a year.

I know daycare is a germ factory, but the pink eye thing really had me wondering if I should be worried that they're not doing as much as they should to keep things clean or watch the kids for signs of sickness? They seem pretty good about washing toys and her food containers (because I make all her food) are always washed when I pick her up... seems like they spray the diaper area after every diaper change, etc.

Is there such a thing as too much sickness and where is the line? My Ped doesn't seem concerned, but the pink eye thing is like a last straw for me and I am wondering if it might be dramatically different at another daycare. But I like most other things about this one, so not really wanting to move...

Any thoughts?

[sewchris2642]

I look at it this way. Life is a germ factory. Kids are going to get exposed to all those germs/viruses at some point in their lives. Either in dc, Kindergarten or when they're 19 volunteering in Kindergarten. IMO, it's best they get exposed earlier rather than later when their immune system is better able to handle it. Other than the pink eye, are you sure that it's germs and not viruses or allergies? Those symptoms (runny nose, coughing, sneezing) can be either a cold virus or onset of respiratory allergies. Whenever Dylan gets a cold/allergy, the discharge always comes out his tear ducts and not his nose so he looks like he has pink eye without the redness in the white of his eye. It took us (his dc provider, his ped, and his parents) a while to figure that out. His ped. gave us the prescription drops in case the discharge became infected and turned into pink eye. As long as his eyes were cared for, that didn't happen. We wiped them with warm/hot cotton balls to keep his eyes clean and the discharge at bay. And the warm/hot water kept the itching down so he wasn't always touching his eyes.

[GuildJenn]

Sometimes you just have a bad run. My son was constantly sick for a year and I had the same question in my head - but he's in the exact same daycare/school and isn't sick that often. I think he did build some immunity, but also he got in a cycle where he had a cold and didn't sleep well and then was a bit worn out for the next thing, etc.

18 months is also a hard age for it - totally mobile enough to go over and grab that toy someone was just mouthing...but young enough to stick it in her mouth, suck on her fingers, and so on. I personally would be quicker to blame that than the cleaning - there is a limit to what cleaning can cover.

Pink eye... if it's come back easily without long gaps too I wonder if it's the same one, just that the drops aren't fully stopping it. I had it myself last year and although the over-the-counter drops helped my son, I had to go get the big tube of cream.

All that said, I don't see any problem with you asking the daycare about the procedures and expressing your concerns.

Do you have holiday time coming up over the summer? I found sometimes just a week off helped break the cycle.

[HappyMommy2]

The kids being sick all the time was pretty much our experience too, and we had a wonderful daycare where I had complete confidence in their cleanliness.

[LROM]

Thanks very much for the replies. I definitely feel a lot better!

I think I'll also ask NACEY (I'm sure I got the initials wrong) but "Nacey", that agency that accredits certain daycares with lower child/provider ratios and has certain cleaning procedures etc. I will also check with them about what they require for kids this age and see if that's what I see at daycare.

Much appreciated!

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

Wanted to comment on the pink eye.

From what I understand, you dont necessarily HAVE to catch it FROM someone. If the child has a runny nose, and then rubs their face with their hand and gets all that snot and guk in their eye, it can cause conjunctivitus. Then THEY are the extremly contagious ones to everyone else. So, i think it might be possible that all your DCs bouts of pink eye could have been caused from that OR from someone else.

Just a thought.

[LROM]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind and we'll make more of an effort to keep her hands clean when she's got a runny nose, although I guess we really can't do much to stop her when she's at daycare.

A couple of times there were other known cases in the class so I think it "went around" those times when she got it, but this time I didn't hear of any other cases, and she did have a runny nose first.

[liberal_chick]

I've come to think that some people are more predisposed to catch certain illnesses as well. Pink eye is mine. It seems that if there is a pink eye germ anywhere in the tri-state area, it will find me and I will get it. Dh is the same way with strep throat; he is so susceptible to it.

[One_Girl]

My dd was sick several times when she first started daycare, but the center she was in was a very clean place (I worked there for a while and we did a lot of cleaning). When kids are little they put everything in their mouths and then their friends do and it isn't always easy to stop that sharing of germs.

Daycares also don't send kids home for cold and flu symptoms so kids are there when they are contagious. They are sent home for fever, diarrhea, vomiting, and pink eye symptoms in our area. Runny noses, coughs, a cold or other illness without a high fever, etc... don't exclude kids from daycare. To top that off, some parents send their kids in with medicine in their system in the hopes that the child will not get sent home for the fever they had that morning.

[LROM]

Those are the same rules my daycare has. And of course I'm pissed at those rules when I see really snotty kids mouthing everything in sight... but glad when DD seems fine but is snotty herself and I *know* it would be very hard to take off work to keep her home. ::sigh::

And then there's the point about maybe she's just more susceptible... I know that could be true but I'm really hoping not! I don't wanna have to keep a giant gallon bottle of Vigamox eye antibiotic drops in the bathroom!