Calpol and nursery?? 'Ofsted guidance'

[stircrazymum]

I would welcome opinion and other peoples recent experiences with their nursery.
I have a 9 month old baby in the same nursery as my 3 year old. My dd has been there for last 2.5 year and I have always been very happy and felt they were sensible at dealing with illness/medication etc.
Yesterday they rang me to say I must come and get dd2 as she had been given an emergency dose of calpol for teething and as a result had to go home. I expressed surprise that this is the case, previously they may have rung me for permission and then we would have watched for a bit and if she was still unsettled we would have come to get her.
I clearly do not mind going to pick up an unwell child but a child who is teething and needs calpol??? She was fine when I picked her up and then a bit whingey later but not ill.
The reason I was given was because ofsted now says that if medication is administered by a nursery then the parents then have to take responsibility for the child after that. I was told if they didn't give her calpol that I had sent in with her they would have had to ring an ambulance!
I work in the NHS and am horrified at such a waste of resources and an attitude that abuses the geniune concern that parents and health professionals have for sick children.

Could anyone clarify the situation on guidance with ofsted or how their nursery would deal with this?

[BertieBotts]

That is strange. I don't have a child in nursery but some of my friends do. AFAIK the policy in their nursery is that the first dose of calpol is fine, but if the nursery feel a second dose is needed, then they have to call the parent in to pick the baby up. This also applies if the parent has given calpol in the morning - the next time they feel calpol is needed it's counted as the second dose and requires a pick up.

[CantSupinate]

This netmums thread is relevant.
Ofsted best practice expectations can be impossible to decipher (written in gobbledigook, change every 3 minutes, anyway without any active effort on their part to inform you that their 'guidance' has changed until at least 6 months later). I can see why some nurseries give up.

[Meglet]

At our nursery if they have to give a child calpol (which they only seem to do if they have a temperature, never for teething) then I have to go and pick them up straight away.

We're not allowed to give calpol within 12 hours of nusery either. So it's ok at bedtime but after that I have to just hope they aren't grizzly or under the weather.

It's a PITA.

[purepurple]

I think the problem comes with how people interpret the guidance. Which is just that, guidance.
I work in a nursery and we would not send home a child who was teething and had been given calpol supplied by the parent.
And we certainly wouldn't be ringing an ambulance for a teething baby either. Bizzare.
Our policy, which complies with EYFS guidelines is this.

Medicines can be given to a child as suppkied by a parent as long as a form has been completed and only in accordance with the instructions on the medicine.
We do stock calpol to give in an emergency, i.e. to bring down a high temp that might bring on convulsions. If we have had to do this, them the child will be sent home as nursery is not the right place for a sick child.
It would be obvious to any early years professional when a child is poorly and needs to go home and when they may just need monitoring after a dose of calpol.
I suspect the real reason is staffing issues. It is possible that taking a member of staff out of the ratios to care for a sick child on a one to one basis would affect the care the other children would receive.
Some nurseries have floating staff to cope with events such as this and some don't. Our nursery doesn't at the moment. The management would have to step in, and that obviously has implications on their time.

[BertieBotts]

The ambulance thing does seem absolutely ridiculous. Especially when you consider that it wouldn't be a quick check over by a paramedic (which would be shocking enough as a waste of resources) but that ambulance drivers are bound to take any child under 2 who they attend to to hospital regardless of condition.

[ChickenInABasket]

My son's nursery will only give calpol if prescribed by a Dr and expect the parent to collect the child immediately, whether they are teething, ill or anything!

[KSal]

my nursery willl give one dose (having called for permission), then if a second is needed they will call again, ask for permission and i will have to go collect. This is a fairly recent development though.

I agree that what your nursery is doing seems OTT

[cookielove]

The nursery i work in will only give calpol for a high temp, and the child is sent home, we do not like the parents giving calpol or such medicines in the morning, but we don't have a policy against it, we know parents give it to them, we have had many unwell children come into nursery, only for there temp to spike later in the day when what they have has worn off.

< to quote one parent, 'oh we think he has an ear infection, so we gave him calpol' us 'well he needs to be checked out by a doctor' them 'oh no, he's fine i didn't mean ear infection, just a bit sore'>

That particular child went home later in the day, with a high temp.

We would not give calpol for teething, or teething gel, we only give medicine that has been prescribed by a doctor with their name on.

[WidowWadman]

My daughter's nursery calls for permission when they think calpol is needed and I will have to sign a form in the evening when picking her up. She won't be sent home for just having a temperature, only when she really is poorly.

If nursery would send her home every time her temperature is going up because of teething, or she's got the snuffles I could as well just give up my job.

[cookielove]

I have to say, the childrens probably do up having temps throughout the day at nursery, most of them are full of cold at the moment, but unless they are really lethargic, and just 'not right' we don't tend to check.

Most times, we realise they have a temp because we'll go to pick them up, give a cuddle e.t.c and they feel boiling, and will check at that point.

If they are running around like loons (which they usually are) we are generally not worried about their health

[Rhian82]

All nurseries seem to overreact and recommend seeing a GP for the slightest thing. It's a complete waste of NHS resources if it's a simple infection that's being treated with Calpol, and to be honest I can't see why a child whose illness is being controlled by Calpol can't be at nursery and be given it by staff.

[turkeyboots]

The nursery I use for DS will only give caplol to babies for teething and not for tempetures (ie if he's fevery he has to go home). Have to sign it in and can't sign it in more than 3 days in a row. Have used 3 nurseries over the years and had 3 different sets of rules.

[DastardlyandSmugly]

The nursery I use will ring me before giving Calpol and will then let me know whether they think I need to collect or not. Nine times out of ten they are happy to let the child stay. I've only been asked to pick them up about three times, once when DS started with chicken pox and twice when DD had bad croup.

[iwouldgoouttonight]

At my DC's nursery we have to sign a form in the morning to say when we'd like them to give Calpol, and they'll give more than one dose throughout the day if we've said so in advance.

But they let you take Calpol in and ask them to give it if they think its necessary, they'll only do it if you've specified a time on the form.

And they have to give it at that particular time. One day DD seemed a little bit under the weather but ok so I asked them to give her Calpol at 11am. When I picked her up they said she was asleep at 11am and they're not allowed to give it apart from at the time I specified so they didn't give it to her at all!

[Mummygi]

I am just having the same problem. My child is teething at the moment and sometimes he has been in excruciating pain to the extent that he has almost lost his voice due to crying all day. If teething gel doesn't help him, I will follow up with baby paracetamol which has been prescribed by the doctor. My nursery tried to tell me that they cannot store this at the nursery due to Ofsted Regulations. I didn't believe it, so I checked with Ofstead and they said the nursery were wrong. If I can show that this is detrimental for my son, then Ofsted will take it further. When my son is in such pain, he does not eat for the whole day. He is at full time nursery for over 10 hours a day and it is cruel to expect him to go without pain relief should he need it during the day. It is also impractical for them to expect me as a full time working mum to pick up my son everytime he is upset for teething problems. These can last anything up to three years. I sent the nursery an email yesterday and so far they have ignored it. Ofsted told me that nurseries often use them to hide behind if there is something they do not want to do. I am not going to let this drop. I will lobby my local MP if I have to. We as parents have to trust that nurseries are looking after our children to the best of their abilities. This is so not the case. can you believe it, they also fed my child wotsits and chocolate buttons. He is only 10 months old!!!

[reallytired]

I am glad with this change in OFSTED policy. It will hopefully put an end to the calpol cowboys. It will reduce the amount of cross infection in nurseries.
It may not be popular with parents, but it is in the interest of children.

[Zimbah]

It's up to the nursery to set their own policy, as long as it doesn't breach Ofsted guidelines. DD's nursery won't give any medicine unless on prescription, including calpol. If a child has a high temp they'll call the parent to come and collect them, and in the meantime will cool them down with damp flannel etc, but won't give calpol unless it's been specifically prescribed by a doctor. This is annoying for me and can make life very difficult with work etc, but that's the nursery's policy and if I don't like it I can always leave, they don't force me to leave my child there.

[LvMySon]

We have the same issues my son is 2 teething and is dairy free - never had nomal poo always runny which nursery are aware of. depending who changes his bum depends if they send him home for runny bum.
when teething he seems to get warm to touch but calgel seems to do the trick if not 2.5ml of calpol. nursery insist on sending him home everytime, was once told he had a temp of 39.2 so i got to nursery in less than 5 mins as i work around the corner when i got there i did his temp and it was 36.4 not possible for it to go down so quick took him to docs and nothing wrong with him at all. This has happened so many times
My son has the worst attendance possible they send him home for the slightlest thing. i have just had the same phone call. it cost £38 a day and i cant remember the last time he was in nursery for a ful week but of cause once sent home not allowed in for 48 hours and we still have to pay. Working to pay for childcare yet taking the time off to look after him - something not right there. Now at the point were thinking of taking him out completely this is not what i want to do but cant keep going on like this. he loves going and is learning so much but got to be realistic my job and husbands are now getting affected by it aswell as our pockets.

Think some of the guidelines are being taken a little to far.

VERY ANNOYED

[EdithWeston]

Prescription Calpol - what a waste of the NHS drug budget and GP appointments!

[inmysparetime]

I can see both sides of this, as it is hard to look after a child who is obviously in pain from teething and not give them pain relief, but it is overboard to send them home after they have had pain relief. That's a bit strange, as at that point they should need no extra care. Sending home children with illnesses is quite another matter, I know at my nursery we get a few parents dose the kids up to disguise illnesses which means it is hard to get on top of infections. Teething is not infectious so should have different rules from disease.

[CroweRhianna3457182943]

@Zimbah

It's up to the nursery to set their own policy, as long as it doesn't breach Ofsted guidelines. DD's nursery won't give any medicine unless on prescription, including calpol. If a child has a high temp they'll call the parent to come and collect them, and in the meantime will cool them down with damp flannel etc, but won't give calpol unless it's been specifically prescribed by a doctor. This is annoying for me and can make life very difficult with work etc, but that's the nursery's policy and if I don't like it I can always leave, they don't force me to leave my child there.

I have a 13 month old!
He is teething and has had a high temperature on and off for around 3 weeks. We have had him in A&E twice and in the GP surgery to which have all confirmed there is nothing wrong with him appart from teething.
Therefore he has been in nursery half of the month and sent home 2 times now! In which we are still expected to pay for those absent days too.
The nursery refused to give calpol when his temperature was almost at 40 which in itself it's dangerous for the child in terms of chance of convulsion etc! They would only administer calpol once I said I will pick my son up! At A&E the doctor and the nurse were literally laughing at the fact that nurserys 'policy' was that they can only administer calpol throughout the day if the doctor prescribes calpol!? He said how can we prescribe an over the counter medicine, a prescription has never been heard of ''take this boy home there is nothing wrong with him'' were the doctors words. Also the GP confirmed they do no give prescriptions for calpol, ever. Therefore the nursery are completely taking advantage of this fact and sending children home when it isn't needed.

[CroweRhianna3457182943]

@BertieBotts

That is strange. I don't have a child in nursery but some of my friends do. AFAIK the policy in their nursery is that the first dose of calpol is fine, but if the nursery feel a second dose is needed, then they have to call the parent in to pick the baby up. This also applies if the parent has given calpol in the morning - the next time they feel calpol is needed it's counted as the second dose and requires a pick up.

I have a 13 month old!
He is teething and has had a high temperature on and off for around 3 weeks. We have had him in A&E twice and in the GP surgery to which have all confirmed there is nothing wrong with him appart from teething.
Therefore he has been in nursery half of the month and sent home 2 times now! In which we are still expected to pay for those absent days too.
The nursery refused to give calpol when his temperature was almost at 40 which in itself it's dangerous for the child in terms of chance of convulsion etc! They would only administer calpol once I said I will pick my son up! At A&E the doctor and the nurse were literally laughing at the fact that nurserys 'policy' was that they can only administer calpol throughout the day if the doctor prescribes calpol!? He said how can we prescribe an over the counter medicine, a prescription has never been heard of ''take this boy home there is nothing wrong with him'' were the doctors words.
So of course I sent my little boy back into nursery the following day for them to yet AGAIN send him home!
It's ridiculous and would not surprise me that they send children home for no reason regularly because of the fact that they are over staffed and to rinse money from the parents.
Fuming lol