to think that the no-Calpol rule at nurseries is ridiculous

[chaya5738]

Apparently the government has passed a regulation saying that nurseries aren't permitted to give Calpol to children. The nursery DD attends thinks it is probably justified because sick babies shouldn't be at nursery.

My feelings is that while really sick babies (or babies with lingering D&V or something) shouldn't be at nursery, sometimes they can just be slightly sick (eg: with teething pain or a mild cold) and it is ok for them to be there. And it would be quite nice for them to have Calpol to relieve the symptoms.

Background is that I had to rush in to nursery yesterday to give my DD Calpol because she had a temperature of 37.8. Nursery said I had to come in immediately as it was urgent that they got her fever down. DD was a bit quiet but otherwise not showing any symptoms. It takes me about 30-40mins to get there so decided that by the time I get there, give her Calpol, and get back to work, I figured I might us well just not go back to work and take her home. Ended up keeping her home today because it was going to be too difficult to get in to nursery to give her Calpol each time her temperature went up. She has a mild cold (as do the nursery staff!) and is fine once the Calpol kicks in. Once I got her home yesterday she was bouncing off the walls having a grand old time.

I have so far missed 1.5 days of work, which I really can't afford at the moment. This has happened before too when she was teething - I decided to keep her home rather than have her in pain, Calpol-free at nursery all day.

So, does anyone have any up-sides to this new policy?

why are people saying that calpol shouldn't be given without training? did you get proper training before you had your child? have you since obtained a qualification in paediatric pharmacology? its CALPOL fgs not methadone. Its quite sad that you bring your child to a nursery where you do not have enough faith in the staff to administer a medicine you can buy in tesco?

It was true of yesterday that DD's nursery will give calpol etc when needed. i left her in for an hour yesterday said she was teething. Came back she was playing away. they said that she was crying and chewing so bonjela and calpol where given, they told me the time it was given. she was happy, i was happy that i wasn't going to pick up a child who had been sat screaming for an hour because of some stupid rule.

hmmm this is odd as i've just started ds2 at nursery and i had to just sign a form to give consent for them to use calpol if necessary...

At my DC's nursery the children aren't allowed to go if they have had Calpol within the last 12 hours (ie: overnight).

Total PITA when they are teething. I've always given calpol for teething, my wisdom teeth are painful and I take stuff for them so I'm not going to expect a young child to suffer.

They do give Calpol for high temperatures but they always call the parent first to check then the parent has to go and collect the child.

My only concern would be if the calpol or whatever hasnt been given before. We discovered that DS was allergic to infant ibuprofen which might be given without thinking.

Even if meds are prescribed I think that a parent should be home for the first day on the prescription just to make sure there are no adverse reactions. Not easy I know but preferable to a panicky phone call from a frightened childminder (the ibuprofen reaction).

I think its quite right for a nursery not to give calpol. If a child has a fever or is in THAT much pain then they should not be at nursery. Its not fair on the other children or the staff or indeed the child!

Our nursery will give calpol or ibroprofen if the child has seen a doctor and its for a specific reason. (Ie. broken bones)

Some parents will give their child calpol or ibroprofen without telling the nursery. Prehaps the nursery is afraid of accidental overdose.

YABU. If a child needs calpol they are not well enough to be at nursery.

And, by the way, there is nothing wrong with a child running a temperature for a while. It just means that their body is dealing with an infection - it's not a disaster that has to be reduced immediately by giving medicine. Most temperatures can be reduced anyway by undressing, tepid sponging and cool drinks - no need for anything else.

My dd's nursery would give medication according to instructions signed for by the parent. This allowed dd to go to nursery while on antibiotics. She was never at nursery when she was too unwell to be there or when she was a risk to others (i.e. infection). I also had them give her Calpol on a couple of occasions, again when, with the help of the Calpol, she was well enough to be there. I find the argument that no child needing Calpol should be at nursery in the first place utterly preposterous.

As for the "only on prescription" thing? Oh please!

Our nursery gives calpol/nurofen if required without having to ring parents first or get the parent in themselves. I think I had to sign a form when they first went though saying OK to do this.

It's not always true that if your child needs calpol etc then they're so unwell they shouldn't be at nursery, my ds' suffers from teething so on occasion he has it for this but he's obviously not unwell.

He also has a lump on his brain which if his temp goes up can make him more vulnerable to seizures so would expect nursery to give calpol etc immediately if temp went too high and then let us know so we can pick him up rather than try and contact us first or get us to go in to administer it and take him home. Any delay in him having meds to reduce temp can result in seizure happening quite quickly which will then mean trip to hospital. His temp doesn't even have to be that high to have seizures - whilst he was in hosp he was given calpol/nurofen to bring a temp at upper 37's down but that may have been because of the greater risks to him.

maighdlin just because you can buy Calpol in Tesco doesn't mean that it's not potentially harmful.

No you don't need to be a pharmacist to administer paracetamol but you need to have an idea of why you're giving it - and that involves a nursery nurse making that judgement call. If you're the parent then no problem, it's your child and your judgement call to make but expecting care staff to make that judgement could be beyond their remit.

Oh and as for giving Bonjela at nursery - do check that they are giving Bonjela Teething Gel and not adult Bonjela.

It seems to be that nursery staff ought to get proper training in basic paediatric nursing as part of their courses, as they used to. Kids are frequently ill and it seems as though they are unable to deal with this and act properly in loco parentis as the law requires, instead picking and choosing what they want to deal with and panicking at minor childhood health volatilities. It's time they grew up and dealt with this.

Wasn't having a dig at you Chaya- it's hard to know what's best sometimes. I've taken day off work to be with DD who seemed quite ill only for her to perk up couple of hours later and be back to her normal self just hours after that.

I can understand totally why nursery wouldn't administer Calpol or similar- it isn't their job to look after sick children.

My best one ever was when nursery staff phoned me as I sat on a tube train setting off from Munich airport. One of the nursery nurses was supposed to be bringing DS1 home for us after nnursery and sitting with him until DH came home (DH was 2.5 hours away interviewing for new staff so leaving work would have meant cancelling about 8 people's interviews and arriving half way through the afternoon). It went like this.

"DS1 has a spot on his chest and you need to come to collect him."
"Seriously? I am 600 miles away, I have just got off the plane, how bad are these spots?"
"There's only one spot"
"Only one spot? Is it bad enough for me to buy a full price ticket, get straight back on the plane, and come to get him?"
"Well, no, not really if you're that far away"
"So he's not infectious or seriously ill?"
"No"

It does make you wonder why they are allowed to get away with insisting the parents drop everything for every little health variation (not even illness). If they had to refund the childcare for that day, I bet they wouldn't.

Both my nursery (when DD was there) and now her school will administer calpol. We signed permission slip at nursery at start and every year at school. They both then phone before administering to check no other meds have been given.
Last year the school nurse phoned me ' I have DD here she's a bit miserable can I give her a dose of calpol' I said ' oh shall I come and take her home' ' No, no she hasn't got a temperature, just seems a bit miserable with this cold' 'Okay give calpol and if she doesn't get better I'll get her' 'Okay we will review in an hour'
In the hour she was back to her sparkely self and had no further need of calpol for that cold.

I actually do think it is their job to cope with minor childhood health problems like teething, insect bites, nappy rash, mild colds and minor rashes. If you decide to care for other people's children, it goes with the territory.

"my child is only 7 weeks old so i don't have experience of this yet - but if i have a mild cold i would go to work but would take a paracetamol-based product to help myself feel better and fully able to work. is this different for a child?"....................Ooo..errr...Miss..[Rollmops has heard it all now. Needs to lie down]

To clarify, dd's nursery would give medication supplied by me/my dh and according to our instructions as to dosage andn timing of doses. This seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Rollmops, I'm trying to work out if your experience is very broad or very limited if that quote is "it all" for you.

huh? yes, also confused by rollmops!

^BoffinMum Thu 09-Sep-10 21:59:26
It seems to be that nursery staff ought to get proper training in basic paediatric nursing as part of their courses, as they used to. Kids are frequently ill and it seems as though they are unable to deal with this and act properly in loco parentis as the law requires, instead picking and choosing what they want to deal with and panicking at minor childhood health volatilities. It's time they grew up and dealt with this^

Exactly!!

Perhaps it is the bonus endless joy of being a SAHM, but I do not give Calpol that often....my dcs suffer a little temperature and I wouldn't even consider Calpol at the first sight of a temperature. I use flannels and rest long before Calpol, although I actually prefer medised!! But then I was brought up not to take necessary medicine pop pills myself and only do so when in real pain, so as many as possible for this toothache!!

BoffinMum Thu 09-Sep-10 22:06:53
My best one ever was when nursery staff phoned me as I sat on a tube train setting off from Munich airport. One of the nursery nurses was supposed to be bringing DS1 home for us after nnursery and sitting with him until DH came home (DH was 2.5 hours away interviewing for new staff so leaving work would have meant cancelling about 8 people's interviews and arriving half way through the afternoon). It went like this.

"DS1 has a spot on his chest and you need to come to collect him."
"Seriously? I am 600 miles away, I have just got off the plane, how bad are these spots?"
"There's only one spot"
"Only one spot? Is it bad enough for me to buy a full price ticket, get straight back on the plane, and come to get him?"
"Well, no, not really if you're that far away"
"So he's not infectious or seriously ill?"
"No"

It does make you wonder why they are allowed to get away with insisting the parents drop everything for every little health variation (not even illness). If they had to refund the childcare for that day, I bet they wouldn't.

Why didn't they call your DH?

Boffinmum said that her DH was 2.5 hrs away at an interview

The business about schools and nurseries not being willing to give antibiotics is, without exaggerating, potentially extremely dangerous to our society. Failing to complete a course increases the risk of developing anti-biotic resistance, and as the level of that in the population grows minor diseases and minor surgery both become extremely risky. Parents are unlikely to keep otherwise healthy children at home just to feed them a tablet every four hours, and it will be very tempting to send them to nursery or school and just stop the course.

Worse, as there are still GPs who will for the sake of a quiet life prescribe antibiotics for viral infections - they should be struck off - the child may recover independent of the antibiotics. It would be better they weren't taking the (useless) antibiotics, but having started they should at least finish the course. Schools and nurseries, like everyone else, have a vested interest in health, and making sure people complete courses of anti-biotics has massive externalities: it affects us all.

JJ...Thanks

In our creche (DD has just left after 4.5 years), each child must have their own bottle of pain relief - be that Calpol or whatever is right for that child. The parents must either sign in advance in the mornings for somewhat poorly children or teethers, or get a phonecall to confirm dosage if something happens during the day. And then sign that night on collection. They also allow anti-b's and other medication to be given once signed for and once the child is not too ill to be there (rule is once no vomiting/diarrhoea for 24 hours, and anti-b's AFTER 24hrs from 1st dose, and child is otherwise up to being in creche - need to stay home within those timeframes.

There are clear rules, and not all staff are allowed administer medecines. I know of some creches where the first sign of a temp and kids were sent home (often not actually sick just warm) which causes havoc on working parents. Our creche were always very clear on the criteria for deciding whether it was OK for child to be there, or if child had to go home during the day. But it also meant that children with normal sniffles, colds etc, or non-infectious illnesses (like chicken pox once the spots had crusted over) could be in creche, with their friends with trained staff who would make sure they got rest but still enjoying life that sitting at home bored to tears.

Yes, there need to be VERY clear guidelines and they need to be followed. But if a child needs pain relief, the carers should be able to give it, whether in nursery or at home.