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?

My nursery administer calpol for a high temp, but call first, and in my experience by this stage they have already stripped the child down to nappy etc.
They also administer prescription meds, but only if the child has already had 2 doses previously (to minimise them having to deal with any reactions to medication).

As far as children needing calpol being too ill for nursery, I strongly disagree. I give my DTs calpol if they are teething, but they certainly don't need a day off nursery. Also, DTD had her immunisations this week. The nurse advised that this may give her a higher temperature, and I should manage it with Calpol. Again, she's not really ill, but needs a dose of Calpol to help her feel 'normal'. BTW the nurse also said 37.5 is classed a 'high temperature' (DTS's temp was 37.6 so couldn't have his imms this week).

Oh thank you so SO much agingmumoftwins! I just got a chance to check back in on this thread and you have solved the mystery. DD had her MMR jab on the 1st and they say it can take 7-10 for symptoms to appear. She hasn't had a runny nose etc so I figured it wasn't a cold. I then put it down to teething but then couldn't feel a tooth. It must be a jab! Anyway, Calpol has made her 100% again. I dropped her in nursery this morning and gave her Calpol before I left, which they gave me grief about (along the lines of "sick child shouldn't be in nursery" etc). Just called now and she is happy and fine. I'd prefer to keep my sick leave for when she is truly sick and needs to be at home. It was so frustrating yesterday watching her jump around the house and then I was awake into the wee hours of the night catching up on work. I feel like the no-Calpol rule is very hard on working mothers. I hate to be put in a position of taking a day of sick leave so that she is without pain (but bored) or having her at nursery with a pain that could so easily be relieved with Calpol.

I definitely don't agree with a previous poster that children with that much pain shouldn't be in nursery - the only reason they are in that much pain is because they aren't allowed Calpol!

Chaya

Are they still okay to put on teething gel?

As far as I know, my nursery have, and will give Calpol, but when DS is teething, I make sure that he has some gel in his bag for them to use.

HTH - hope that helps :)

Sarah x

I'm all for keeping your child off school when they are not well, they are just kids at the end of the day, if a child has got a high temperature which can lead to all sorts of things how would they be OK in school. Now it's an absolute joke with this new calpol law that the school will not give kids any medicine at all unless they have an an ongoing illness because teachers say the kids should be at home which is absolutely fine with me. What absolute pisses me off is the attendance officer is not on the same page as the teachers, my misses was told that she had to get prescribed calpol and then told "oh sorry I gave you the wrong information only kids illnesses can have prescribed medicine. Flu is growing and getting worse every year the doctors can vouch for that so when my kids have a really high temperature and have sickness and diarrhoea etc I don't think they should be at school quite obvious I'm sure a lot of parents and teachers would agree, what I don't f ing appreciate is getting letters to say that my kid has had so much time off and threatened with a fine. If my kids learning ability and grades were affected I could slightly understand the reason for sending the letter but my kids are doing fine with their education. Apparently this is the government and ousted who have applied these laws. They are are an absolute bunch of pen pushing morons who have no care for humanity at all. The school says the parents can come to the school and give your child calpol but if you live far from the school enough to be an absolute nuisance especially if you don't drive and have to get 2 or 3 buses and even worse if your at work then this rule is an absolute joke. Why do we fill the medical forms the school provide when kids the school and update them, so obviously the school has a record of any illnesses, disabilitys and medication the child needs to take and what the child cannot be administered. So with this information and common sense communication between parents and teachers why can't something as simple as calpol or nurofen whatever be given by the teachers if the government wants our kids to be in school more. We are not ginuea pigs or test subjects we are human beings, we are not machines, I'm Dam sure not taking my kids into school if they are really unwell and the school won't help. Maybe these attendance officers, and offsted and whoever made these ridiculous rules should lead by example and not take any medication and go to work when they feel very unwell. What moron came up with this oh I know let's screw parents over and make their children suffer in school when they are ill whilst making money then eventually we can get more money and maybe even make some dodgy case to take away people's kids for not paying up. Sounds a bit extreme but things could end up like this if even it's not already begun.

Our crèche used to have a bottle of pain relief, supplied by parents, for each child. It was only ever given after phoning the parent to agree, and parent would have to later sign the book when collecting child.

BUT:
It meant that if a bump happened and a child was in pain, or teething causing pain, or high temps needing to come down etc - the parent was made aware, could give permission to relieve pain, and could also decide to come down to crèche or not.

Very often, the child was able to stay in crèche for the day, perhaps a little shortened but the parent was able to get their work done. And have time to arrange other work that they could bring home to finish off, or to have work they could do the following day from home or juggle diaries around potentially having to stay home etc.

There were plenty of days when we'd get the phonecall and it was just to give pain relief.
There were plenty of other days when we'd get the phonecall, she needed relief then but really needed to go home soonest (and giving the pain relief then bought you that extra time to take 10 minutes to clear desk, clear boss, and also give you time to get there).

They were also able to give things like antibiotics if needed (DD had recurrent ear infections, so pain relief and antibiotics were not infrequent for us - we'd take a day or 2 off for the raging ill part, but once she was on the mend but still sore and still needing ABs, our crèche would welcome her back).

It seems daft, but many of the creches we looked at already had a policy of no pain relief or meds being given on site.

Our crèche DID have strict 48hr rules on vomiting and diarrhea, no crèche if active conjunctivitis. Return after chicken pox couldn't be until after all spots had crusted over (and it was checked!). That sort of thing.

But a sensible head about other, non-infectious types of illnesses and pain. Which we were very very glad about.

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I agree OP, it's ridiculous. I'm a single mother and have my son at a childminder rather than a nursery at the moment because she is able to care for him when he is sick and administers calpol, antibiotics etc when needed. My friends that have children at nursery constantly have to take time off for the tiniest of ailments.

HTH - Hope that helps x

It is threads like this that make me so glad I use a childminder where common sense prevails. I put in her book if she has had any meds in the 6hrs before starting. I say whether she is likely to be actively teething. My childminder then makes a call on whether or not to give meds and puts it in her book if she does. The woman has raised 3 kids so is probably more qualified than me to decide when to dose. We have also agreed that a high temp alone is no reason to give meds or any reason to send her, or any child. home. If accompanied by out of sort behaviour and sleepiness, then yes medicate and call me, but if my lo is happy as larry then monitor temp and carry on. I work a train ride away, given how regularly and badly my daughter teethes, and if I had to drop everything to go and give her some calpol every time I may as well quit work, which is bonkers. Sometimes I think we just make this stuff too hard.