To complain to nursery about the parent who sent their child in, knowing she had conjunctivitis?

[westcoastmummy]

I am currenly seething as 14 month DS has horrible bacterial conjunctivitis in both eyes. When I was collecting DS from nursery last week I over heard a conversation between staff and a mother advising her not to bring her daughter in the following day. It turned out the daughter had conjunctivitis and was on antibiotic eyedrops. The mother was extremely annoyed that the nursery wouldn't take her daughter when she had the infection. I know it's a nightmare sorting alternative care when you're working but I think she's totally selfish. Am I being unreasonable to make a complaint?

My Dd2 (9) has conjuntivitus at the moment. She has been to school this week with it as gov guidelines to schools state that children do not need to be off school with eye infections. It is uncomfortable and a bit sore but not bad enough to miss school.

At 9, she is old enough to understand that she must not touch it and to wash her hands well, often and with soap. Obviously, nursery children can not do this. When she was at nursery school she had it quite a lot and the doctor told me she should carry on going to nursery as long as I was treating it with drops.

I would not and have not kept child off for conjunctivitis. You can just get it in one eye though, someone above said it's always in both.

my DS2's nursery refused to take him one morning because he had slightly pink eye and asked me to take him to our GP to make sure it wasn't conjunctivitis.

(It wasn't - i had gotten shampoo into his eyes while washing his hair the night before)

I still brush their hair every day, so i would have a cursory check. I would check properly daily if i was suspicous/a warning letter had been sent home.

I think that them catching them from a child whose parents is unaware or thought they had sucessfully treated it is 'one of those things'

But sending a child in knowing they have them, not treating it/removing the lice allowing them to pass it on to others and just viewing that as 'one of those things' has made me really angry

I remember a girl who constantly had headlice when we were at school, in the end we stopped playing with her at all. As an adult i feel ashamed as it wasnt her fault and is obviously very mean but at eight we were sick of catching them repeatedly, having to have our hair combed for what seemed like hours we just stopped going near her for fear of catching the, again.

this is silly.

i had conjunctivitis - presumably i caught it from one of my class.

it came on really quickly - it would be very easy to send a child in with no symptoms and have them really itchy and inflamed by the end of the day.

My thoughts exactly Altinkum.

If one kid has lice the only probable way to completely get rid of it is to keep the whole school off for a week while everyone is treated and given the all clear.

Would that be agreeable for you Ducks?

I think people who are snotty and over critical of other people trying their best, and who might pass on their attitude to their children are crap mothers, but hey ho.

As to the issue. One of mine gets eye infections often. I don't send her for the first day or two, and treat, but I can do that without too much bother, for others it is more difficult. GP told me that not all eye infections are viral conjunctivitis and are less infectious anyway. Also find pharmacists quite helpful on this one, rather than waiting for GP appointment.

"But sending a child in knowing they have them, not treating it/removing the lice allowing them to pass it on to others and just viewing that as 'one of those things' has made me really angry"

But the child will have had them the day before too. Provided the child is treated as soon as possible, that is fair.

It is the parents who send their children in repeatedly, with no intention of treating them, who are deserving of condemnation.

YABU. Conjunctivitis is a minefield, dd2's nursery will take them with it but only if they have drops, I queued 4 hours at the GP drop-in centre to be told they won't prescribe drops for under twos. When she first started nursery she had permanently gooey eyes, but not red - classis blocked tear ducts, very common in babies, clears up on its own. I rowed with them for months over that, they wouldn't accept that I'd had her checked at docs and it definitely wasn't conjunctivitis.