to wonder why people let their DC play with the toys at GP/hospital?

[thewintercene]

Today we spent 3 hours in a paediatric waiting room in our local hospital.

Unless someone disinfects those windy wires and beads several times a day, the logic of having one or two toys in a doctor's or hospital's reception or paediatric rooms completely defies me.

Tens of (high probability ill or carrying something from a sibling who is doctor-worthy) children passing through every day, fingering everything.

Obviously soft play is like this too, but it's not a doctor's or hospital where people go when they're ill.

Also, why, when you have a child who is ill already, would you want to risk compounding the problem by having them potentially catch something else?

I'm thinking mainly vomiting bugs here, which are of course highly contagious, you can't ever have immunity for long, and are at a 5 year high this year. There were warnings about it all over our local hospital, and reminders about hand washing, yet nobody seemed to bloody disinfect the toys the whole 3 hours we were there, and when about 20 different children there for different reasons played with them - including one who pooed on the floor then played with the toy. Obviously the poo was cleared up, but the toy was never cleaned.

God help you when your child starts school.

They catch everything.

Also, be grateful they stay in their buggy. My DGC would scream the surgery down if not let out!

Firstly kids with norovirus in hospital are given their own rooms and more importantly their own toys.

Same applies to chronically ill/low immune system kids at hospital - they get toys specifically for them - its recorded and they can swap but have to do so under the help of play staff.

Kids on general wards are left to share toys as it is deemed their immune systems can take it. Also all toys are washed at the end of the day and also washed if they are going from kids in rooms who are contagious or very ill as listed above.

Play staff try hard to maintain a balance of entertainment vs spreading of germs. So YABU imo and experience.

Even worse the new I pads in mac Donald's now that's a tummy upset waiting to happen!

Crap, I'm obvs a neglectful parent then as I let them go on them too!
We go to Mcdonalds occasionally and you can't beat playing the Logo Game whilst you scoff your burger lol gave up saying eat your burger/nuggets first THEN go on them and now just go with the flow

I hate the GP surgery toys the ones at my surgery look particularly sticky but I can't keep my kids away from them. It's like the stickier and more germ infested they look the greater the attraction.

Dd has SN and if I stopped her playing with the toys, well I just couldn't she would have a melt down, I would not be able to get her into the doctors surgery she would badically just lay across the (even more germy) floor.

I try being really clever when I go and take toys like supermum but of course they don't hold the appeal of the sticky abacus.

Dd2 is a master of distraction so she will be giving all the right signs that she is playing nicely with the toys from home and then will literally lunge at toys and lick them (yes actual lick she thinks she's a cat at the moment)

And don't get me started on taking a newly potty training child to the GP surgery toilets is it just mine that touch everything?!

Truth is OP for most parents especially when you're there with more than one child who won't sit in a buggy there's not a lot you can do to stop them.

That said I agree with everything barbara said above the toys in hospital are really well cleaned and my old GP surgery it's just the new one I'm at now that's a bit sticky.

Fucking Hell! What happens when your pfb starts nursery? Are you going to send her in with toys from home with instructions that no germ infested brat is to touch them?

Yabu. My daughter has a lot of hospital appointments and the toys make them more fun for her.

Bring in a squirty bottle of disinfectant and spray everything from the moment you walk in. Start with the practice receptionist, she's probably a miserable creature anyway.

We had to spend a few hours in hospital waiting room. I let child play with the grubby awful toys. Hours later started with horrendous sickness bug which worked its way through the house (norovirus?) We'd have possibly caught it anyway just by being in the waiting room?

thenameisbarbara that's really interesting about immune compromised kid's toys

I understand that kids with norovirus get put in isolation, but a lot of kids who have norovirus get over it but still carry it, even though they are perfectly well.

Who goes to the doc's or hospital with vomiting bug tho? Don't you just stay at home and drink fluids if possible?

Last few times we have been to doc's it has been DD's eczema or DS1's bone density issues, pretty sure these are not contagious.

at catching a broken leg, my thoughts exactly

We clean our waiting room toys 3 times a day .

It doesn't bother me. My dc don't have any problems with their immune systems and don't get a crazy amount of illness.

Eh? I was always just glad that they had toys, never occurred to me to be worried!

toys banned from my GP as unhygienic.

YABU for keeping your 2 year old in a buggy for 3 hours!

Cor blimey your germ issues are going to be off the scale when tiddler starts nursery

I am guessing you probably won't be in any hurry to attend the inevitable chicken pox party.

Children have got to play and keep occupied. Its daft and unrealistic to expect a child to sit bolt right with their fingers on their lips for hours at a time, and I'm sure they get cleaned. If you worried about touching things all the time. You'd never do anything.
It sounds like you could have a germ phobia. TBH.

--its strange the way no one has a fear of touching money, though.

When my twins were toddlers, I was as delighted to see a box of toys in the GP or outpatients as they were.

I have often wondered about this sort of question as I have a number of friends who are seriously germphobic and don't let their kids touch anything. We have never never had noro in our house. Kids are five and seven and have had not one vomiting bug or gastro in their lives, Lucky I know. It has never occurred to me not to let the kids play with things in doctors, at school, or anywhere else. One of the kids has an entirely unrelated condition which requires regular medical appointments, which means they are both exposed to those beady things on GPs all the time. Monthly at least.

If they had any issues with immunosuppression, or that existed elsewhere in the family I would, obviously, feel totally differently.

You do know that children go to nursery and school

And you do realise that they will play with toys and equipment that other children have touched/sneezed on?

I don't think you should inflict your anxieties on to your child.

We can't live in a sterile environment. It's impossible.

We didn't have toys in our outpatient department (gynae) and I remember a lovely little toddler who decided to play with a few of the leaflets instead. Then decided they'd be better in mummys handbag - info on Herpes and Chlamidia poking out for all to see! Bet she wished we did have toys!

The department's that I've worked in that did have toys were frequently cleaned. Had to be wipeable too. Infection control is a HUGE issue in hospitals.

My pediatrician's office (in the US, at a university hospital) used to have a toy corner in the waiting area. It disappeared, replaced by a TV that plays Disney favourites on a loop all day every day.

I was glad to see the toys gone. You can do your best to minimise the exposure of children who are potentially already immunocompromised to further infection, and even children who are there for a routine checkup shouldn't go home with a DV bug - sure, it won't kill them, but who wants that?

I never let my DCs play with the toys. We brought books, and the youngest had to stay in the stroller.

They all survived the sadness they suffered from not being allowed near the toys .

OP, YANBU.