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.

I always allowed my kids to play with the toys in waiting rooms, and I'm a former nurse who understands infection and immunity. Funny enough they never came home with the lurgy.
You're being a little bit neurotic OP, but you could always carry antiseptic wipes around in your bag and wipe everything your children ever touch.

When my could was infectious and we had to take him to a&e for a different matter we were put in a side room with it's own toys. I'm assuming they are cleaned more regularly

Child not could

Around sickness bugs are a part of life, I spend my life feeling sick anyway due to a illness I've already got, do you really think toys are a doctors practice are the sole cause of sickness bugs?
If you spend your life keeping kids away from germs I don't think you'll have much of a life, and I think it will mess up their resilience to germs, bugs etc. imo obviously.

I'm a vet, who also understands infection and immunity. I was perfectly happy to allow my children to go to nursery (though I did wince every time I heard the phrase 'he was sick this morning, but he seems fine').

I rarely allowed my children to play with the toys in the GP surgery. People do go in with norovirus, because some people go to the doctors with everything.

There's a difference between school and a doctor's waiting room. I just felt the additional risk was unecessary.

I would even happily let them play in farmyards. Just norovirus and flu can sometimes be avoided by taking small measures and I took them where I could.

Some people have natural immunity to norovirus as well. Those with blood type B or AB are much less likely to succumb.

To those who allow their children to play with those things, that's fine. But I hate all the ridicule that's being thrown around here. The OP's stance makes perfect sense to me.

thewintercene you need to seek help for your phobia.

they wash the toys at my paed department. no worries there

At our local hospital they only have toys which can be disinfected.

When ds has been in in isolation then the play specialist will bring toys in to him and then clean them before they are put back into circulation.

at my gp surgery there was a period when they took away all magazines due to germs, but they brought them back.
i imagine they do wash /disinfect the toys op.
if they dont, you could always ask them

Only Wikipedia but still

The norovirus can survive for long periods outside a human host depending on the surface and temperature conditions: it can stay for weeks on hard surfaces,[57] and up to twelve days on contaminated fabrics, and it can survive for months, maybe even years in contaminated still water.[58] A 2006 study found the virus remained on surfaces used for food preparation seven days after contamination.

So more likely to catch it from a hard surface than a cushion! I learnt something today.

Still going to let them play with the GP toys though. Reckless, me.

ask them op, i am sure they have a policy?

The toys at our local children's hospital are regularly cleaned and they have a poster saying when they were last cleaned. However, I let my DS play with them as he's probably been exposed to the bug at nursery already.

We had a few hours in A&E recently. There was a cleaning chart on the wall to record the cleaning of waiting room toys in rotation every 4 hours. For the time we were there it seemed to be being done.
Regardless though, I don't think playing with the toys is a particularly heightened risk when compared to just being there, touching door handles, chairs etc. DS was in pain, upset and scared, playing with the toys distracted him a little and I really don't think exposed him to more risk than the fact we were there in the first place.

To those who bring their own toys, do you children play with them in the air, never touching the floors, chairs etc that these apparent highly infectious fellow patients have also been in contact with?

The children who play with the toys are unlikely to have anything that serious anyway that they could not pick up at nursery. When DS was at his worst at hospital he was in a separate cubilce at a&e and in his own room on the ward (scarlet fever) and he was not allowed in the toy room because he was infectious.

Norovirus does not bother me we have had it it's unpleasant but once you hit the school system not much you can do. Last year it hit the school and children were being sick at school. Felt fine in the morning then not what can you do. AWe escaped it though

I let them play - I know they're covered in all sorts, but so are kids generally, so I think it's better to teach them not to put stuff in their mouths, and to wash their hands rather than let them do those things but not touch toys.

Noro/Chickepox/other infectious stuff shouldn't be in the main waiting room (and, TBH, who would be sitting in a waiting room with Noro - you'll be on the toilet, or reclined, groaning somewhere at home) - when DS1 had suspected chickenpox and DS2 was new born, the only reason I went to the doctors was to get advice on what to do about DS2, and we were asked to stay out of the waiting room and use the phone in the lobby to talk to the doctor.

Take away the toys and they'll still touch banisters and doors and walls and chairs and tables etc.

Not being exposed to common bacteria and viruses leads to an underdeveloped immune system, allergies, and a deprived life.

I couldn't keep my 16mo in her buggy if I tried TBH.

We work in agile/hotdesk office, and there's one woman who uses disinfectant wipes on her desk, keyboard and phone everyday. But then uses the photocopier, the keys, the kettle, the doors, the box files, fridge, stapler........

I work in a Paediatric unit at one of the local hospitals and of course we have lots of toys, what else are the children supposed to do every day when they're with us anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks??

The toys in the isolations rooms stay in there and are disinfected once the patient has been discharged ready for when the next child is admitted into that room.

The toys that are in our open 4 bedded bays are wiped down every day and then properly disinfected every few days. The children in these bays though aren't infectious though so they don't have anything that can be passed on through sharing toys with other children.

It wouldn't even occur to me to stop my child from playing with toys in hospitals or GP surgeries. YABU.

Children pick up germs from everywhere!!!

I work with the most vulnerable children.
If anyone is going to get seriously ill from germs it is them.
We have communal toys.
We have routine hygiene control.
We take the welfare of our kids very seriously
On balance the risk from toys is very much outweighed by the risk from depriving them of play opportunities.

Anyway...no decent toy sticks around long enough in a hospital waiting room to collect enough germs to do harm.
They get nicked.

boo makes a good point. Hospital waiting rooms furniture, floors, walls etc are covered in the exact same germs as the ones you think are on the toys. Toys are more likely to be cleaned daily than a wall.
So the only way to keep a child 'safe' is to restrain them.
You seem to be happy to keep a toddler in a buggy for three hours based on your risk assessment.

I would not.

Why not just use the hand sanitizer before and after playing?

When my boy was two he was in hospital for eleven days and the only thing that cheered him up was a happyland pink windmill. Never occurred to me it could be germ ridden, it was just nice to see him smile, poor boy. There were a lot of very sick kids on that ward and they got toys brought to their beds. I assume they got cleaned!

Our GP surgery ditched the toys too I thought it was because they'd redecorated and they looked scruffy but maybe it was a hygeine thing? They've moved to a massive new surgery now and they don't have them there either

No idea what happens in GPs (probably varies between surgeries) but in hospitals, play workers will disinfect toys at least daily and there may be wipes available so parents can clean them themselves if they want to.

OP that's great that your 2 yr old will happily sit in the buggy while you wait in the surgery. I would love to see you try and contain my 2 yr old in the buggy under the same circumstances!

Are you planning to send your child to nursery/school? Because you'll need to get used to the spreading of germs out with your control if so. I got a letter from the nursery a few months ago about sickness and diarrhoea doing the rounds at nursery. I had to send DS anyway of course. Thankfully he didn't catch it.