CM Club - SICKNESS Policy - please help me with these questions..........

[looneytune]

Hi everyone

Some of you may have read my thread yesterday about poorly baby - I'm so angry and fed up with things like that, I've decided to update my policies. This is where I need some help:

1. VOMIT - I know ayla99 sends home with ANY vomit at all and (hoping she reads this) I was wondering how you deal with this for babies. For example, my 4 month old baby (the poorly one yesterday) has recently started bringing a lot more milk up after feeds than she used to. I think she's got Reflux and have given some info to mum hoping she will get it checked out and confirmed. She's even more sick at the moment because of a bad chest and bringing mucus and milk up through coughing fits. How do you decide (with babies) when to class it as VOMIT? I really like the idea of having something like this in my policies as even though I'm pretty sure why baby was being sick so much, there is also a bug going round and I'm no Dr!

2. Conjunctivitis - do you think I can put something along the lines of if mindee arrives with eyes looking gunky/crusty I can refuse care? The reason for me asking this is that baby also had conjunctivis last week, sent home and told mum needed to go to Dr's ASAP (she was BAD), was off the next day and then when she came back on Tuesday this week, I got an email from mum shortly after saying still getting gunky eyes and drops at grandma's . I was so annoyed as they knew they shouldn't come with that. She did have crusty eyes in the morning but I thought it was just sleep as I'd told her not to bring her in until cleared up. Anyway, I cleaned her eyes so no crusty bits and she was fine the rest of the day. Next morning crusty again (au pair doesn't have time to clean the kids properly before coming to me). I just thought it would encourage them to make sure they are totally clear before they come to me as how do I know if it's conjunctivitis or just sleep???

I'm sure I'll have more things to ask later but my brain has just turned to mush (a VERY BAD day!)

Basically ANY tips for things to add on this policy would be GREAT.

Also.........I'm going to do a 3 warnings and you're out system so if anyone does this and has this in their policies, I could do with help with wording

1. good question. It seems I don't send home for ALL vomit after all. A bit of milk up after a feed is quite normal and doesn't require a call to mum. Some babies don't seem to bring up much/any milk at all, others seem to bring up loads. I guess you get to know what the "normal" milky vomit looks like and how much they normally bring up and if they bring up huge quantities or it looks quite different then you need to be concerned. Also take account of whats happening at the nappy end! Diarrhoea (sp?) & vomiting can be so much more serious for a little baby so I think its better to err on the side of caution and alert mum/dad if you have any concerns.

2. IMO you can set any rule you like to protect the health of yourself, your family and your other mindees. When I made my list I used nhsdirect.nhs.uk (which doesn't have any info about how long to keep at home!) and the list used by preschool/school to make my rules about each illness. Having a list of conditions and a specific note about each makes it much easier when explaining to parent why you can't have child. Sorry having problems correcting the link on my site to exclusion list but the first part of my sickness policy is here:-

Sickness Policy

Thanks for that, will have a look and think about this.

Anyone else ANY thoughts? Want to share your policy? HELP!

I recently received a poster from local council which I then used to update my existing exclusion policy (a list of diseases/illnesses and the time to be excluded from my setting). The poster is in pdf format here and you can order a free hard copy by emailing the link on the page. The only thing I've spotted is that conjunctivitus is listed as 'none' for exclusion period whereas I have 'until cleared' on mine as don't want everybody getting it! Local school won't let child in with it!

I have a page in my policies folder as follows:-
? I cannot normally care for children who are ill other than with the common cold.

? If a child became ill whilst in my care, I would immediately contact you or the emergency contact as listed on the Child Record Form. If you or the emergency contact were not able to, and I had to take the child to the Doctors or to a hospital, my emergency childminder is xxxxxxx. She would take care of the other minded children at my practice.

? I would inform you immediately of any communicable disease in my family or within a family who use my practise, and would expect you to do the same for an illness in your family. A list of communicable diseases and the minimum exclusion periods is on the next page.

Hope this helps LT! I can email you my exclusion page in Word if that would help too.

That's great, thanks SO much If you could email me at [email protected], that would be FAB! Many thanks

Done!

thanks for the link askabusyperson - I think my list is from 2003 so glad to have a more up to date version.

When I emailed the link given they referred me to 08701 555 455 which is a pia waiting for the explanation of all the options but when you get thru very helpful lady other end & they're sending me a few copies so I can pass them on.