CM Club - Will this make the parents understand - send an ill child and the CM may get ill!

[Booh]

Grrrrrr

I had a child sent to me last week who was clearly quite ill (really heavy cold / ear infection / etc) child was sent home, but didnt go until quite late in the day due to parents working quite a distance away.

And yeap you guessed it, now both myself and my son are quite ill.

So the question is, I could work tomorrow and battle through as always or I could say blow it and cancel...........more so that the parent understands that germs spread!

I am feeling so rough I dont even care about the money.

i had this for the past 3 weeks! grrrrrrr

i would cancel and out the point accross

Umm... Im not a childminder so probably shouldntbe commenting.

One of my rules is - two wrongs dont make a right. And another is to always do my very best to fulfill my working role the best I can every day because my employer is relying on me...

In just over 4 years my childminder has not had one sick day.

Also, I believe that colds and viruses etc are contagious quite a while before the symptoms show so chances are you would have caught this anyway.

Or if not you would have caught it at toddler group etc etc the nature of being a child minder means you will be always picking things up, and so will your little boy. Its a shame but it comes with the territory.

also, it is not always clear first thing in the morning how ill your child is. Its just not feasible to stay at home with them for every little sniffle etc.

That said, i will always keep mine away with a very high temperature. But thats for their own well being not their childminder...sorry!

And of course D or V... for everyones well being!

What foureleven said.

Kids=germs. Wrong job if you don't want a permacold!

(sorry you're feeling so poorly though)

If you genuinely are too ill to care for your mindees then take a day off sick

dont do it to prove a point though

i think im jusdt feeling poorly and mean today :P

Surly you should tell the parent to take their child home if they turn up with a sick child? The best place for that child is at home, you are not a qualified paediatric nurse, it is not your job to care for a sick child.

Problem is that lots of kids have a permanent cold. My daughter had a heavy cold for about 5 weeks last year, if my childminder hadnt been accomodating I would have lost my job!

Even things like ear infections can last a week.. you cant have them home for that long, most kids will just carry on anyway as though they are fine.

You can tell the difference between a child with a cold and a very sick one though.

Sorry if my post sounded a bit harsh Hayleycm, it does sound like you were dumped on by those parents.

There's a difference between kid+cold and kid+cold+temperature etc. One will run around and be mostly fine all day, and the other needs to be at home being cuddled on the sofa (although in both cases, the CM and other kids will end up with a cold as well, sigh). If the CM has to devote too much attention to the ill kid, then its not fair on the other mindees, the poor ill child who needs their mum/dad, or the CM. I imagine its very hard to turn kids away at the door, but I've seen some kids in awful states been left with my CM and really she should have said no to start with. She has a horrific day, and I have a horrific evening trying to pacify my kids who have had no attention all day.

Sorry, rant over. Hope you feel better soon!

i would only keep dd off nursery if she had a high temp which didnt go down with calpol or if she had sickness and/or upset tum. Or if she had chikcen pox or something else which they list in their exclusions policy.

If dd has a cold and needs to just take it easy then I let nursery know and they let her sit quietly if she needs to. If you keep children off everytime they have a cold then you will never go to work.

Just reread your point about the ear infection, were they on antibiotics and do you have a policy on how long they have to be on antibiotics before they can return to you? Normal is 24hours I think.

If you work with children then you risk getting ill, alot. If you employ a childminder you take the risk that they may need time off sick.

In over 15 years of working with children I have had three days off ill, two with D&V and the last day was temp / cold. I never ever really catch anything off them, or off my own children. I know how lucky I am in that respect!

This child had more than a cold, had been ill for three days before, not eaten or slept, and was only taken to the doctor for anti biotics when I sent them home.

I expect I will work as I am probably a mug and it will take me longer to recover. If I ring them and tell them DS is ill, they will still send children.

Well I hope it doesnt take you too long to recover. At least you are in the comfort of your own home, can you have a duvet day with the kids?

Thanks for the well wishes foureleven. No chance of a duvet day with three school runs and two 1y olds, a 20m and an almost 4yo (yes I have a vairation before anyone asks!) Oh and three schoolies!

Doh, sorry, meant to say
"Sorry if my post sounded a bit harsh Booh, it does sound like you were dumped on by those parents"

I'm not often a judgey person, but I do wonder sometimes at the parents who repeatedly send their kids to nursery/CM when they are so ill!

I disagree that being ill goes wth the territory, I found as a CM that I buit up quite a resistance to normal mild illnesses. I dont think anyone here is saying dont send a child with just a cold or a cough, but if a child has an ear infection and a heavy cold, yes they should be at home. If it takes a week to clear up, it takes a week to clear up. It is a parent's responsibility to care for their own ill child, not the childminders. People saying "I cant take a week off because my child is ill...." well, they are YOUR children, so really you need to take responsibility for them when they are ill. LOL at duvet day as a childminder, I would love to see how you would fit in the EYFS and school runs!!
If you really feel rotten, Booh, take the day off. Otherwise all the other kids will get it too, and their parents wont thank you for it! Hpe you feel better soon

Up until November last year I had had three days off in ten years.

Then I came down with swine flu, had to take a week off, then although feeling awful still struggled on for another 4 weeks, never getting any better.

Ended up in hospital with pneumonia and a collapsed lung.

So carrying on is not always the best thing to do.

Saying that, I only exclude children for D&V, or communicable diseases.

As long as a child is capable of doing our day to do our normal activities, then they come in.

Geraldine, school run is 9am and 3pm.. thats 6 hours in my book! if im ill i have to sit in an airconditioned office on the phone for 9 hours!

My childminder only excludes for the d&v or communicable illness thing like Shoshe says. If they have a cold or whatever or if she does theyll pull 4 or 5 duvets in to the lounge, set out a picnic and spend the day watching films and colouring.. Just like we would at home.

Jelly hands, a lot of childminders pick up children at midday from nursery too. They are often at groups in the mornings, i would suggest its unfair to keep the whole group home becaue one of them is sick. Plus, cm are supposed to take children out for outdoor activities daily. IMO, if a child needs to spend that day watching fims and colouring under a duvet, they should do just that, at home. Some childminders will take them when they are ill, some wont. Im not saying one is right and the other isnt, but I think it is fine to refuse a child who cant do the planned activities for that day due to illness. Yes sitting on the phone in an office is hard when youre ill. so is looking after 3 under fives.

I don't see where she school HOURS? She mentioned school RUNS. I work from 7.30am - 6pm, go to school drop off, go to pre-school drop off, go home and do activities/go to toddler group, go back out to pre-school to collect child/ren, come back do lunch, naps for those who need them, back out to big school and come back with the 6 children. If one is really ill and clingy and crying for mummy etc, this is SO hard and I'm sorry but not 'sitting in an office'. It's a 10.5 hour day with constant rushing around. No dig but LOL at duvet day, never in a million years would I be able to have one of those plus other parents wouldn't be too happy about my service not being up to scratch.

I always have children with colds etc but if they have a high temperature etc they go home. I've been more relaxed in the past and it's come back to bite me on the bum, different families have different views. So best I can do is have a general rule then we all know where we stand.

Booh, hope you are better soon

LOL at watching movies with a duvet all day.

I agree if the illness is a combination of high temp and other symptoms then I would send home. I also insist on a emergency contact that is within 15-30mins away max, I find this useful when parents commute.

What really annoys me is when parents ask at collection if they've been ok, cos they spent all night chucking up . This happened the other week and two of my little mindees ended up with tummy bugs . Makes me quite cross.

Sadly, I have found that some parents although I hasten to add only the minority, have been less than truthful when dropping children off and when the one-year old suddenly throws up at 10.00am and his three-year old brother says, "He's been doing that all night", I do feel "put-upon". Generally I follw the HPA guidelines on exclusions and additionally will decline a child if they had a raised temperature for 24+ hours. I have had to resort on one or two occasions to taking the temperature of a child when being dropped off and politely turning the mother away because its temperature was still 101 which had been the previous morning. Coughs and colds are one thing but on their own do not often produce high temperatures. Raised temperatures often indicate some other kind of infection. I am fortunate in that all my current children come from two-parent households so if a parent needs to take time away from work to look after their little one, it can usually be shared between them as opposed to falling all to one parent.

Problem is in childcare, a heavy cold is not enough to cancel on parents (sorry).
It would have to be REALLY bad, sickness or not being able to get out of bed.
Just dose yourself up and take it easy.