Toys in the waiting room

[Bapi]

Hello
I am a GP in the North West, we get mixed opinions on toys in the waiting room, some parents say they are a health hazard, some think they are a must. We havent got the capacity to sterilise them every day / minute etc.
I am seeking views really

Thanks

I sell kids books, and I'm considering donating/heavily discounting (so I'm not making anything, iyswim) some kids books to my local waiting rooms. I won't bother if they would be seen as a risk though.

Kickarse- all kids at toddler groups will be carrying germs of some description and the toys at a lot of groups are out more than once a week. What about equipment at a soft play or a school? They are no worse than toys at a GP's surgery. It is precious and PFB and is the result of clever and manipulative marketing by companies that manufacture cleaning products. Take Dettol and their new hands free soap dispenser for example. WTF is that all about?.

i think YES to toys in waiting rooms

i don't think they need sterilising. my children al seem to quite like eating the floor anyway, so i really don't think a few toys will harm them

as long as you take away the broken ones!!!!

books are good too, surgeries round here get them from the library, so they're always being rotated which is nice

So first of all - try to keep to schedule so there are not small people sitting in the waiting room for a long time.

Secondly, I remember when swine flu hit and the toys all vanished. Did the incidence of illness among children go down - no of course not - despite the fact that less children were going to the surgery because they were all sat at home being scared silly!!!

Yes toys get mucky. So what, wash them monthly.

The kids sitting on the chair the sick kid has sneezed on are just as likely to pick up their colds. For the majority of kids, a cold is not that serious. Frankly, the amount of kids with real problems in any GP surgery is low compared to those visitors with coughs, colds and rashes. I'm sure you've seen enough FLKs with snot trails to confirm this is the case.

So keep the toys. They are brilliant for building up immunity. If you can't stomach them, get a plastic mirror and plonk it at low height, with a blackboard and chalks next door. Quick to wipe over every day, very low risk and keeps small people occupied.

give them each a rubik cube whatever the age then get them back at the end and give marks out of 10

We had toys in our surgery but they got pinched so we stopped replacing them.

We have a bead table that can be wiped with Clinell wipes, and books that can be wiped clean, but we don't have anything soft.

If parents bring their children to the surgery I think it's best if they bring their own toys and books where possible.

We can't have a TV for DVDs as we would have to buy an entertainments licence apparently!

My ds's really liked the tpy boxes at my G.P and they always looked very clean.

Oh and we have to follow Infection Control protocols sent down from on high the PCT and they stipulate nothing in the waiting room that can't be cleaned daily with the appropriate cleansing agent! So no soft toys and no small chewable toys.

TBMOM, Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, However, I would like to point out...

You have 1 child (pfb?)

I have 4

The playgroups I go to ( 3 each week) are in village halls and run once a week.

I also used to work for a charity which supported people who had been infected with MRSA. I was given on occasion special sicky swabs to swab all sorts of things and places and I have seen the results myself

The toys in a gps surgery are much worse. Sorry but I've seen the results myself.

Yes, personally I agree with you about the new hand soap that you don't need to touch, it is a stage unnecesary in the hygene stakes, I can see a lot of other uses for the dispenser tho for children with SN, and old folks who have weak hands.

Lastly yes you are right that cleaning product companies make a fortune out of us because we feel the need to antibac everything and it is quite possible to be too clean....... On the other hand 50 years ago when we didn't take these measures the number of children who made it to the age of 5 was much lower. Yes there were other factors, environmental, financial, social etc, but believe me antibacing has made a difference.

Its very easy to say don't be so PFB.

So i know where you are coming from.

Its very difficult to look at a child in the HDU and wonder if they will make it to their birthday.

I've done both in the past.

If toys are going to be made available to sick children to share then they need to be cleaned regularly, because if they aren't sooner or later a vulnerable child will come into contact with an infection with could have catastrophic results.

But the worst place for you when you are sick is the GP surgery - at least in hospital they sort the really sick infectious people from those with physical injuries!!! You are just as likely to be infected on the bus to the surgery as in the surgery IMHO.

I was a PFB with my first and not so much with the second. Between the two they've both had equal measure colds etc. It would be good actually to get the 'your baby will get between 10 and 20 colds in their first year' factoid printed on the discharge papers from the hospital. It's normal to get sick. I don't know why people get so het up about it.

If I knew my child was immuno compromised or had health issues, I'd be more careful about where I let him or her play. Seems a bit daft to me to say 'some very sick person might play with that'. The other side of it is 'those bored children waiting might infect that old dear with COPD over there - she might die!'

wmmc, as I recently said on another thread, its all about consideration isn't it? Most people don't consider the implications. Bored or not they could still infect her.

There are frequent threads on here about "dashing to sainsburys with my chicken pox child" I couldn't do that, I'm too considerate of other peoples health. Your health is all that matters in the end.

The 1st known use of biological warfare (afaik) was smallpox infected blankets being given to Native Americans. It had the desired effect

Things do pass from person to person by contact. These things do happen.

I wonder if surgeries would be so willing to leave dirty toys out if we had such an extreme suing culture as the US ?

It's broken toys that annoy me the most. Drs, toddlers... Why? Last time I was at Drs for Erins last jags, I did ask if they'd like some toys and they did say a couple of toys would be great. Need to remember to take them along.

Our dentist has tooth shaped stools for the kids to sit on

isn't the new toy story film based on these sorts of toys?

toys and books should be available in the waiting room and in the doctor's room. so what if they're a little grubby? maybe put one of those hand sanitizers on the wall nearby for the first time parents.

Our surgery has books. toys would be great. I do bring my own toys but kids more fascinated with what they can find in the waiting room. If you don't want your kids to play with the toys then don't let them, or carry anti-bac wipes around with you.....

Definitely no to TV in the waiting room.

Yes to easily sterilisable toys, a couple of Duplo blocks, stacking cups. Cheap colouring in books that can regularly be replaced could be nice for older children.

No to soft toys (why oh why does anyone think this is a good idea in a public place??), books that tear easily or anything loud.

OP, thanks for asking. You sound very considerate.

So that's why the soft toys have disappeared from local surgery .

Please keep the toys, soft toys included. Would be a nightmare to take DC to doctor's surgery without. Plastic toys can get drooled over, too, I can't see how soft toys are any more unhygenic -- they're all plastic fibres anyway (polyester and acrylic) that not many germs can breed on.

We used to have toy and books in our surgery, but when the swine flu was at it' height, they were all removed and have not been replaced since.
We have a lot of elderly patients at our surgery and although there were notices up asking patients to put the toys/books back, many didn't.

Kickarse- yes, of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion and also to disagree with others which is what this thread is about. It divides opinion.

I have only one child of my own yes but I am also a childminder so look after several others and have done for a several years so I am more than qualified to comment on what poses a threat to a childs health and what does not.

I have also worked in hospitals and surgeries as a nurse and I am aware of risks to sick children so I do know what I am talking about and the risk with toys in a GP's surgery is minimal.

The way the US has gone with sueing is ridiculous and extreme, as you have said yourself. You see, this is the danger. Parents are too scared to let children just be children.

TBMOM, Have you actually caried out a study into the bacteria levels on toys or is your evidence circumstantial? Many nurses and doctors were shocked by the bacteria levels in places in the hospitals where they would not have expected them to be so high. It resulted in a massive cleaning spate in several hospitals.

I'm not scared to let my children be children, but I am aware from my work of risks that others who have not carried out such investigations dismiss as negligible. I am not precious with my children, they run, swim, jump fall over, and have a fabulous childhood,so please don't label me as "pfb"ish. I do however have a healthy respect for bacteria. With good reason.

AFAIK the bacteria implicated in priming a child's immune system and reducing the risk of allergies are mycobacteria, found in soil. I'm not sure there is any benefit in letting your DCs have yet another round of norovirus, rotavirus or rhinovirus, let alone staphylococcus or streptococcus infections.

Just a lot of work for parents, as the latest infection does its rounds through the family.

Exactly Butterbur.

When you have HAD a dangerous infection which came from a hospital setting, you don't take these things for granted so much.

Some parents want toys provided because their kids will be noisy without.

Some parents want the toys NOYT to be there because THEIR kids will be noisy through wanting them and the adult saying no

The first lot can solve the problem by bringing their own activities. The second lot have to stuff it.

I am intrigued, partly because every hospital childrens' ward I have been on has a playroom full of toys. Does GOS have toys? If hospitals have them it seems overkill for GPs not to surely?

What I should add though:

We saw an excellent (very, very highly regarded and seen as an expert on the subject) asthma and allergy specialist (paediatric) a couple of weeks ago, and his rooms had the biggest selection of toys and books I've ever seen in a public space. Ds had a royal time whilst we waited for the appointment.

I guess if it is ok for children with breathing problems, it can't be too bad for your average child. Obviously immune repressed situations are different.

Yes to certain toys. We have (in our large waiting room) a rocking horse, couple of plastic see-saws and a wendy house. They are great - keep the children occupied, but not small toys that are put in their mouths.