Child Sent Home With Temperature

[Bromptotoo]

My 2yo grandson attends nursery 4 days a week when his Mum, my DD, is working.

In the last fortnight he's been sent home three times because Nursery have recorded him as having a temperature. Today it's 37.9. They initially sought, and were given permission to administer Calpol but didn't allow it to kick in before calling again for him to be collected. As a result he can't go in for 24 hours, ie will be home tomorrow. Either his other Grandparents who live nearby will need to be involved or Dad will have to WFH.

On the last two occasions there were no symptoms other than temperature. He was chattering away in the car and DD reports him as his having his normal sunny disposition and playing/interacting normally once he was home.

We think either he runs a bit hot, they're getting too worried about him feeling warm or perhaps their own thermometer is playing up.

I understand Nurseries have to have rules but he's missed 6 days from the last 12.

Any ideas as to how to address the issue?

Is this the first winter at the nursery? It's hellish for a winter or two as their immune system needs to build resistance to every type of bug; no advice except to say it will pass. If the temperatures are written in the nursery policies and the parents agreed them then I doubt there is anything they can do.

Any ideas as to how to address the issue?

First of all I would ask why they are taking his temperature. Surely that's not routine and something must have led to it.

Just because Calpol brings the temperature down doesn't mean he isn't sick! Did he have a fever later in the evening or is it a case of nursery saying he is 37.9 then when he gets home his temperature is lower and he is fine?

We had this with DD, they kept the nursery a lot warmer than she was used to and with all the playing she was flushed and a bit warm. Her temp would go back below normal within a few minutes of us picking her up and without any meds.

We made sure that when dropping her off at nursery we took off coat, jumper, basically anything other than just a tshirt and leggings. They would put the layers back on if she went outside, but it meant she wasn't spending the day in a jumper in 25-28 degree indoor temperature.

Worked immediately and stopped all the pick up calls.

It's barely raised why are they taking his temperature, are they understaffed so need to get rid of some kids?

That's bizarre. I thought the definition of a temperature was 38? I don't think they should be rounding up. He might just have a really long virus though that's making his temperature spike up and down. There was one last year that got our family and DS ended up in and out of nursery for weeks.
Unfortunately, there's nothing she can do to compel a nursery to take a child, but I highly recommend switching to a decent childminder if she can. Fewer germs floating around and less time off for sickness, IME. I wish someone had told us that two or three years ago.

I thought 38 was classed as a fever? Never heard of them being sent home for 37.9.

But we had similar with DD after nap time, because she was often grumpy afterwards! And then she’d apparently have a fever that was gone as soon as we got home… we think because she often sleeps hot, they were providing synthetic fleece blankets and they were using an in ear one on the ear she’d been sleeping on. In the end we agreed that they wouldn’t take it until she’d been up for 10 minutes, they would do both ears and they’d use a second thermometer to confirm if the first showed a fever. Never got another call.

Calpol might or might not bring it down and alleviate other symptoms were they present. We coined the phrase Calpol bounce when DD was Nursery age in the mid nineties.

On this occasion they sought permission to administer but didn't give it time to kick in before demanding he be taken home.

He's got no evident symptoms - kids who are sickening for something are listless, clingy and whiny etc. He's none of those.

Maybe teething?

It's very nursery dependent in my experience. Our old nursery sent her home for a slight cold.
Her current nursery well I wish they would send her home more! I send her in having had a fever in the evening but she was fine in the morning. I drop her off saying don't be afraid to phone me, I'm working from home. I pick her up in the evening. She has had a brilliant day done this and that. Get her home and her temperature is 38.5C again. I had her off the next day.

Both nursery have been really good as not sending my daughter home for loose stools. She has food allergies and loose stools are normal for her and they keep her if it's a normals frequency and consistency for her. A friend had a similar situation and it took 6 months to adjust what they should expect as normal for their child

I’m not sure what you can do as it’s hard to argue that they should stay if nursery are saying their policy is to send home. I had this a lot with my son and like your child he seemed fine and was running about etc. It has happened less as he’s gotten older. I think in the younger room they seemed to be checking temperatures all the time.

This always used to happen with my DS. He does always feel warm even when he hasn't got a temp. This led to them always checking his temperature and as soon as it got over the threshold I would get the call.

Their policy was they can give calpol but the child still needs to be collected so it wasn't a case of waiting for anything to kick in. This nursery sounds the same.

He also had no other symptoms.

In the nursery I work in, we use common sense. If a child has a temperature but is okay in themselves we'll administer calpol or if they're obviously teething and we'll keep them. If they're not great in themselves we'll give caplol time to see if they improve and make a judgement call. If they're above 39°c though then we'll administer calpol and ask parents to collect. We obviously update parents either way. Some children are just hot. We will only give 1 dose of calpol though and there's no 24hr exclusion policy. Some kids would be off for weeks if we sent them home everytime they were 37.9!!!

My kids school did this a few times last year. We'd take the temperature when we got home and it would be normal (and child bouncing around like normal).

If they're fine in themselves I'd point this out and ask them to check their thermometer (because they can be miscalibrated).

It’s not nurseries responsibility to look after a child with a temp. We have to monitor children with a slight temperature every 20 minutes or so due to the policy and to make sure it doesn’t get worryingly high, it’s a nightmare, time consuming and nurseries don’t have the staff. You say he’s not poorly, don’t they all…

I didn't mean to suggest a Nursery should be looking after kids who are obviously ill. The issue is a kid who runs a tad hot but isn't obviously sickening.

Our nursery send home at 38.5 or higher

Some parents are concerned over a 37.9 temperature. You can’t win. Everyone says their child runs hot and they’re fine, next thing they’re temp is 40 and not answering the phone.

If you don’t agree with it, you need to get their policies and see what was agreed to. As 37.9 is not particularly high, I doubt it says they need to be collected in the policies so you could argue it on that front.