Conjunctivitis and nursery policy

[Cranb0rne]

I am so sick and tired of our nursery's policy for conjunctivitis. It is making our lives a misery. My sons regularly catch it at nursery and we are supposed to get the chloramphenicol eye drops on prescription before they are allowed back. However the doctors are becoming increasingly reluctant to prescribe it and increasingly peed off at having their time wasted by it. There is no evidence that the drops are actually effective and overuse is increasing antibiotic resistance. My son caught it yet again over the weekend and I spent the whole of Saturday trying to get an appointment with the out of hours doctors, then practically had to beg him to prescribe the drops. Then I get a phone call today from nursery telling me to make yet another doctors appointment as my son's eyes are still swollen and weepy. I call the doctor and get a call back from a GP who then had a go at me for wasting his time. I am so sick and tired of it now. Does anyone else's nursery have a different policy? Also, Public Health England recommend that kids can just go to school/nursery without being treated.

Our nursery is different- DS has only been there a month but caught conjunctivitis. They recommended for me to speak to a pharmacist to check it was definitely viral and not bacterial, but were happy for him to go in despite the gunky eyes. It was vital and cleared up on its own after a few days.

Viral not viral!

It's good to hear some nurseries are not out of date. I actually think if we catch it again the GP will refuse to see us, he was that rude to me.

Have you tried giving them a copy of the public health advice?

That's awful. When I asked the nursery manager she looked it up on the computer (it's quite a new nursery) so may well have been looking at the public health advice. It might be worth showing them as *weasel says

I will download it tomorrow and print it for them.

My nursery is the same as tinytoucan, they're happy for them to go in with it. DD had it about three times in her first couple of months but hasn't had it since.

I use a document called Guidance and Infection Control in Schools and Other Childcare settings when asking parents to pick children up or if they ask our opinion on what to do(school office lady) it's published by Public Health England. It has a useful table at the front with all the common illnesses and saying what to do. Anyway it's says 'none' for recommended time away from school for conjunctivitis. Obviously if a child is feeling ill and distressed by it parents would want to keep them off, but there is no need for the eye drop ruling. Can you print off this document for them and ask them to review their policy.

Our nursery will allow DS back in 24 hours after eyedrops are administered, or once the discharge had cleared up..

Your GP is being really unprofessional. They should understand it's easy for kids to catch these things!

Pharmacies will dispense the drops without a prescription.

Ours says they can come in if it's been "treated". DS got it for the first time a couple of weeks ago. GP said it was viral so only "treatment" is washing it out and nursery were fine with that. GP also said it was like a cold, they all get it and if we kept them at home for a cold nurseries would all be empty every day!

Pharmacies won't give the drops to under 2s and the nursery insist they are prescribed rather than otc. It's massively frustrating.

Next time we need to see the doctor I will be requesting that we don't see that particular one again.

Could the doctors not be getting shirty because its not really a case for an emergency appointment? Probably could wait till the monday morning. I understand its difficult for working parents but its not an emergency to be fair. There is no legal exclusion for conjunctivitis but this is obv your nurseries policy. Have a look around at other nurseries or childminders or be quite persuasive with nursery to look into adjusting their policies perhaps? Is there a grandparent that could take your little one to the docs? Or a walk in centre as opposed to an ooh gp.

Our nursery requires treatment too (they don't specify treatment type), GP was super polite to me but wrote them a snotty letter basically saying the conjunctivitis required no actual treatment and stop wasting his time.

Fortunately DS had his next bout around Christmas when I was on leave. I really didn't want to take him back to the doctor after that so I feel for you.

Yep I know it's not an emergency and I am shamefully clogging up GP surgery with a mild eye infection but I pay a lot for childcare and get into trouble at work. I can't afford to lose my job. Unfortunately they have me stuck between a rock and a hard place. I will definitely be taking the guidance into the nursery and asking them to take it into consideration.

We had exactly the same at our nursery. The GP had said no treatment necessary and just wipe every couple of hours with sterile water. This was ok while she was in my/my parents' care but once my dd went back to nursery her eyes became quite gunky (I'm not sure they were wiping them regularly) and I was called from work to collect her and told she couldn't come back until she had the drops. Our GP was extremely accommodating and prescribed them in the end but very cross with the nursery.

IMO it is irresponsible to use antibiotics for conjunctivitis, its is virtually always viral and so they are both ineffective and overuse is causing serious issues. Our nursery have never had an issue with conjunctivitis.
Take the health guidelines in and ask them to reconsider their policy on this which is out of date.

Our Dr once threatened to call nursery over this. I don't know whether they ever did but they certainly stopped ignoring the official advice and allowed kids in with conjunctivitis.