Gastro in child care centres

[ladybird11]

I am new to this thread, but I really need to vent.

When I looked into childcare for DD (only 10 mths) I thought I had all bases covered, and had asked every question available to the director prior to putting DD in their care. She is my precious lil prem baby still (born two months early).

FYI - DD only attends childcare one out of three weeks due to my and DP's roster.

So this Monday & Tuesday she goes into care, I feed her this morning and DD vomits her food up. So I stopped feeding her and let her have a little play which she was quite happy with. On the way to work, not even 400 mtrs from home and she's sick all over herself and the car seat.

I do a u-turn, go home and ring child care and tell them whats happened - when I am THEN informed 'oh, that gastro bug is still going around - 4 kids were off with it yesterday''. I tell the lady 'no one ever told either myself or DP gastro was going around, otherwise we would have made alternative arrangements'. And the last time DD was at the centre she was vomitting at home then too, so I'll assume she had gastro then too. The lady then tells me 'oh, yeah well it has been around for about three weeks or so now'.

The whole reason why there are little pockets for each kid on the wall is to put newsletters in them, letting parents know whats going on within the centre. I think gastro is something that parents ought to know about.

Any thoughts?? Does anyone elses child care facility have a process in place to alert parents of illnesses going around?

P.S - sorry girlz, i don't always complain like this, but this has mean't I'm now off from work on child care days, and as I've only been back at work for 2 mths i feel bad.

[Arimeh]

All our childcares (we use three between both kids) put a notice on the front doors - or the door to the baby room. So you may not have noticed it posted there if they had put it up, sometimes it can be hard to see from all the other papers posted up on the doors.

I think illness is pretty common with all the kids - soon enough they develop an immunity to most things going around - but yeah, a couple of days off a month isn't uncommon!!!!!!

DS rarely gets sick anymore (he has been going since he was 10 months) and DD hasn't got anything - yet - I'm still waiting!!!!

[ladybird11]

Yeah, definately no posters on any doors about it.

At this rate DD will build up a immunity in not time! Which will be in her best interests I guess..

[Nai]

All centres I have seen have a big on the door of each room that says:

(insert number here) cases of (insert illness here) reported in this room in the last (insert number here) weeks.

Maybe suggest that your centre does something similar so that parents know if gastro/flu/hand,foot& mouth/conjunctivitis etc is going around so that they can be aware of it and maybe NOT send thier kids to childcare if they look like they have symptoms.

[queenbee]

how annoying for you my DD hasn't had gastro yet (bet i jinx myself now). went to mums group however last fortnight and someone had mentioned a baby had been sick. of course if i had known that i wouldn't have gone. so then DD got her first cold the next day after mums group and it was completely awful that following week. DD had to go onto antibiotics as she then got an ear infection. i was so annoyed someone decided to take their bub that had been ill. then again, i'm sure she would have picked it up at some stage, even just going out to the shops or something.

[SamiH]

The centre my kids have been going part-time to for nearly 5 years - they always put a note on the door to that particular room eg babies, junior toddlers, pre-schoolers etc - saying - 2 x conjunctivitis - and then the date - they also do it foot & mouth, chicken pox etc but I have to say I don't recall gastro notice.

IMO gastro is hard to put parents on notice for cos sometimes the carers dont know either if the kids have had it on non-childcare days and the parents haven't mentioned it to them on their return etc. And not all vomiting episodes are gastro.

In your case if your daughter vomited and then played happily etc, it may not be gastro at all - gastro includes pains etc, so it might just be another bug she picked up, or something she ate that didn't agree with her for whatever reason.

Usually too if there is an outbreak as such it goes around the suburb! My theory is cos kids who get is say at school, might have younger siblings in childcare and vice versa which is passed on.

You probably should check the centre's policy on vomiting too - usually centres say children should be excluded until they haven't vomited for 12 hours etc.

Hope it is nothing serious and she feels better soon.

Sam

[Pandora]

our centre has it on the front door, along witht he guidelines for treatment and/or exclusion requirements.

DS got everything going for about the first 12 months in creche, now he is rarely sick.

[MantaRay]

Our centre puts a big sign up in the entrance foyer as well as a note taped to the counter where you sign the kids in (so you can't miss it)! I would expect that to part of the accreditation criteria, so your centre really should improve their processes in that area. I would suggest it to the director.

I hope your lo is better soon.

[Astrid]

If the cases of gastro do become too much then the health department should be looking into the centre. At DD1's last centre in Melbourne, gastro just seemed never ending. DD got it so many times. I am all for kids building an immunity, so I am normally not fussed about illnesses, but at one stage DH had major bowel surgery, a bout of gastro could have killed him. At that time I really needed to know about outbreaks and it was the one time the whole centre was so sick that normal protocol was not done. No signs were put up, DD1 went as per normal and came home very ill. DHS finally stepped in and wanted it recorded who had gastro. Samples were also taken from all surfaces and even from poo of children presenting with it. At our current centre, the number of illness signs are way less than the old centre and DD1 rarely gets ill now.

If it is continual, rather than occasional, then I would say something. It either means a lapse in procedure in the centre or a family is not being as responsible as they should. Saying that though it is often hard to pick illness in kids, they can be fine in the morning and ill when they wake up from their nap.

[Isadora]

Yep our center puts up a sign on the door and a note in the child's bag as well. Mind you I once had a very sick bubby, who was quite young at the time, and I tried to wait it out a couple of days before going to the doctor. Well turns out the poor thing had bronchiolitis, and when I called daycare to inform them they said "oh by the way its going around the center". Well thanks for letting us know!!! So I feel your frustration. Also I must second what many have already said, DD used to catch everything under the sun and is now starting to not come home sick every week. Hang in there, its tough for a while but you get through it.

[luna moth]

All centres I have seen have a big on the door of each room that says:

(insert number here) cases of (insert illness here) reported in this room in the last (insert number here) weeks.

Maybe suggest that your centre does something similar so that parents know if gastro/flu/hand,foot& mouth/conjunctivitis etc

Actually, they HAVE to do this. It's part of the NHMRC guidelines. They also have to have a folder where every reported case is documented, even if the child isn't at the centre while they have it.
If you want to be sneaky, phone the relevant State Department and report it anonymously. This will lead to a general spot check of the Centre (I promise that they can't possibly know it's you, spot checks happen all the time anyway) and they will get put on notice for it. They'll have to fix it - but won't get shut down or anything, there's enough of that happening around the place!

Good Luck and give 'em heaps!

[ladybird11]

Thanks ladies, thinking I was blind - I went to the centre and looked for a sign informing me of illnesses going around the centre - I couldn't find anything...

DD seemed better yesterday so I took her to the centre for the day - she wasn't sick, but only drank bottles. Last night we bought her home and she had part of a bottle and was sick all over DP. Then this morning I gave her part of a bottle, she was a little sick, but had diareaha (sic?) - and was sick again after that...so needless to say - it's another child carers leave day for me today...(should I thank DD for the long weekend?? )

So far she's had part of a bottle and hasn't been ill.

Thanks for the advice and well wishes in relation to DD - I may make an anon phone call about the lack of signage perhaps.