Sending your child to daycare. How?
Im posting here as Im after a parents of allergy kids point of view rather than a child care point of view.
Recently DS was exposed to one of his allergens again while in day care. It has been handled rather... clumsily by the centre and as a result of many attributing factors we are now without care. The issue is, eventually we will need to find care again as I need to work. And while my family and friends are absolute gems and picking up the pieces for me, it is not a permanent solution to our problem. So back to care we will go once we can find a place.
Previously we have found that because FDC can chose whom they take on, as soon as they discover DS has a rather large list of allergies/intolerances (it could just be a coincidence...a lot... :rolleyes: ) They can no longer take him. Plus none of the carers we talk to are very experienced with dealing with allergies in this amount. The severity is not the issue (I dont believe) just the amount of them. Exposure is not a fatal event (we havent tested all of them in real life though so I guess that is still on the cards =/ ) but exposure to the wrong thing, will cause significant pain and distress, plus set us weeks if not months back with our toileting progress (exposure causes DS to have chronic constipation to the point he is still medicated as it took many unfortunate years to discover this was our issue).
So that really leads us back to centre based care. Now my issue being that after our experience leading to termination of enrollment this time, I feel absolutely scared silly at sending DS back into a centre environment again. He was meant to be protected last time - and wasnt. And while I am happy to provide his own food each day I feel like I am setting him up to be further the odd kid. If that makes sense? Not to mention a lot of centres will not allow us to bring in food from the outside even though DS is a low risk of bringing in cross contamination (though I do understand why they have this policy). How do you do it? How do you trust someone with your child when someone else has already made such a huge error before them? Honestly if I could, he wouldnt go back. But that isnt an option.