PROGRAMS

CHILD'S SKILL DEVELOPMENT

Children, illness and your job

• Develop a plan. Don't wait until your child is sick to figure out how you can handle the situation. Do your homework on what services are available for mildly ill children. Be proactive!
  
  
• Explore your day-care provider's policy regarding ill children. Will they accept a child with a cold? With a fever? You will find that this can vary greatly depending on the type of care provider you have. Commercial day-care centers may not allow any sick children. Others may have separate areas and staff for children who are mildly ill. Someone who cares only for your child in your home may be willing to take care of a child who is sicker, such as a child with chicken pox.
  
  
• Establish other care arrangements. If your provider doesn't care for sick children, find other options. Make a list of sick-child care resources that may be appropriate, either in the area of your home or your work depending on the distance between the two and whether it is important for you to visit and check on your sick child during the day.
  
  
• Don't forget family, friends, and other familiar caregivers as possible resources. Just be sure to ask them if they would be willing to care for a sick child if needed. Don't wait for your child to feel sick and for them to feel obligated.
  
  
• Some communities have day-care centers just for sick children, where care is provided by registered nurses and nursing aides. These may be difficult to find, but usually are worth the slight extra cost. Your child will be examined by a nurse upon admission and cared for appropriately. Your company may even pay for this service as a benefit.
  
  
• For in-home providers, create a list of care providers from places such as nearby nursing schools. Nursing students can be good "on call" sources of day care for a sick child. Check babysitting services for referrals of sitters who will come to your home if your day-care center will not accept a sick child. The care is one-on-one in an environment familiar to your child. Many services will check references and interview sitters for you. Drawbacks to this type of alternative may be that different providers may be referred each time and there may be a shortage of reliable staff available.
  
  
• Nurse registries also provide referrals to trained professionals who can care for your child in your home. These may be nurses or nurse's aides depending on your child's requirements. Since these are trained medical personnel, they are appropriate for more acutely ill children. Although the availability and flexibility of these services are usually good, they are an expensive alternative. Again, different caregivers may be referred each time.
  
  If you select an option unfamiliar to you, visit the site and interview the staff before your child is sick. Pre-register if needed.
  
  How sick is your child? Do a quick assessment. Check for fever, stomach cramps, diarrhea, sore throat, and other symptoms. If children can tell you they are sick and are not obviously in distress, it often is a good idea to get them up and moving around to see how they are feeling. Children who frequently complain that they don't feel well should be seen by a doctor for follow-up.
  
  
• Don't forget prevention. By immunizing your child, you can protect him or her from diseases such as diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, measles, German measles, chicken pox, hepatitis B, meningitis caused by Hemophilus, and mumps. For full resistance to these diseases, be sure to have your child get the full series of immunizations and their boosters
  
  Common childhood illnesses such as colds and roseola are contagious and spread throughout groups of children in child-care settings. Make sure your care provider tells you immediately if your child has been exposed to illnesses within the group.
  
  
• Frequent hand washing is a good way to prevent the spread of disease in a child-care setting. Be sure caregivers wash their hands thoroughly after handling food, changing a diaper or helping a child use the toilet, or coming in contact with a sick child.
  
  
• In group situations, children who are ill should recover fully before they are allowed to come back to the group. This may sound inconvenient to you if the sick child is yours, but children with symptoms of illness in group care can become more seriously ill, contract a new illness more easily because their resistance is down, or stay sick longer. If your child can fully recover before returning to the company of the other children, he or she has a greater ability to combat new germs because his or her resistance has been restored.