How Sick is Too Sick to Send Your Child to Child Care?

Whether the child care centre is in Kwinana or anywhere in the Perth area, it is a fact of life that he or she will occasionally get sick. They are around other children and are sharing things such as toys. Since children’s immune systems are still building, they tend to get sick faster than adults do.

It’s nearly impossible to keep your child from getting sick, but there are some precautions you can take to make them sick less often and less severely.

How Sick is Too Sick?

There will be some cases in which it’s OK to send your child to school while they are sick. If your child has a mild condition such as a cold or “sniffles,” they can attend child care without hurting themselves or the other children.

Each child care provider has different policies on what constitutes “too sick” to attend child care. For example, some facilities will say, “If your child has green or yellow mucous, they cannot attend child care that day.” At any rate, it is crucial to know your provider’s policies.

It is a good idea to have an emergency or contingency plan for if your child is too sick. Make sure you know your provider’s policy and don’t try to make them change it. Remember that it is their responsibility to keep the other children healthy just like it is to keep your child healthy.

If your child was sick the night before but isn’t displaying any symptoms in the morning, let your child care provider know so they can react correctly to any change in symptoms during the day.

The Three Questions

There are three questions that can usually help you make the decision whether or not to take your child to child care. Here they are:

• Does my child feel good enough to participate in activities for the day?
• Will my child make other children sick?
• Will my child keep carers from doing their job for other children?

To learn more, call your nearest Cuddles Childcare Centre today.