advise please

[TRACEY1969]

i look after a baby who was 10 weeks prem and has some disabilites he has just recently come out of hospital and when i started having him 6 weeks ago i advised all parents if there child is ill on the days i have this mindee please could you keep them at home as mindees amune system is very low. I had a call from one parent saying she is keep her mindee off due to a bad head cold, she text me the next day saying the nursery are having him even though hes not 100% because all the class have it as well and can i pick him up from nursery because she knows i havent got the other mindee. I wasnt pleased with this as my family havent had this yet and she said she would have the following day off due to the other mindee coming. She has just text me saying can i have him when the other mindee comes as well even though hes not 100% well but the nursery are having him. I said i would pick him up today and see how he is but if hes not 100% well what can i do about tomorrow when i have the other baby hes only 11 months old.

[Mouse]

If the baby mindee wasn't with you, would you normally accept a child with a cold into your setting, or do they always have to be 100% fit to attend?

A cold isn't really grounds to exclude a child (nursery obvioulsy don't), so I do think it is unfair on your other parents to expect them to keep their child away from the setting when really they are well enough to attend. I know you are doing it to protect the baby, but as a parent I would not be happy to have to keep my child away every time they had a sniffle. My mindees have had coughs, colds & sniffles for weeks. No way would parents have happily kept them away for all that time.

Have you discussed this with the baby's parents? Have they asked that you exclude all other mindees who aren't 100% fit? Are they willing to keep their child away if others have colds? It doesn't seem fair that existing mindees are asked to stay away in favour of a new mindee. I am not unsympathetic, but I do wonder if you've got your priorities wrong. In trying to protect a vunerable child you are excluding children who would normally be able to attend. I would say that if the baby couldn't fit into a setting where he is going to come into contact with coughs & colds, then maybe a childminding setting isn't right for him.

[TRACEY1969]

ok i know what you mean but i only said the short version of whats happening. the mindee with the cold is now assmatic and on an inhaler and mum has said dont let him run arround incase he has an attack like last week. Mom did book Thurs off with me a couple of weeks ago due to having floating hrs left so thats why i had the baby tomorrow. i have never used an inhaler before she has wrote a letter to the nursery for me to collect regarding what to do if an attacted occurs.

I do exclude mindees if there nose is green and coughing alot.