When your child is sick?

[Mari]

If your own child is sick with a contageous illness, and you inform the parent of mindee children and a parent still wants to bring their child and risk catching the illness to, then is it ok? Where does the childminder stand on this?

[chewy sweets]

i was always under the impression that if there was something contageous you had to close. But i may be wrong!

[Pipsqueak]

i would say that its up to the parent. Something like D&V yes I would totally close but if its chicken pox then if the parent wants to send and your child is 'well enough' to cope with you caring for other children then fine BUT i think I would make it clear to the parent that if their child goes down with it and they have time off you will still be charging and perhaps cannot have them back in your setting - especially if you have other children in your setting who have not (and parents do not want them to be) exposed to the illness IYSWIM

Difficult one

[tashaleee]

I would do exactly the same as pipsqueak

[Zoomie]

i would say that its up to the parent. Something like D&V yes I would totally close but if its chicken pox then if the parent wants to send and your child is 'well enough' to cope with you caring for other children then fine BUT i think I would make it clear to the parent that if their child goes down with it and they have time off you will still be charging and perhaps cannot have them back in your setting - especially if you have other children in your setting who have not (and parents do not want them to be) exposed to the illness IYSWIM

Difficult one

I think I would do this too. Difficult communicating it to parents effectively though.

[TheBTeam]

I would offer parents the choice of whether to leave their child, I am fortunate in that my children are now 7 and 10 and so a little easier to segregate and I work with dh, so we have two pairs of hands to deal with stuff, so if the parents want to take a risk of infection (and I have never had one yet say no, even with potential swine flu a couple of weeks ago!), then i let their children come.

I was sick one morning (when I worked on my own) at 7.25am, came down to answer door to first mindee at 7.30, explained i had just been sick, not even sure how i felt as i literally had just had it happen, mum did not bat an eyelid, just said 'oh well got no where else for him to go' and left! I called to her back as the car door shut, 'Shall I let you know if it happens again, or is serious!' she never heard me. 10 minutes later next mindee arrived and virtually the same thing happened!!

I think unless you can not cope with other peoples children in addition to your own then a lot of parents dont mind what your kids have!!

[Mari]

Well, it happened when my son had chicken pox and today my daughter had a sickness bug, the mindee parent said that they don't have alternative childcare so I got her to sign my diary stating that she had been informed of a sickness bug within the setting but still decided to leave mindee. She was ok with it.

I'd have rather have closed altogether, although my daughter just slept most of the time anyhow, she didn't mind. I hope the mindee child doesn't get it, I will feel guilty, and as PP said, it is difficult to make them see that if he gets it then I won't be able to have him as I have a duty to the other children. Fingers crossed for a well mindee.!

[sarah707]

I hope they both feel better soon Mari! xx