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By
Catherine M. Pruissen
Caring
for a sick child is heart wrenching. Those once active
tykes look at you with puppy dog eyes and pouting
lips. All they want is a hug that'll make everything
better. For children in child care, all they want
to do is go home.
To
make sure your child will be as comfortable as possible
when he/she becomes ill at the daycare centre or home,
talk to your caregiver about her ill-child policy.
Ask her to show you where your child will go if he
is sick or how he will be comforted until you arrive.
Though your child will have to be separated from the
rest of the children, he should never be out of sight
or hearing range of the caregiver.
You'll
also want to know just when you will be notified should
junior develop a fever or lethargically wander around
the family dayhome. Ask the caregiver if she has had
any training in how to recognize the signs of sickness
or if the centre has a pediatrician available to answer
their questions and concerns about any illness. Is
there a chart from the health department they can
refer to?
Find
out what the caregiver will do if your child develops
a fever or becomes dehydrated. If your child begins
vomiting or has a bad case of diarrhea? At what point
is the caregiver prepared to call for emergency help?
Are you comfortable with your caregiver's policies
and sick child knowledge?
Before
you ask your child care provider to administer medication,
even over the counter remedies like Tylenol or Panadol,
be sure the bottle is clearly labeled.
According
to Deborah Kernested, in Administering Medication
to Children (Interaction, Fall 1993), there are "five
rights" to ensuring the safe administration of
medication. These
are:
- the
right child
- the
right medication
- the
right dose (amount)
- the
right time
- the
right route (oral, nasal, rectal, eye, ear or injection).
Kernested,
though talking to caregivers, has some valuable advise
that can be applied to parents as well. Among these:
- be
familiar with your centre's regulation for the administering
of medications
- asking
your physician to prescribe medication that can
be administered at home, rather than at the centre
- filling
out a written permission form (See Business
Forms in our Exclusive
Products section to order ready-to-use Permission
forms.)
- discussing
your child's medication at length with the person
responsible for administering medication
- reviewing
the label and the doctor's orders
- asking
to see the sheet used to record the administering
of medication to be sure your child received the
medication at the prescribed times and at the right
dosage (See Business
Forms in our Exclusive
Products section to order ready-to-use Administering
Medication forms .)
- ensuring
that your child's reactions to the medication (if
any)
are recorded on the record sheet. She also recommends
parents get their physician to put the use of the
medication in writing and that this be given to
the caregiver.
Obviously
the best way to reduce the number of colds and respiratory
infections your child gets is to apply some very basic
hygiene and infection control measures. As always,
take a few minutes to discuss the caregiver's or centre's
hygiene practices with them. Visit the washroom to
make sure that soap and towels, preferably paper,
disposable towels are available, that each child has
a place of his own to store personal items like toothbrushes
and combs, and is assigned her own washcloth.
Good
handwashing practices make a vast difference in the
number of infections that spread through the centre
or home, particularly after diaper changing.
In
addition to good hand washing and diaper changing
practices, Child Care Action Campaign, in their Information
Guide 18, Infectious Diseases and Child Care recommends
that:
- staff
use a paper towel to turn off the facet after
they have washed to avoid contaminating their
clean hands;
- toilet
trained children use flush toilets, and always
wash their hands afterwards;
- tissues
be available for runny noses and be disposed of
at once;
- children
wash their hands immediately after they use them
to wipe their nose or cover coughs;
- tables
are washed and sanitized before meals;
- cribs
and cots are three feet apart; children should
have their own linen; both linen and cots should
be cleaned regularly;
- and
that toys be washed regularly and kept clean.
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