My daughter is constantly staying home from daycare and I swear the daycare is making stuff up to keep her home. Advice?

Question

I don't even know where to begin. My daughter started daycare 6 months ago. In that time, she's had 42 days off. She's been sent home with a fever (but she didn't have a fever when we got home). So she's off the day she had a "fever" and the day after. She gets sent home all the time for diarrhea. This kid has never had diarrhea except at daycare. Any time she gets sent home because of diarrhea, she never has it again at home.
She gets sent home for a cough, runny nose, or "not looking well" all the time. Again, 42 days since the start of September. She has been legitimately sick three times, so even if each time it was 5 days, that would only be 15 days out of those 42!
I just feel like the daycare keeps making stuff up to send her home. There's no way she has a fever of 38.5C and then when I pick her up within 40 minutes, she's 36.7C and the fever is gone and doesn't ever come back. There's no way she only has diarrhea at daycare.
Does this sound suspicious or am I overreacting?

Answer

If you don’t trust them to be honest about your daughter’s wellbeing, look for somewhere else for her to go

Answer

I understand it’s stressful having baby sent home all the time, but they cannot have the baby there with a fever and then you can’t bring her back until a certain amount of hours after she’s had one for the safety of everyone else. I believe most places after 2 diarrhea diapers they send them home. Have you looked into what they are feeding her? Maybe her tummy cant handle too much dairy, or citrus fruit, etc? I used to be a preschool teacher and it’s not uncommon for this to happen and then the parents do an allergy test and realize it’s the food. Then baby can have a different menu and no more issues. If not you can definitely try out another school and hopefully there’s no issues.

Answer

Definitely look at enrolling in a different daycare! If it happens there to, it's due to the below: I used to work in a daycare when I was younger. We had protocols we had to follow in order to protect the other children and staff from getting sick. Any temp above 38°C, the child had to be sent home. Any runny bow movement had to be documented and the child sent home. Even excessive runny noses that produced green mucus, the child had to be sent home. All children go through a transitional period where their little immune systems attempt to adapt to the new (germ filled) environment. They are typically the sickest in their first year of care. Especially the children who have had less exposure to germs. It was normal to document a high temp, call home and then the temp goes down before mum or dad rock up. At that point the child still needs to go home unfortunately.. even.if they make a complete turnaround. The runny bowel movements could be due to stress. Plenty of children find it stressful being away from home for so long at the beginning. Having said that, the childcare centre should have made you aware of this. Speak to management. They make the rules and sign off on any phone calls home. The workers themselves are just following protocol. They don't want to have less children in the centre. They get paid by the hour not the day. If enough children go home, so do they. The workers don't want that, they want to get paid. Look into a different centre if management is unwilling to answer your questions and provide you with some proof of the high temps. Good luck!!

Answer

Have you tried talking with management about this? Maybe start documenting when she is sent home. It sounds excessive.

Answer

42 days is a lot in 6 months. Have you talked to them about it?  Or any other parents? Your daughter is averaging 7 sick days every month at this rate. Is there any pattern to it? Is the daycare a home daycare or more of an institution?
42 days is a lot. Essentially that's a week and a half every month.

Answer

That’s a lot. My two kids have been in care/school for 7 and 3 years each. The older has been sent home 4 times in 7 years the younger 1 time in 3 years. I definitely keep them home on my own for any kind of illness so that’s probably why it’s not as high, but 42 times in 6 months seems WILD.

Answer

It's time to find a new daycare. That is ridiculous!

My daughter is constantly staying home from daycare and I swear the daycare is making stuff up to keep her home. Advice?

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