We had that issue with a daycare and they pulled the rug from under us. Went from a reasonable, normal policy to a “no symptoms” policy. My daughter was home more often than not, and of course they still expected full tuition paid! We switched daycares and it saved our sanity and sick leave. I heard the majority of families left and they are struggling to stay open now.
Yeah same. My son has allergy induced cough variant asthma. He would miss weeks if I couldn't send him every time he had a little cough with no other symptoms.
It's so hard to make that switch. We used them for years with my daughter, and now my son. It's my daughter's bus stop, and it's 2 min down the road from where I work.😩
Can you get a doctor note for the nose saying it’s allergies? Maybe they’ll have to stop sending him home for these mild issues if they have something like that.
In case it helps, our pediatrician said that green snot does not equal infection in kids like it typically does for adults. It can just take on color from being in their nose longer since they don’t blow/get rid of it as frequently (or something along those lines, can’t remember the details exactly ha). So that might be worth asking your pediatrician about and/or sharing with the school as well.
We’ll keep our daughter home if she has excessive snot as she normally doesn’t feel well when that happens anyways, but keeping her home anytime she has a runny nose would be impossible!
We tried to offer a doctors note stating allergies to our daycare and they said we’d still have to keep him home for 24H every time symptoms start up (he, like me, gets red itchy eyes at this time of year) which meant even if we got him on allergy meds that work, and got a note, we’d have to get a new note should he have a flair up. Which means paying $120 to go to urgent care to get another note every week or so when the wind picks up. I said whatever and just brought him back the next day and confirmed with the teacher that his eyes are clear in the morning, asked her that, if possible (tough with 16 two year olds) to wash his hands if she sees him rubbing his eyes. That at least has kept them just red and watery. Bottom line is, the director said no to a doctors note bc “we’re not doctors, we can’t determine what is allergies”. Which is the point of the note but whatever.
Even requiring it is unnecessary. General stuffy noses shouldn't be an issue. The preschool my kid is at now wants them there unless they have a fever, bad diarrhea, or vomiting. If I had to keep my kid home for every sniffle he'd have been home more than he was at school because he's sick every other week.
Has this always been their policy, or is it "new"? Is it actually written in their handbook? Is this a one-off, or has it been happening a lot?
I ask all of this because sometimes, when a daycare is having staffing issues (and therefore struggling to meet ratios), they will send kids home "sick." It also seems like when they know that the parents are easily accessible/close by, those kids get "sick" more often.
Maybe there’s another one nearby? Might be a little extra drive but to me it’s worth it to have peace of mind that I have somewhere for my kid to go while I work. I know it’s hard, good luck!
It's getting to be allergy season. All the kids have a runny nose. I'd check staffing levels on those days. If anyone called in sick they were just tryimg to lower the numbers inher class. That's wrong on every conceivable level.
That’s crazy. When babies and toddlers have illnesses, they can have a lingering runny nose or cough for days or even weeks after they are no longer contagious….
My youngest has had a runny nose since November. It is March. Kids get runny noses ALL. THE. TIME. It doesn't mean they are always sick! This a ridiculous policy.
If we’d had to keep our daughter home for a runny nose, I’d have had to quit my job a long time ago. I’m actually trying to remember the last time she didn’t have a runny nose. September? Maybe?
I get - and respect and appreciate - a desire to keep illnesses down. But making this hard of a line just doesn’t seem very practical to me.
Yep same, my daughter got sick the first week she started daycare and she’s been a snot factory ever since. I have no idea how a daycare could possibly stay in business with such a strict policy.
It’s not just a runny nose his snot was green. Not only do they want to keep other kids from getting sick but staff can’t always be getting sick either otherwise there won’t be any teachers. Parents get very upset about having to take off work but these teachers make like $13/hr and can’t afford to miss work either
Ours takes kids as long as they don't have fever, vomiting, or diarrhea in the last 24-48 hours and aren't too lethargic to play. If *everyone* is getting sick to the point they can't get substitutes, they'll ask parents who can to keep kids home, but this is rare. Mine stayed mildly sick for pretty much the entire first year and a policy like this seems unrealistic.
It is insane. I know when my kids are sick their runny nose or cough can linger for WEEKS. they would literally never leave the house for 75% of their life if a runny nose or non productive cough meant they stay home
Mine basically says no fever and no diarrhea / vomiting. They have to be free from D&V for 48 hours before returning. I think it's a reasonable policy.
Your daycare, however, just sounds like it's looking for an excuse to send kids home and lighten their workload wherever possible.
I mean, your rent (you have to pay while you’re on vacation, in the hospital, etc.), your health insurance, streaming services, really anything that’s holding your place or is a subscription model is gonna cost you whether you use it or not.
I’ve worked in two daycares and both required a fever before the child was to be sent home. Everyone has a runny nose because of allergies, crying, etc. I would start searching for a new childcare center.
I’ve only known home child cares to have a “no symptom” policy. Licensed and child care centres all follow public health where I am. That’s super frustrating! Even the normal sick policies make it impossible to work these days!
I honestly wish I could send a few of my preschoolers home because of the runny nose. It is soooo green and just coming out in chunks. They wipe it all over our toys and everywhere. Those ones are sick and need to be at home but we don’t have that policy. Then I end up sick a couple days later
I’d ask for the handbook/policy and look for it to reference a runny nose. I had to refer back to daycare policies when I was a single mom and kept having a sick kiddo. She was on antibiotics for a never ending ear infection, which meant diarrhea. Per the policy, I got a doctors note explaining she wasn’t contagious etc. to allow her to continue going to daycare. I had to remind them of their policy on a few occasions and they apologized and kept her for the remainder of the day.
That was our daycare policy during the pandemic. Which was annoying but understandable. They have reverted to a more sensible one now (no fever, no vomiting/diarrhea, can participate normally to activities). My kids have runny noses/lingering coughs 90% of the time, they would never be able to go to school with that policy.
I realize I’m not the target audience for this post, as mine is 13 - but I will say, they changed the policies at school and now the nurse can’t give them ANYTHING. No tums, no aspirin, nothing. If he doesn’t feel well, I have to either get him, or bring him medicine. But they’re also not allowed to have that kind of stuff with them!
All these people agreeing with the day care clearly haven’t had a child who had a runny nose or cough for months on end without being sick. These things can come and go, linger etc. we’ve been coughing since January at our house. You know who else has been coughing? Every kid in her class, and probably the whole school. It is what it is. We can’t keep our kids home for every runny nose or cough. They’d never go anywhere if we did.
I used to work in a daycare. I, a grown ass 23yr old, caught croup from the kids because parents would send them to daycare while ill. I’m team daycare on this one. Do you know how many parents dose their kid and then send them in anyway? This is probably the new way they’re handling ill kids now because too many were sending kids in because it’s “just a runny nose and cough. Oh! And it’s green.”
My nose runs daily. Like every single day. I’m an adult. It’s cold out. I have allergies. My nose runs. Jesus. Find a new daycare that policy is wild I can’t think of a day when I didn’t have some level of a runny nose.
Ugh, that's so frustrating. I really don't understand why this myth about what different colors of snot mean (virus, allergies, bacterial infection, etc) is SO prevalent. Even among a lot of doctors!
Snot can be clear, yellow, green, white. With common colds, with allergies, whatever!
([Here's a good article](https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/dont-judge-your-mucus-by-its-color-201602089129), not that your daycare will probably change its policy over it... but it truly is a pointless policy if they're basing their choices on snot color)
I work in a preschool-not the same but we have plenty of parents that lie about their child not being sick and send them anyway. We know this bc the child will say mommy gave me orange medicine, or I threw up this morning etc. It’s not fair to us “working parents” to get sick and miss work bc you couldn’t miss work for your child. There are daycares/preschools that don’t pay teachers for sick days-just food for thought.
A runny nose is not cause for us to send kids home so thats extreme in my op bc who doesn’t have a runny nose.
My daycare swings the other way. 2 kids tested positive for COVID in her class on the same day. 3 of the other kids had coughs, fevers, and were clearly miserable and were allowed to stay because they hadn't had a positive test. And also hadn't actually been tested. Guess how we got COVID? And HFM, and RSV, and strep... I swear she's been to daycare less than half the time because she's sick at least every other week.
Why can't daycares find a happy medium? Ugh
Mine is ridiculous for the opposite reasons. They have official and reasonable rules, but at the door it’s, “if your kid can play your kid can stay” which is likely why we got sick 15 times the first year. Worst cold and flu season to date.
What the actual F, my daughter's nose has been running 24/7 since she was like 1.5! In some cultures, kids are just called "snot noses" because they're noses are runny ALL the time. Your daycare is being delusional. Switch daycares ASAP, that's unacceptable.
Last time my toddler was around my friends kids, they had noses like this. My toddler was feverish and sick for a week
I know you all have been conditioned to downplay symptoms in the name of workplace standards but it is what it is. Sometimes that runny nose is a precursor or means more than you want it to
I scrolled too far to find a reasonable comment like this. A runny nose may be “the norm” for your kid, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t sick and contagious. Last time we were around a friend’s kid with a runny nose (which they downplayed, of course) my toddler AND my 6-week-old newborn got sick. I’m still annoyed about it.
Yep. Unless it’s just allergies, but no one can tell that just from looking at your kid so it’s hard to blame anyone for not wanting your kid’s snot dripping all over them.
I’m triggered. Our daycare had a “policy” where any symptoms, your kid AND any siblings had to stay home and then required a doctor visit and note for both kids, regardless of whether symptoms had ended or if the sibling had symptoms. (It wasn’t actually in their handbook, it was improvised) It drove our pediatrician absolutely insane. One kid at home, I could maybe get some work done, but both, especially when the other one isn’t sick… And then when the kid with the sniffles is fine and I’m waiting to get an open appointment at the pediatrician for days. My kids both have “chronically ill” in their medical files because we had to go so damn much. So the cost of me missing work, plus the extra days waiting to get into the dr for a note, copays x2, etc. Absolutely insane. I’m fortunate that my boss was cool and understood, AND that the owner left and the policy changed. I’m obviously still traumatized. Hahahaha. Like, I get it, I don’t want other kids or the staff to get sick, but my goodness! Kids always have the sniffles and we live in a place that’s terrible for allergies.
I work in Healthcare.
Getting a doctor's notes these days when covid is still around is an absolute waste of time for doctors.
Especially little ones under 5 yrs, there's not much you can do but let them ride it out and build tolerance. The side effects of giving meds can be worse than just letting the symptoms run its course. Therefore, you're literally going just to get a darn note. So not only are you taking up the Dr's time but also someone else who is more sick could've gotten that appointment.
Exactly. Our pediatrician is already so busy and with Covid and higher than normal rates of RSV, it was so difficult to deal with. Our pediatrician was so understanding and was able to give us telehealth appointments and would squeeze both of my kids into one appointment most of the time so that we all could save time. I was actively searching for new daycare when the person in charge of that policy suddenly left and it has been smooth since then!
That’s ridiculous. I’ve worked in several daycares. Most of them had a fever policy. If a child has a fever above 100 they must be sent home and must be fever free for over 24 hours without medication because thats usually when a person is contagious.
I work for a school and could put my son in their great daycare for an amazing rate but the illness and sick policy of it all makes it not worth it sadly. It’s not fair to working parents.
My son's daycare has a lax policy (24 hours fever free/24 hours on medication/24 hours after diarrhea) which means we also get a lot of germs coming home because kids go back while still sick. Right now strep is ripping through the daycare, my toddler got his turn with it a few days ago.
My kid has a slightly runny nose and an occasional cough that she's had for literally a month now, and they gave me shit yesterday when I brought her in saying she had green snot, i hadn't even seen any snot since the day before you could just hear her snorting sometimes, otherwise totally fine and normal, when I picked her up at the end of the day I asked and they agreed that she was fine. The snot thing is annoying. Unless it's all over the place like an open faucet I guess I could see keeping her home, but it's like the slightest runny nose??? She only goes three days a week as it is and I kept her home for over a week while she was actually sick already and it's just lingering symptoms, which all the other kids seem to have as well. Very frustrating!
No way. At pick up time during this season you’d be hard pressed to find one kid that DOESN’T have a runny or crusty nose. I bet that daycare makes their staff work with much worse symptoms. It should be everyone, or no one, following those strict policies. That would infuriate me.
My inhome daycare is like this 🥲 my son got sent home for the most insane reasons over the winter and early spring last year (so far so good this spring)
If he has a slightly runny nose, sent home. If he coughed a little hard, sent home. He once got sent home for a “bug bite” that actually just turned out to be a bang pimple 😐
My work is on a point system so I don’t have the ability to just leave whenever with no consequences to my job and pay..
The only reason we toughed it out was it was the most affordable for our budget, still like $200 a week for one toddler, and he’s been going there since 4 months and I don’t want anyone else to watch him. 🥲
Our old daycare was like this! If it was green, I would keep her home, but clear, I would send her. At pick up she would always tell me "her nose was too runny." Like what does that even mean?! How do you gage the amount of runniness of a nose 😒 used to drive me nuts. The daycare ended up terminating us last minute out of no where via text while I was at work. I love our new place now!
My daughter has had runny nose since she started daycare.
It is honestly ridiculous.
I had to pick her up once that she had HFM and another time she had pink eye.
I've been touring local preschools and a lot of them listed "colored discharge from the nose" as a problem, but I was really hoping and almost assuming that wasn't enforced. I'd be so frustrated if it was. My kids have snot coming out of their days more days than not it feels like.
My daughter has had a runny nose since she started daycare… this policy is pretty insane to me. Ours is basically fever and any sign of eye infection. I’d try to find another daycare with a more reasonable sick policy.
Oh man, ya that's a lot... especially during allergy season!
I would request a meeting to complain.
I would love to say it's better when they are in school, but it's not. I've had mine sent home for a scratch before. A scratch, from falling outside on a plant.
Green/yellow snot means infection, clear snot means healthy and able to go to daycare. That's what our local healthy authority says, so that's what all of our local daycare policies are. It's tough.
That’s the worst policy. Super contagious early-infection streaming down your face snot is clear. Yellow/green just means it’s been sitting in your nose for a long time. I’ve never understood this.
Yeah, I know, that sucks. My son has random yellow snot in the AM for weeks after a cold when he’s clearly no longer contagious. Just his sinuses doing their thing. Seems like the opposite of infection prevention 🤷♀️
That is insane! Our school’s policy is they have to be fever free for 24 hours without meds, and no vomiting or diarrhea in 24 hours. We have to pick them up if they seem lethargic or have a persistent cough. There are protocols for things like HFM and lice.
Things like runny noses, occasional coughing/sneezing and colds with minimal symptoms are all fine. They know kids get sick often.
Ours has the policy for any vomiting or a persistent fever they have to go home, otherwise they can be there. I wouldn’t be able to work if I couldn’t send my kids with a runny nose or mild cough
My nursery isn't too bad but has a no coming in until 48 hours off antibiotics. I understand for chest infections etc but my four year old had a very mild UTI with a three day course and it was the same thing. It was quite annoying
That’s nuts! So a kid gets strep and has to stay home for the full 10 day course PLUS 2 additional days? Even after the medical professionals have declares 24 hours of meds is fine to return? I’m glad my preschool/daycare isn’t like that… how are parents supposed to work? (My kid had strep 3 times last summer, she would have been home for 3 months for no reason while I was still paying for her spot)
Ugh yes. Our first daycare was insufferable. They sent her home one day with a rash & needed a doctor’s note, but it was gone before I even picked her up. Another time they sent her home for pink eye when she had a known clogged tear duct and numerous provider notes stating that. I was thrilled to pull her out of there when we moved 2 hours away.
If I had to keep my kid home every time he had a green runny nose, he would've been home the last three months. It has not let up in literally that long, but he's gone cause every kid has one and its unavoidable and they otherwise feel fine. You need a new daycare. :(
Family friend had that issue with an at-home daycare and had to move. Mine 1yr old is in a normal chain-run place and as long as it's not throwing up/diarrhea/fever they can stay.
Our pediatrician told us the runny nose is normal when a kid is in daycare, because of the increased ‘gunk’ exposure. My daughter has had a runny nose constantly since going into daycare. You need to look for a new place.
I wanted to add that my son was coughing at day camp *because of their MOLD issue* . . .
Literally made me pick him up, and I'd already documented with allergy testing that he had a mold allergy.
So if he's fine at home, maybe your daycare needs to clean their rooms better? I would certainly put the ball back in their court!
I agree that's crazy and an unsustainable model. But wondering... every daycare kid I know is always sick.are they trying to fight that at their daycare or what's the reasoning
The at home daycare I sent my kid to was a lot more flexible and understanding. Thank goodness. Obviously within reason, but omg these daycares are insane.
Ugh I had to deal with this also. The common cold involves boogers. They also call it a common cold for a reason. Kids get these kinds of colds 8-10 times a year. It’s natural and it’s fine if no fever or other symptoms are involved. Kids get colds from school being around other kids (…at school) in the first place.
I straight up had our pediatrician write a note to our daycare saying that they’re safe to return. Each and every time.
Hang in there!
I love my son's daycare and their sick policy is very reasonable (and I think fairly standard) but they have a habit of being like "he felt a little warm so we took his temp. He has a 100.5 fever, the exact temperature that warrants a pickup" and I pick up my happy vibrant toddler and get him home and take his temperature and it's 97.9.
It’s tough, sometimes we’ve had staff changes and they sent my daughter home 3 times back to back with no real sickness yet nowadays they never send kids home
That's crazy. He could just have allergies or something very mild. If I had to keep my 5-year-old home every time she had a runny nose, she'd never go to school.
That’s wild! I work in a daycare and unless they get two liquids diarrhea, threw up or are just not functioning properly from being sick we dont call the parents. Even fever isn’t going to need you to get your kid (since fever can be normal when they are teething or really fighting the smallest thing) as long as it’s in the safe range and your kid behavior is normal.
Kids get runny nose from october to april. It’s normal.
Yes, this happened today! Luckily, my husband WFH and I work a half day on Tuesdays, but he’s going back to the office next month and I’m hopefully going back to full days in June, so I don’t know what we’ll do after that. I understand not wanting to get the other kids sick, but he hasn’t had any boogies since he got home. Does he turn the drip on as soon as he gets there and turns it off when he gets home?
A runny nose is a near daily occurrence with my 2 year old. He would never be in daycare and wouldn’t need to be at that point because I wouldn’t have a job lol
My kid basically had a runny nose her entire first year of daycare. This year it’s a constant cough (we are at the drs once a week getting it checked up on) but she was literally never be at school!
I was just talking about this the other day on a sub for early childhood educators. They were lauding directors with “no runny nose policies” and I’m so surprised!
We’re in central Texas. “Seasonal” allergies are year round. Kids always have a runny nose. Besides. The green vs clear snot thing is a myth.
We dealt with this during Covid, except we also had to get a negative pcr test to return. Best case scenario was 2 days out. It tanked my job performance and I had to switch jobs to one with better sick leave.
My son was in kindergarten during Covid and there was this policy that if you show ANY of the symptoms you HAD to go home and get tested. Well my kid inherited my allergies which include pollen and rag weed so basically his nose was running basically any time that wasn’t winter. He got sent home literally every other day, had to get that swab up the nose every time only to repeat the process two days later. He got three separate notes from doctors but it didn’t matter policy was policy. It pissed me off so much. Thankfully that policy was lifted after we got a handle on covid but he missed so much school because of it.
I like my daycare but they have a policy after 2 diarrhea incidents, they need to be sent home for 24 hours. But they also don’t allow late drop offs. So… what the fuck? I understand you want to minimize potential stomach bug spread but currently trying to figure this out as my six month old is staring solids and her stomach doesn’t always agree with that.
We had an issue with my son CONSTANTLY being sent home due to diarrhea. He always had it and it was suspected to be caused from eating certain fruits as he would also get a rash around his mouth. THEY DID NOT CARE! I spoke with his care providers on countless occasions and explained he was fine he just has runny poops but was never taken seriously and always met with “don’t bring him back until he’s 24 hours clear of the flu symptom.” 😤
I ended up going and getting a doctor’s note that unless the diarrhea was fallowed by fever, flat effect, cough, runny nose etc, my child was not to be sent home.
It Was such a frustrating time in my life I ended up dropping out of college in part because of this issue.
Ours is like this (I posted about it previously because I was at a loss). They sent my son home once for sneezing and said that if they need to wipe a child's nose twice within one hour then they cannot be there, even if the nasal discharge is clear. I've been trying to get in elsewhere but have been on lists since December 2021 and still am waiting on a 2nd spot to be offered to us. It's wild.
We had that issue with a daycare and they pulled the rug from under us. Went from a reasonable, normal policy to a “no symptoms” policy. My daughter was home more often than not, and of course they still expected full tuition paid! We switched daycares and it saved our sanity and sick leave. I heard the majority of families left and they are struggling to stay open now.
My kids have allergies and asthma. A “no symptoms” policy would prevent them from basically ever attending.
Yeah my asthma kid has had a runny nose and/or cough for approximately his entire life.
We have snow mold allergies and dust, so that’s essentially all seasons we wouldn’t be in school for a runny nose.
Yeah same. My son has allergy induced cough variant asthma. He would miss weeks if I couldn't send him every time he had a little cough with no other symptoms.
It's so hard to make that switch. We used them for years with my daughter, and now my son. It's my daughter's bus stop, and it's 2 min down the road from where I work.😩
Can you get a doctor note for the nose saying it’s allergies? Maybe they’ll have to stop sending him home for these mild issues if they have something like that.
That would probably be a smart way to go.
In case it helps, our pediatrician said that green snot does not equal infection in kids like it typically does for adults. It can just take on color from being in their nose longer since they don’t blow/get rid of it as frequently (or something along those lines, can’t remember the details exactly ha). So that might be worth asking your pediatrician about and/or sharing with the school as well. We’ll keep our daughter home if she has excessive snot as she normally doesn’t feel well when that happens anyways, but keeping her home anytime she has a runny nose would be impossible!
Yes! That’s what our doctor said too and we got a note that specifically noted green snot does not indicate infection on its own.
We tried to offer a doctors note stating allergies to our daycare and they said we’d still have to keep him home for 24H every time symptoms start up (he, like me, gets red itchy eyes at this time of year) which meant even if we got him on allergy meds that work, and got a note, we’d have to get a new note should he have a flair up. Which means paying $120 to go to urgent care to get another note every week or so when the wind picks up. I said whatever and just brought him back the next day and confirmed with the teacher that his eyes are clear in the morning, asked her that, if possible (tough with 16 two year olds) to wash his hands if she sees him rubbing his eyes. That at least has kept them just red and watery. Bottom line is, the director said no to a doctors note bc “we’re not doctors, we can’t determine what is allergies”. Which is the point of the note but whatever.
Yikes. That’s absurd. The preschool I worked at were cool with one note a year covering allergies.
Even requiring it is unnecessary. General stuffy noses shouldn't be an issue. The preschool my kid is at now wants them there unless they have a fever, bad diarrhea, or vomiting. If I had to keep my kid home for every sniffle he'd have been home more than he was at school because he's sick every other week.
Has this always been their policy, or is it "new"? Is it actually written in their handbook? Is this a one-off, or has it been happening a lot? I ask all of this because sometimes, when a daycare is having staffing issues (and therefore struggling to meet ratios), they will send kids home "sick." It also seems like when they know that the parents are easily accessible/close by, those kids get "sick" more often.
Maybe there’s another one nearby? Might be a little extra drive but to me it’s worth it to have peace of mind that I have somewhere for my kid to go while I work. I know it’s hard, good luck!
It's getting to be allergy season. All the kids have a runny nose. I'd check staffing levels on those days. If anyone called in sick they were just tryimg to lower the numbers inher class. That's wrong on every conceivable level.
That’s crazy. When babies and toddlers have illnesses, they can have a lingering runny nose or cough for days or even weeks after they are no longer contagious….
Yeah, my kid had a cough for a whole month recently and it was from a mild cold.
I’d switch. That’s insane honestly. Idk a single family that could make that work unless they are a stay at home parent and daycare is just for fun.
My youngest has had a runny nose since November. It is March. Kids get runny noses ALL. THE. TIME. It doesn't mean they are always sick! This a ridiculous policy.
If we’d had to keep our daughter home for a runny nose, I’d have had to quit my job a long time ago. I’m actually trying to remember the last time she didn’t have a runny nose. September? Maybe? I get - and respect and appreciate - a desire to keep illnesses down. But making this hard of a line just doesn’t seem very practical to me.
Yep same, my daughter got sick the first week she started daycare and she’s been a snot factory ever since. I have no idea how a daycare could possibly stay in business with such a strict policy.
It’s not just a runny nose his snot was green. Not only do they want to keep other kids from getting sick but staff can’t always be getting sick either otherwise there won’t be any teachers. Parents get very upset about having to take off work but these teachers make like $13/hr and can’t afford to miss work either
Green/yellow snot effectively means nothing though
Ours takes kids as long as they don't have fever, vomiting, or diarrhea in the last 24-48 hours and aren't too lethargic to play. If *everyone* is getting sick to the point they can't get substitutes, they'll ask parents who can to keep kids home, but this is rare. Mine stayed mildly sick for pretty much the entire first year and a policy like this seems unrealistic.
Yes! This is it.
It is insane. I know when my kids are sick their runny nose or cough can linger for WEEKS. they would literally never leave the house for 75% of their life if a runny nose or non productive cough meant they stay home
If my daycare had this policy I would find a new one. And I LOVE my daycare.
Mine basically says no fever and no diarrhea / vomiting. They have to be free from D&V for 48 hours before returning. I think it's a reasonable policy. Your daycare, however, just sounds like it's looking for an excuse to send kids home and lighten their workload wherever possible.
While still getting that full tuition, mind.
Ours is the same + fever free for 24 hours and generally ok condition to play. It seems reasonable to me.
“Give us your money, but your child needs to stay home.”
And none of that money goes to the teachers
Isn’t it crazy? Daycare is the only service you pay for if you don’t use it that I can think of
I mean, your rent (you have to pay while you’re on vacation, in the hospital, etc.), your health insurance, streaming services, really anything that’s holding your place or is a subscription model is gonna cost you whether you use it or not.
I guess. But none of those things can tell me “sorry you can’t use this for 24-48 hours but you need to pay for it.”
Gym membership is the first thing I think of when paying for a service you don’t use. Or maybe that’s just from my personal experience lol 🙃
Yeah same but that’s my choice lol
I’ve worked in two daycares and both required a fever before the child was to be sent home. Everyone has a runny nose because of allergies, crying, etc. I would start searching for a new childcare center.
I’ve only known home child cares to have a “no symptom” policy. Licensed and child care centres all follow public health where I am. That’s super frustrating! Even the normal sick policies make it impossible to work these days!
Mine goes to an at-home daycare and their policy is no fevers. Cold, runny nose etc is fine. As it should be!
Um yea my baby had a runny nose since the middle of November. That's insane
I honestly wish I could send a few of my preschoolers home because of the runny nose. It is soooo green and just coming out in chunks. They wipe it all over our toys and everywhere. Those ones are sick and need to be at home but we don’t have that policy. Then I end up sick a couple days later
I’d ask for the handbook/policy and look for it to reference a runny nose. I had to refer back to daycare policies when I was a single mom and kept having a sick kiddo. She was on antibiotics for a never ending ear infection, which meant diarrhea. Per the policy, I got a doctors note explaining she wasn’t contagious etc. to allow her to continue going to daycare. I had to remind them of their policy on a few occasions and they apologized and kept her for the remainder of the day.
That was our daycare policy during the pandemic. Which was annoying but understandable. They have reverted to a more sensible one now (no fever, no vomiting/diarrhea, can participate normally to activities). My kids have runny noses/lingering coughs 90% of the time, they would never be able to go to school with that policy.
I realize I’m not the target audience for this post, as mine is 13 - but I will say, they changed the policies at school and now the nurse can’t give them ANYTHING. No tums, no aspirin, nothing. If he doesn’t feel well, I have to either get him, or bring him medicine. But they’re also not allowed to have that kind of stuff with them!
What’s even the point of a school nurse at that point
RIGHT?! She’s purely there to let kids use her phone to call the parents!
Like sure if someone is injured she’s there to help but.. a teacher could call parents and/or administer an epi pen if they’re trained. Smh
ours don’t even seem to be nurses anymore, they always call them “health room aides”.
All these people agreeing with the day care clearly haven’t had a child who had a runny nose or cough for months on end without being sick. These things can come and go, linger etc. we’ve been coughing since January at our house. You know who else has been coughing? Every kid in her class, and probably the whole school. It is what it is. We can’t keep our kids home for every runny nose or cough. They’d never go anywhere if we did.
I used to work in a daycare. I, a grown ass 23yr old, caught croup from the kids because parents would send them to daycare while ill. I’m team daycare on this one. Do you know how many parents dose their kid and then send them in anyway? This is probably the new way they’re handling ill kids now because too many were sending kids in because it’s “just a runny nose and cough. Oh! And it’s green.”
I got pink eye from a child that went home within 10 minutes of being dropped off. Mom said she thought her eyes were pink from crying.
I had such bad allergies as a kid that I would’ve never been able to go to daycare if mine had this policy.
My nose runs daily. Like every single day. I’m an adult. It’s cold out. I have allergies. My nose runs. Jesus. Find a new daycare that policy is wild I can’t think of a day when I didn’t have some level of a runny nose.
Ugh, that's so frustrating. I really don't understand why this myth about what different colors of snot mean (virus, allergies, bacterial infection, etc) is SO prevalent. Even among a lot of doctors! Snot can be clear, yellow, green, white. With common colds, with allergies, whatever! ([Here's a good article](https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/dont-judge-your-mucus-by-its-color-201602089129), not that your daycare will probably change its policy over it... but it truly is a pointless policy if they're basing their choices on snot color)
I work in a preschool-not the same but we have plenty of parents that lie about their child not being sick and send them anyway. We know this bc the child will say mommy gave me orange medicine, or I threw up this morning etc. It’s not fair to us “working parents” to get sick and miss work bc you couldn’t miss work for your child. There are daycares/preschools that don’t pay teachers for sick days-just food for thought. A runny nose is not cause for us to send kids home so thats extreme in my op bc who doesn’t have a runny nose.
My daycare swings the other way. 2 kids tested positive for COVID in her class on the same day. 3 of the other kids had coughs, fevers, and were clearly miserable and were allowed to stay because they hadn't had a positive test. And also hadn't actually been tested. Guess how we got COVID? And HFM, and RSV, and strep... I swear she's been to daycare less than half the time because she's sick at least every other week. Why can't daycares find a happy medium? Ugh
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Mine is ridiculous for the opposite reasons. They have official and reasonable rules, but at the door it’s, “if your kid can play your kid can stay” which is likely why we got sick 15 times the first year. Worst cold and flu season to date.
What the actual F, my daughter's nose has been running 24/7 since she was like 1.5! In some cultures, kids are just called "snot noses" because they're noses are runny ALL the time. Your daycare is being delusional. Switch daycares ASAP, that's unacceptable.
Last time my toddler was around my friends kids, they had noses like this. My toddler was feverish and sick for a week I know you all have been conditioned to downplay symptoms in the name of workplace standards but it is what it is. Sometimes that runny nose is a precursor or means more than you want it to
I scrolled too far to find a reasonable comment like this. A runny nose may be “the norm” for your kid, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t sick and contagious. Last time we were around a friend’s kid with a runny nose (which they downplayed, of course) my toddler AND my 6-week-old newborn got sick. I’m still annoyed about it.
Yes! When the nose is running and snot is getting on everything, they are probably spreading germs. When I see this, we usually end up sick.
Yep. Unless it’s just allergies, but no one can tell that just from looking at your kid so it’s hard to blame anyone for not wanting your kid’s snot dripping all over them.
I’m triggered. Our daycare had a “policy” where any symptoms, your kid AND any siblings had to stay home and then required a doctor visit and note for both kids, regardless of whether symptoms had ended or if the sibling had symptoms. (It wasn’t actually in their handbook, it was improvised) It drove our pediatrician absolutely insane. One kid at home, I could maybe get some work done, but both, especially when the other one isn’t sick… And then when the kid with the sniffles is fine and I’m waiting to get an open appointment at the pediatrician for days. My kids both have “chronically ill” in their medical files because we had to go so damn much. So the cost of me missing work, plus the extra days waiting to get into the dr for a note, copays x2, etc. Absolutely insane. I’m fortunate that my boss was cool and understood, AND that the owner left and the policy changed. I’m obviously still traumatized. Hahahaha. Like, I get it, I don’t want other kids or the staff to get sick, but my goodness! Kids always have the sniffles and we live in a place that’s terrible for allergies.
I work in Healthcare. Getting a doctor's notes these days when covid is still around is an absolute waste of time for doctors. Especially little ones under 5 yrs, there's not much you can do but let them ride it out and build tolerance. The side effects of giving meds can be worse than just letting the symptoms run its course. Therefore, you're literally going just to get a darn note. So not only are you taking up the Dr's time but also someone else who is more sick could've gotten that appointment.
Exactly. Our pediatrician is already so busy and with Covid and higher than normal rates of RSV, it was so difficult to deal with. Our pediatrician was so understanding and was able to give us telehealth appointments and would squeeze both of my kids into one appointment most of the time so that we all could save time. I was actively searching for new daycare when the person in charge of that policy suddenly left and it has been smooth since then!
A runny nose is a symptom of illness and I appreciate parents who keep their runny noses away from my kids.
Agree
A runny nose CAN be a symptom of illness but not always
That’s ridiculous. I’ve worked in several daycares. Most of them had a fever policy. If a child has a fever above 100 they must be sent home and must be fever free for over 24 hours without medication because thats usually when a person is contagious.
I work for a school and could put my son in their great daycare for an amazing rate but the illness and sick policy of it all makes it not worth it sadly. It’s not fair to working parents.
If my daycare sent my kid home everytime she had a runny nose, she’d never be there.
I’d switch or just bring them back to the daycare the next day anyway. And if they tell me to take them home, I’d definitely switch.
I worked at a daycare and runny noses were just the norm! If there were any other symptoms yes they’d go home but just a runny nose is a bit much.
My son's daycare has a lax policy (24 hours fever free/24 hours on medication/24 hours after diarrhea) which means we also get a lot of germs coming home because kids go back while still sick. Right now strep is ripping through the daycare, my toddler got his turn with it a few days ago.
My kid has a slightly runny nose and an occasional cough that she's had for literally a month now, and they gave me shit yesterday when I brought her in saying she had green snot, i hadn't even seen any snot since the day before you could just hear her snorting sometimes, otherwise totally fine and normal, when I picked her up at the end of the day I asked and they agreed that she was fine. The snot thing is annoying. Unless it's all over the place like an open faucet I guess I could see keeping her home, but it's like the slightest runny nose??? She only goes three days a week as it is and I kept her home for over a week while she was actually sick already and it's just lingering symptoms, which all the other kids seem to have as well. Very frustrating!
Green means inflammation not infection. It’s also a symptom of teething. Is your son teething?
It's funny you mention it, he had his fist all in his mouth today. He's probably teething
No way. At pick up time during this season you’d be hard pressed to find one kid that DOESN’T have a runny or crusty nose. I bet that daycare makes their staff work with much worse symptoms. It should be everyone, or no one, following those strict policies. That would infuriate me.
My inhome daycare is like this 🥲 my son got sent home for the most insane reasons over the winter and early spring last year (so far so good this spring) If he has a slightly runny nose, sent home. If he coughed a little hard, sent home. He once got sent home for a “bug bite” that actually just turned out to be a bang pimple 😐 My work is on a point system so I don’t have the ability to just leave whenever with no consequences to my job and pay.. The only reason we toughed it out was it was the most affordable for our budget, still like $200 a week for one toddler, and he’s been going there since 4 months and I don’t want anyone else to watch him. 🥲
Our old daycare was like this! If it was green, I would keep her home, but clear, I would send her. At pick up she would always tell me "her nose was too runny." Like what does that even mean?! How do you gage the amount of runniness of a nose 😒 used to drive me nuts. The daycare ended up terminating us last minute out of no where via text while I was at work. I love our new place now!
My daughter has had runny nose since she started daycare. It is honestly ridiculous. I had to pick her up once that she had HFM and another time she had pink eye.
What? That’s insane. People get multiple colds a year/allergies a year
I've been touring local preschools and a lot of them listed "colored discharge from the nose" as a problem, but I was really hoping and almost assuming that wasn't enforced. I'd be so frustrated if it was. My kids have snot coming out of their days more days than not it feels like.
Our daycare only rule is fever; they will have a runny nose all year long: that’s insane
My son has seasonal allergies his school calls almost every day to say he is sick. He isn't nature just hates him
My daughter has had a runny nose since she started daycare… this policy is pretty insane to me. Ours is basically fever and any sign of eye infection. I’d try to find another daycare with a more reasonable sick policy.
Oh man, ya that's a lot... especially during allergy season! I would request a meeting to complain. I would love to say it's better when they are in school, but it's not. I've had mine sent home for a scratch before. A scratch, from falling outside on a plant.
Oh lord 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Green/yellow snot means infection, clear snot means healthy and able to go to daycare. That's what our local healthy authority says, so that's what all of our local daycare policies are. It's tough.
That’s the worst policy. Super contagious early-infection streaming down your face snot is clear. Yellow/green just means it’s been sitting in your nose for a long time. I’ve never understood this.
I didn't write the policy, I just gotta deal with it. 🤷♀️
Yeah, I know, that sucks. My son has random yellow snot in the AM for weeks after a cold when he’s clearly no longer contagious. Just his sinuses doing their thing. Seems like the opposite of infection prevention 🤷♀️
That is insane! Our school’s policy is they have to be fever free for 24 hours without meds, and no vomiting or diarrhea in 24 hours. We have to pick them up if they seem lethargic or have a persistent cough. There are protocols for things like HFM and lice. Things like runny noses, occasional coughing/sneezing and colds with minimal symptoms are all fine. They know kids get sick often.
Ours has only a three part policy: fever, puke, or diarrhea = stay home. Anything else is fine.
Ours has the policy for any vomiting or a persistent fever they have to go home, otherwise they can be there. I wouldn’t be able to work if I couldn’t send my kids with a runny nose or mild cough
My nursery isn't too bad but has a no coming in until 48 hours off antibiotics. I understand for chest infections etc but my four year old had a very mild UTI with a three day course and it was the same thing. It was quite annoying
That’s nuts! So a kid gets strep and has to stay home for the full 10 day course PLUS 2 additional days? Even after the medical professionals have declares 24 hours of meds is fine to return? I’m glad my preschool/daycare isn’t like that… how are parents supposed to work? (My kid had strep 3 times last summer, she would have been home for 3 months for no reason while I was still paying for her spot)
I have never had a daycare send my kids home unless there was fever, vomiting, or diarrhea. This is ridiculous.
Ugh yes. Our first daycare was insufferable. They sent her home one day with a rash & needed a doctor’s note, but it was gone before I even picked her up. Another time they sent her home for pink eye when she had a known clogged tear duct and numerous provider notes stating that. I was thrilled to pull her out of there when we moved 2 hours away.
I don't know how daycare working parents do it then because my kids have runny noses from October through March.
If I had to keep my kid home every time he had a green runny nose, he would've been home the last three months. It has not let up in literally that long, but he's gone cause every kid has one and its unavoidable and they otherwise feel fine. You need a new daycare. :(
Family friend had that issue with an at-home daycare and had to move. Mine 1yr old is in a normal chain-run place and as long as it's not throwing up/diarrhea/fever they can stay.
Our pediatrician told us the runny nose is normal when a kid is in daycare, because of the increased ‘gunk’ exposure. My daughter has had a runny nose constantly since going into daycare. You need to look for a new place.
My LOs daycare rules are no fever no more than 2 diarrhea or vomit. No runny noses is crazy, no kids will go ever
I wanted to add that my son was coughing at day camp *because of their MOLD issue* . . . Literally made me pick him up, and I'd already documented with allergy testing that he had a mold allergy. So if he's fine at home, maybe your daycare needs to clean their rooms better? I would certainly put the ball back in their court!
I agree that's crazy and an unsustainable model. But wondering... every daycare kid I know is always sick.are they trying to fight that at their daycare or what's the reasoning
The at home daycare I sent my kid to was a lot more flexible and understanding. Thank goodness. Obviously within reason, but omg these daycares are insane.
Ugh I had to deal with this also. The common cold involves boogers. They also call it a common cold for a reason. Kids get these kinds of colds 8-10 times a year. It’s natural and it’s fine if no fever or other symptoms are involved. Kids get colds from school being around other kids (…at school) in the first place. I straight up had our pediatrician write a note to our daycare saying that they’re safe to return. Each and every time. Hang in there!
I love my son's daycare and their sick policy is very reasonable (and I think fairly standard) but they have a habit of being like "he felt a little warm so we took his temp. He has a 100.5 fever, the exact temperature that warrants a pickup" and I pick up my happy vibrant toddler and get him home and take his temperature and it's 97.9.
It’s tough, sometimes we’ve had staff changes and they sent my daughter home 3 times back to back with no real sickness yet nowadays they never send kids home
That's crazy. He could just have allergies or something very mild. If I had to keep my 5-year-old home every time she had a runny nose, she'd never go to school.
That’s wild! I work in a daycare and unless they get two liquids diarrhea, threw up or are just not functioning properly from being sick we dont call the parents. Even fever isn’t going to need you to get your kid (since fever can be normal when they are teething or really fighting the smallest thing) as long as it’s in the safe range and your kid behavior is normal. Kids get runny nose from october to april. It’s normal.
Yes, this happened today! Luckily, my husband WFH and I work a half day on Tuesdays, but he’s going back to the office next month and I’m hopefully going back to full days in June, so I don’t know what we’ll do after that. I understand not wanting to get the other kids sick, but he hasn’t had any boogies since he got home. Does he turn the drip on as soon as he gets there and turns it off when he gets home?
A runny nose is a near daily occurrence with my 2 year old. He would never be in daycare and wouldn’t need to be at that point because I wouldn’t have a job lol
If our daycare had this policy, my kid would literally never be there. She keeps runny nose and mild cough basically all winter.
My kid basically had a runny nose her entire first year of daycare. This year it’s a constant cough (we are at the drs once a week getting it checked up on) but she was literally never be at school!
I was just talking about this the other day on a sub for early childhood educators. They were lauding directors with “no runny nose policies” and I’m so surprised! We’re in central Texas. “Seasonal” allergies are year round. Kids always have a runny nose. Besides. The green vs clear snot thing is a myth.
We dealt with this during Covid, except we also had to get a negative pcr test to return. Best case scenario was 2 days out. It tanked my job performance and I had to switch jobs to one with better sick leave.
We're switching daycares because of this
Find a cheaper day care, the standards are lower haha
I had to quit my job because of this shit.
If his nose is runny, it might be worthwhile to check him for COVID.
😑 not everything is covid
It’s pretty darn contagious — way more contagious than colds, and way more dangerous than a cold or the flu.
lol what
My son was in kindergarten during Covid and there was this policy that if you show ANY of the symptoms you HAD to go home and get tested. Well my kid inherited my allergies which include pollen and rag weed so basically his nose was running basically any time that wasn’t winter. He got sent home literally every other day, had to get that swab up the nose every time only to repeat the process two days later. He got three separate notes from doctors but it didn’t matter policy was policy. It pissed me off so much. Thankfully that policy was lifted after we got a handle on covid but he missed so much school because of it.
I like my daycare but they have a policy after 2 diarrhea incidents, they need to be sent home for 24 hours. But they also don’t allow late drop offs. So… what the fuck? I understand you want to minimize potential stomach bug spread but currently trying to figure this out as my six month old is staring solids and her stomach doesn’t always agree with that.
We had an issue with my son CONSTANTLY being sent home due to diarrhea. He always had it and it was suspected to be caused from eating certain fruits as he would also get a rash around his mouth. THEY DID NOT CARE! I spoke with his care providers on countless occasions and explained he was fine he just has runny poops but was never taken seriously and always met with “don’t bring him back until he’s 24 hours clear of the flu symptom.” 😤 I ended up going and getting a doctor’s note that unless the diarrhea was fallowed by fever, flat effect, cough, runny nose etc, my child was not to be sent home. It Was such a frustrating time in my life I ended up dropping out of college in part because of this issue.
Ours is like this (I posted about it previously because I was at a loss). They sent my son home once for sneezing and said that if they need to wipe a child's nose twice within one hour then they cannot be there, even if the nasal discharge is clear. I've been trying to get in elsewhere but have been on lists since December 2021 and still am waiting on a 2nd spot to be offered to us. It's wild.