Colds, runny noses and daycare.

[Anonymous]

It’s cold season again! That means runny, noses and wiping. If your child has no other symptoms other than just a runny nose, at what point do you think it is reasonable for your daycare to tell you to keep your kid home? Or how much nose wiping would you say it’s reasonable for daycare to wipe?

[Anonymous]

It's covid season.

[Anonymous]

I would say if your child has long strings of snot coming out of their nose you should keep them home.

I also think that if you can, keeping a child home that first day when the runny nose first appears and they look tired is a good idea. That is when they are most contagious and also when they benefit most from staying home in terms of resting and recovering quickly. But I get that not everyone can do that.

Some daycares seem to have a "clear snot is okay, yellow/green not ok" and that's ridiculous. The snot always starts out clear (when they are most contagious) and is yellow for a while afterwards.

[Anonymous]

Runny nose is fine. If it's nonstop then usually it's accompanied by them feeling tired and uncomfortable, in which case they should stay home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would say if your child has long strings of snot coming out of their nose you should keep them home.

I also think that if you can, keeping a child home that first day when the runny nose first appears and they look tired is a good idea. That is when they are most contagious and also when they benefit most from staying home in terms of resting and recovering quickly. But I get that not everyone can do that.

Some daycares seem to have a "clear snot is okay, yellow/green not ok" and that's ridiculous. The snot always starts out clear (when they are most contagious) and is yellow for a while afterwards.

[op] I thought allergies snot ran clear, which is why daycares had the clear versus yellow green snot rule?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say if your child has long strings of snot coming out of their nose you should keep them home.

I also think that if you can, keeping a child home that first day when the runny nose first appears and they look tired is a good idea. That is when they are most contagious and also when they benefit most from staying home in terms of resting and recovering quickly. But I get that not everyone can do that.

Some daycares seem to have a "clear snot is okay, yellow/green not ok" and that's ridiculous. The snot always starts out clear (when they are most contagious) and is yellow for a while afterwards.

[op] I thought allergies snot ran clear, which is why daycares had the clear versus yellow green snot rule?

Yes, but not all clear snot means allergies. Sometimes it means you're at the most infectious point of a virus. Those rules are dumb. Our daycare basically says use your judgement, infections often start with clear snot, if your child cannot participate or have fun you should not send them in.

[Anonymous]

Also you can have yellow snot at the tail end of a virus when you are not infectious anymore.

[Anonymous]

My toddler has had some very runny noses - daycare never had an issue with it and has let parents use their discretion in spending them in in that case.

[Anonymous]

My take is if I have to be constantly wiping my kid’s nose (like 3-5 times between getting out of bed and leaving the house) it’s not reasonable for them to be in ground care. But otherwise in they go.

[Anonymous]

OP back. I’m just trying to get a sense if my daycare’s policy is out of line. Excludes kids who have constant runny noses that basically need constant wiping or if they’re not wiped they are trailing all over their faces and toys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP back. I’m just trying to get a sense if my daycare’s policy is out of line. Excludes kids who have constant runny noses that basically need constant wiping or if they’re not wiped they are trailing all over their faces and toys.

Unless it's large volumes of snot all coming out at the same time numerous times per day which suggests the child is probably not well enough to be at school, I do not think this policy is typical. Young kids often get viruses back to back and may have a runny nose for weeks. Little kids who don't yet know how to blow their noses will have constant runny noses that need to be wiped a lot. I get why the teachers don't want to do it but it is not reasonable to exclude just for this.

[Anonymous]

Our policy says “excessive” runny nose is not allowed. In practice my son has never been sent home for even pretty severe ones. But I understand they need to reserve the right to address a situation that is just extreme.

[Anonymous]

As long as the kid doesn't have other symptoms and is active I think they should be at school. My kids both had 6+ month stretches of runny nose when they were two. Thank God the school didn't keep them out of school then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our policy says “excessive” runny nose is not allowed. In practice my son has never been sent home for even pretty severe ones. But I understand they need to reserve the right to address a situation that is just extreme.

I think this policy is discretionary for the daycare. Usually they would send home if it's extremely runny and kid is miserable or not being themselves etc. But those other things are harder to write into a policy.

Usually if they have the energy to participate in activities and eat, nap, etc normally then they are okay to be there.

[Anonymous]

Have them tested for covid with rapid tests, for teachers' sake.