What are normal policies on sick children at daycare?

[Anonymous]

my toddler generally acts fine when she has a cold without a fever. that is why i send her to daycare. she tends to have a runny nose for a month each time she gets sick, so it's pointless to keep her at home for that reason alone.

[Anonymous]

I know how you feel I run a daycare and boy oh boy the parent's sure take advantage of daycares the parents can have these kid's but when their kid's are sick let's drop them off at the daycare cause 90% of the time a young parent or parent's don't want to deal with their sick crabby kid so let's get the daycare provider sick too. then when the daycare provider has to close the daycare cause she's sick half these parent's get mad at the provider cause they have no back up so I'm firm and hang up the phone ,so what I'm going to put in my parent provider agreement is that if I have to take care of you're child while their sick you will be charged 10.00 dollars extra that week. when I used to get daycare for my son I had 3 back ups just in case my main daycare provider couldn't take my child. when my kid's we're sick I took off work to be with my child cause I was a caring parent what happened to these new parent's like yesterday I have this one mom who's had a sick child for 3 weeks DUH don't you think it's time to take you're child to the doctor and i caught the mom skipping out of work cause I had a doctors appointment my self in the morning and here she is driving right past me in town and it isn't even the town she works in I thought some mom she don't even care if her child is sick shame on her but if she's sick she goes to the doc.

[Anonymous]

it's pointless to send her to daycare even though she's just got a runny nose that usually a good sign she's got some kind of infection and can be transmitted to other kid's she should be looked at by a doctor she don't always have to have a fever with a runny nose.

[Anonymous]

Our daycare's policy is that the kid can't come in (or is sent home) if they have a fever, vomiting, or diarrhea. They have to be fever/vomiting/diarrhea-free for 24 hours in order to return.

I agree with others that keeping a kid home for a runny nose w/o fever just isn't realistic--they'd be home every day in the winter! Their noses get stuffy from indoor heat, which dries the air, and the stuffy nose from a cold can last a long time. I keep my baby home if she's got a fever, but when the fever is gone and she's energetic and happy and feeling fine, but her nose is still stuffy, I'm not keeping her home. I don't go by a single symptom--if she was stuffy AND lethargic or cranky and not feeling well, I'd keep her home.