Why doesn’t daycare require separate toys during the flu/cold season?

[Anonymous]

We have 5 month old baby and are brand new to daycare. Our baby started in early December and immediately got sick twice in eight days: a stomach bug on Day 3 and a croup-like cough with wheezing on Day 7.

We immediately leave for a 3 week trip to see our family and baby gets better. It takes about 10 full days for baby to get rid of the cough and get back to 100%.

Well, we restart daycare this week. By Tuesday evening, he starts having wheezing. Today, the croup-like cough has returned. I’m up right now because he keeps coughing in his sleep and is waking up every 20 minutes

We’ve noticed that our daycare’s infant room has one set of toys that are shared between all the kids. We even got an update today via the app that had a photo of our baby with a teething toy IN HIS MOUTH. Is it any wonder these kids are all getting sick when they are sharing all the same toys, rattles, etc shared by the daycare center. The center claims they disinfect the toys between use, but I know that’s not practical with a 4:1 ratio.

Would it be appropriate for us to bring a ziplock gallon bag with a few toys only for our baby’s use? I can label the toys and I’m happy to disinfect the toys daily. But it makes no sense at all for a daycare center to have a bunch of shared toys, rattles, teething devices, etc in the middle of flu & cold season.

This is just basic common sense, right?

[Anonymous]

I don't think that what you want is realistic for a daycare, unless the infant room only has pre-crawling babies. Once they crawl, all bets are off.

Maybe you should hire a nanny.

[Anonymous]

That's not how daycare works. They ALL get sick.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like daycare isn’t for you. You’re expecting one person to know which set of toys belong to 4 different kids and then to monitor their use.

Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like daycare isn’t for you. You’re expecting one person to know which set of toys belong to 4 different kids and then to monitor their use.

Really?

This is really difficult to do at home if you have multiple kids of close age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think that what you want is realistic for a daycare, unless the infant room only has pre-crawling babies. Once they crawl, all bets are off.

Maybe you should hire a nanny.

This. Your baby will be better off in many regards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think that what you want is realistic for a daycare, unless the infant room only has pre-crawling babies. Once they crawl, all bets are off.

Maybe you should hire a nanny.

This. Your baby will be better off in many regards.

Stop. Just stop.

[Anonymous]

I think not sharing a teething toy is reasonable. Anything else is fair game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think not sharing a teething toy is reasonable. Anything else is fair game.

They’re kind of all teething toys at this point.

[Anonymous]

OMG this is such an inadvertently funny post. You will laugh about this one day OP. And btw your child will get sick at daycare irrespective of toys. I say that as a big fan of daycare. It does get better over time. Your child will also get sick taking him/her on a 3 week trip -- whatever cough your child has now could easily have been caught in an airport or while on the road.

[Anonymous]

You are in for a year of sickness and you can do it now or whenever they start group care or school. Your expectations are not realistic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have 5 month old baby and are brand new to daycare. Our baby started in early December and immediately got sick twice in eight days: a stomach bug on Day 3 and a croup-like cough with wheezing on Day 7.

We immediately leave for a 3 week trip to see our family and baby gets better. It takes about 10 full days for baby to get rid of the cough and get back to 100%.

Well, we restart daycare this week. By Tuesday evening, he starts having wheezing. Today, the croup-like cough has returned. I’m up right now because he keeps coughing in his sleep and is waking up every 20 minutes

We’ve noticed that our daycare’s infant room has one set of toys that are shared between all the kids. We even got an update today via the app that had a photo of our baby with a teething toy IN HIS MOUTH. Is it any wonder these kids are all getting sick when they are sharing all the same toys, rattles, etc shared by the daycare center. The center claims they disinfect the toys between use, but I know that’s not practical with a 4:1 ratio.

Would it be appropriate for us to bring a ziplock gallon bag with a few toys only for our baby’s use? I can label the toys and I’m happy to disinfect the toys daily. But it makes no sense at all for a daycare center to have a bunch of shared toys, rattles, teething devices, etc in the middle of flu & cold season.

Highly inappropriate. Since you claim to know it's impractical to disinfect toys after each use how do you expect staff to monitor your special toys? BTW, all daycare toys are shared toys.

This is just basic common sense, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have 5 month old baby and are brand new to daycare. Our baby started in early December and immediately got sick twice in eight days: a stomach bug on Day 3 and a croup-like cough with wheezing on Day 7.

We immediately leave for a 3 week trip to see our family and baby gets better. It takes about 10 full days for baby to get rid of the cough and get back to 100%.

Well, we restart daycare this week. By Tuesday evening, he starts having wheezing. Today, the croup-like cough has returned. I’m up right now because he keeps coughing in his sleep and is waking up every 20 minutes

We’ve noticed that our daycare’s infant room has one set of toys that are shared between all the kids. We even got an update today via the app that had a photo of our baby with a teething toy IN HIS MOUTH. Is it any wonder these kids are all getting sick when they are sharing all the same toys, rattles, etc shared by the daycare center. The center claims they disinfect the toys between use, but I know that’s not practical with a 4:1 ratio.

Would it be appropriate for us to bring a ziplock gallon bag with a few toys only for our baby’s use? I can label the toys and I’m happy to disinfect the toys daily. But it makes no sense at all for a daycare center to have a bunch of shared toys, rattles, teething devices, etc in the middle of flu & cold season.

This is just basic common sense, right?

(fixed my post)

Highly inappropriate. Since you claim to know it's impractical to disinfect toys after each use how do you expect staff to monitor your special toys? BTW, all daycare toys are shared toys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like daycare isn’t for you. You’re expecting one person to know which set of toys belong to 4 different kids and then to monitor their use.

Really?

This is really difficult to do at home if you have multiple kids of close age.

+1. I was going to say that this is pretty much impossible with nannyshares too. My kid spent many of his childcare days with one other baby around the same age and they were always very close. The price of having a best friend to grow up with is that is was pretty much impossible to keep their stuff separate--even though one was a girl and one was a boy they still were going to touch each other's things.

[Anonymous]

Some daycares will take teething toys away once one kid has used them, toss them in a bin, and then wash them at the end of the day.