Flu?

[Anonymous]

I strongly disagree that it is fine to have your nanny come in to work if the child is ill. Schools and daycares don't allow the presence of sick children since they do not want anyone to be purposely exposed to any form of illness.

Why would any parent purposely expose another individual around their unwell young child?? The less I'll people around the better. Plus there is never a guarantee that the person will make a full recovery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I strongly disagree that it is fine to have your nanny come in to work if the child is ill. Schools and daycares don't allow the presence of sick children since they do not want anyone to be purposely exposed to any form of illness.

Why would any parent purposely expose another individual around their unwell young child?? The less I'll people around the better. Plus there is never a guarantee that the person will make a full recovery.

17.38, 22.23 here. If a child is sick, the nanny has usually been exposed prior to the child developing symptoms. Daycares and schools don't want children who are sick so that CHILDREN are not exposed; most adults who work with children are sick a lot the first 1-3 years, and then don't get sick very much. With a nanny, keeping the child home (so as not to expose other children) is easy; maybe the child misses part-time preschool or classes, but it isn't a big deal. Most parents prefer to stay with their children if there are high fevers, vomiting or diarrhea, but parents can't take off work for every sniffle, nor should they. Flu can last over a week, and there's no reason for a nanny who has already been exposed to stay home more than a day or two, especially when the child isn't vomiting or having diarrhea.

[Anonymous]

I am a nanny and expect to come to work when the kids are sick unless the kid is on the verge of being rushed to the hospital. (happened once). I take extra precautions before and during. I am in great health, eat well, keep myself in shape, get vaccinated, and take very good care of myself. When a kid is sick, I make sure to take extra precautions including gloves, face mask, and changing my clothes in the bathroom on the way out of the house. I've been a nanny for 7 years and only 2 times have caught something beyond the sniffles (which I get regardless of if the kids have them or not).

[Anonymous]

If you are prepared to pay her for her sick days should she catch the flu, without depleting her bank of personal/sick time, and your child is no longer actively vomiting, it seems fine.

If you aren't willing to pay her for that time she might need off, give her the 7 days paid.

If your child is puking, give her the time off paid.

[Anonymous]

Op here again to report back. First, the real flu isn't a stomach virus or what people think of as stomach flu. It can be accompanied by nausea and vomiitting but that is not typical. In this case the symptoms were a very high fever followed by upper respitory symptoms. The high fever was gone by the time I posted about her coming back to work.

We ended up having the nanny stay home for 2 working days paid, but at the point the fever had been gone for 36 hrs we had her come back, even though there were still some lingering symptoms. Before she came back I disinfected as much as I could. She did not get sick.

Some of you are over the top as to your expectations. To never have a nanny come to work if your child is ill? Do you include the common cold in that? I am super glad we have our awesome nanny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here again to report back. First, the real flu isn't a stomach virus or what people think of as stomach flu. It can be accompanied by nausea and vomiitting but that is not typical. In this case the symptoms were a very high fever followed by upper respitory symptoms. The high fever was gone by the time I posted about her coming back to work.

We ended up having the nanny stay home for 2 working days paid, but at the point the fever had been gone for 36 hrs we had her come back, even though there were still some lingering symptoms. Before she came back I disinfected as much as I could. She did not get sick.

Some of you are over the top as to your expectations. To never have a nanny come to work if your child is ill? Do you include the common cold in that? I am super glad we have our awesome nanny.

I'm glad it went well.

As an aside, some people always have nausea, vomiting and diarrhea with the flu, due to the way their systems deal with the virus. Unfortunately, that's the way it works for me, although I wish it weren't. But, it has yet to stop me from working.