Child Care Creation: Understanding The Fundamentals

Are you in the process of looking for a daycare for your child? If so, one area you may be looking at is how your child can attend and stay healthy. While germs at such a young age are unavoidable, there are things that you can look for that will help lower the chances of your child getting sick.

The Daycare Center's Sick Policy

Every daycare center has some sort of policy in place for when kids become sick. The policy that they have should meet your standards, since every policy may be different.

For example, there may be a requirement that your child must stay home for a specific amount of days after they have had a fever, or that they require a doctor's note to return when they have had certain conditions. All of these rules are in place to help ensure that other kids do not get sick.

One thing to keep in mind is that a strict sick policy means that you'll end up spending more days at home with your child. Illnesses come and go all the time, so make sure you find a daycare that won't send your kid home for the smallest sign of being sick.

The Daycare Center's Hand Washing Policy

Every daycare center should have a hand washing policy in place to limit the germs that are spread throughout the day. This is not just a personal policy of the center, but there are often regulations that must be enforced. For example, Illinois has rules that state kids must wash their hands when they arrive, before and after eating, and even after they blow their nose.

You want a daycare that enforces these rules. Become familiar with your state's rules and see if the daycare enforces them. If everyone should wash their hands when arriving, and you are not asked to wash your hands during a tour, this could be a sign that they are not actually enforcing the rules.

The Daycare Center's Toy Washing Policy

Kids are going to put toys into their mouths, and daycare centers should have a policy in place for how often they wash their toys. While it will be tough to find a center that washes all of their toys every single day, look for a realistic policy that can be followed. For example, this can include a weekly cleaning of toys, but they also have a basket to put toys away for immediate cleaning when a teacher sees that a child has put it in their mouth.