Our daughter has been in the daycare since the first of August and now it hit us. The first flu and a message from the teachers saying there is a hand-foot-and mouth disease (HFMD) in her group.
Before I continue my story, I have to say: What kind of name is that for a (kids) disease? Descriptive I guess, but come on. In Finnish it’s called enterorokko, where “rokko” means “pox”, you know, like chicken pox and so on.
They told from the daycare that this is a very typical pox in the early Autumn time. Not super dangerous (there is no vaccination against it) but quite painful as on top of the normal flu symptoms it creates blisters in the mouth, hands and feet. After HFMD comes the influenza season and spring time is the carnival of norovirus and different stomach flu’s. On top of this, they often have louse and pinworms. Oh dear.
I always thought that people exaggerate how much daycare effects their kids and at the same time the whole family’s health but now I understand. In Finland an under 3 year old who is in the daycare is sick about 100 days in a year meanwhile those who stay at home have about 40 sick days in a year. That’s quite a big difference.
In our daughters group she is almost the oldest kid. There are 12 under 2-year old’s licking the toys, peeing on the floors and feeding their food to each other. No wonder all the bacteria spreads so easily. So unfortunately it’s not too helpful that the teachers try to wash everybody’s hands at every turn.
Yesterday I got a phone call from the daycare and they asked if our daughter could stay at home today, because all her teachers (in her group) are sick. They have substitutes but since the tiny @smallsteps doesn’t really enjoy the daycare and cries every day, they said it’s better if she waits until at least one of the teachers she knows is available. I think they asked it also partly because of her allergies, since they don’t want to take the risk that some substitute offers her the wrong food. Fair enough. Luckily I’m “just studying” at home and I can be with her without taking time off from work. I don’t even want to think what it will be like when both of as are working full time and she is sick 100 days a year.
Now back to drinking my tea with ginger and honey. The side dish is painkillers.
Hugs, Momone
It is what it is. When we lived in Hervanta, our daughter was cared for in one of the local municipal nurseries for five weeks in the September 2009. She was one year old at the time. She was sick for three out of those five weeks. That place was not so good. There were some problems with the facility such as the temperature being a bit too low inside. Fortunately, my mother was able to care for her for the the following two years. For the following two years after that, she was in another nursery (municipal, too) in Annala without major problems. She was sick every now and then. Then we moved to Nastola and she was in a local municipal nursery and we found that she would be ill much less than before. It's hard to say whether it was because of her being older or because of better hygiene in that facility. The staff did seem to be more stringent about maintaining good hygiene than in the nurseries she was in previously.
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They told us that the first year in the daycare would be the hardest because she will get basically every single flu and pox that's available. When she has had them once, it should get a bit easier. So it could be something like that in your daughter's case as well.. but who knows. I'm sure that a good hygiene plays a big part as well.
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Oh, sounds pretty awful. But do not give up! Things will change and things will be better. And every day when things go as you want them to go, you get to do a victory dance and pat yourself on the back.
I kinda speed read your last sentences and some of the words never reached my brain.
...and thought, well this took a weird turn. But then realized as I was trying to get pass that with a joke, that it wasn't you, it was me. My fault.
Hang in there!
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Hahahha. Drinking and painkillers, quite a combo. Thank you, we are hanging in there, the jorney just started.
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Yeah, we call it HFMD, or coxsackievirus. Our son caught it at daycare a while back. The most miserable part is that there is nothing you can do for it, your child acts mostly normal while they have it, and adults can also contract it (although the symptoms and length are much less severe). Oh, and they can't be in daycare while they are still contagious (which could be a week)!
I hope that you and @smallsteps are able to both avoid the virus. It's not something that I would wish on anyone!
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"coxsackievirus." Like that is any better.... :D
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Haha, it's a heck of a mouthful no matter how you say it 🙂
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Hahahha. Coxsackie.. are you kidding me?
Btw, they said to us that kids with HFMD can be in the daycare if they are healthy enough to do normal stuff at home. So basically when the fever is over and the kid is able to walk and eat, they are welcome. I find it weird since like you said, it can be contagious even for a week. And not every kid has all the symptoms but they can still give it to others.
With our luck, I don't think @smallsteps is able to avoid the virus. Let's just hope it doesn't treat her too bad.
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No fever or new "bumps" for 24 hours and they shouldn't be contagious anymore. However, they are contagious before most people (and parents) know that the child is contagious, so, yeah, it's difficult to not find your child infected if one of the other children has it too...
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Doesn't enterorokko know that @smallsteps is special and so it should f^^k off? Tell enterorokko to leave her alone or it'll have her uncle to deal with!
P.s. when you're both working full time you'll have to send @smallsteps downunder to her uncle. I'll take care of her.
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I will tell enterorokko that you said hi. Ps. we might send her after her terrible two's gets a bit more terrible. ;)
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I'll take it! After all, if she got too bad I could simply send her back! :)
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You got a 38.30% upvote from @ocdb courtesy of @momone!
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Oh, my God. It is a real dark side of daycare centers. How did you manage that? Also, I'd like to share my opinion. To my mind, it all depends on a daycare. I mean, there are different policies in different centers. Our previous kindergarten did not care about kids' health a lot. They clean the floor once a day. But kids like to sit on the rigs and play there. They also allowed sick children to come. Now we go to the Brooklyn Child Care - https://littlescholarsnyc.com/ . I really love this place and everything there. They have an amazing educational program, high-quality meals and they pay extra attention to cleanness. The providers check the temperature and do not allow parents to come in due to the virus.
So, you see, it depends.
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Hi there! Quite an interesting observation painted in detail. Thank you very much for the useful information on the subject of raising a child. I'll take that into account when I visit my son after work. At the moment, I am at work most of the time , while my child is at the Little Scholars daycare center. This is the best kids ' center I've seen in the last couple of years. We moved very often and so I really have something to compare it with. I advise you to read more about this on the Internet.
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