Question About a Nanny keeping Sick Babies Near Eachother?

Question

I am a Nanny of two infants from different families in a Nanny Share. This week I have had to leave my son at home beause he was sick. Both of the babies 4 and 5 months are now sick. The parents have not called the doctors, and they intend to keep me here taking care of them both while sick, and not separating them. Will it not take even longer if they are both sick and still constantly around eachother, wont they pass the cold back and forth to eachother?
I dont want the parents to think I dont want to take care of them while they are sick, but is it fair to do this to all of us? Wouldnt the normal thing to be to have the babies both stay at home until no loner sick? I mean, if it were a day care, they woudnt let you bring the babies there while sick at risk of geting the other children sick. Right? Advice, please. thank so much!

Answer 1

Most daycares will not allow you to bring in your child if they are sick and will call parents to pick up their child if they become sick while they are there. It's to avoid infecting the other children and caregivers as much as possible. I guess with a private Nanny Share arrangement it would be up to you to negotiate with the families what happens when a child is sick. I personally would request that the children be kept home until they are better, especially since there are several children in your care and you would also be at risk of catching it and possibly not be able to care for their children if you got really sick. You can't really keep them separate anyway. In this case they are both sick, but I would want another parent with a sick child to keep them home to avoid the risk of infecting my child and the caregiver. Good luck!

Answer 2

While I completely understand where you are coming from, I think the general rule of thumb is to keep kids at home when they are ill unless it's been okayed by the child care provider. I don't have my kids at a nanny on a regular basis but the gal that sometimes watches our little ones in her home is usually okay having my kids there if they are feeling a little under the weather - of course I keep them home if it is anything more that a little cold. She does watch another child that has some health issues and no sick kids are able to come if he will be there that day. I would make it clear that you are okay with the other child being there if she is ill. Maybe this will make the other parent more relaxed about it. But unless all parties are comfortable with your sick child there it's not going to work out in your favor, sorry. You may want to try and find someone with a less-strict sick policy if your kid has a snotty nose every 2-3 weeks.

Answer 3

I think you've got a few different issues going on. Chances are pretty high that the babies will both be fine and that any illness that is passing between them will have been passed between them through you, and most likely before any symptoms were obvious. They will not be re-infected with the same virus over and over. And if they enjoy being together, ti is probably fine to have them be together. Siblings who are ill are generally not separated from each other.
This is a very different concern than whether it is your JOB to take care of babies when they are sick. I don't know how it varies from state to state but, in Massachusetss the law is that sick children need to be taken out of school or child care situations. I don't think this is really so much for the health of the kids, as it is for the protection of the child care workers. Sick kids need and deserve to have extra attention and a different kind of attention. Sick kids should not be expected to have to sit in classrooms and learn along with kids who are feeling fine. Sick kids need lots of rest and time to take a break and take it easy for a few days until they feel better. It's the same for babies -- they need to perhaps be held more and comforted more and given more inidividual attention. And it should be understood that they will be more demanding and more fussy. This should not be a responsibility of yours unless it has been understood by you and the parents that this would be part of your responsibility and not theirs. It sounds like something that should have been brought up before now. And if the parents have not called the doctor, whose responsiblity is it to call the doctor? Who decides when it is time to call the doctor? Who decides how sick is sick enough to call the doctor? This should all be the parents' job and not yorus. You need to set down some mutually understood and respected guidelines and rules for what the circumstances need tor be for the children to be in your care. Don't expecty the parents to take this responsibility if you have not made it clear what your limitations are.

Answer 4

Yep, you're right about the daycare thing...to a point. Here in MD, the regulations are that they are allowed to go to daycare with a common cold. But, if there is discolored discharge (the closest thing to a cold that's not allowed), they can be sent home. And anything worse than that - fever, vomitting, rash, etc - they can be sent home too.

Luckily, my daughter isn't sick much and since when she is sick, she got it from the other kids at daycare (run by my mother), she goes anyway - unless she has fever or vomitting. But, I would never ask anyone else to watch her if she was sick with a cold. You should be able to keep the 2 separated enough to not be sneezing on each other and breathing the same air etc. If you keep your hands washed between one and the other, gloves on for touching them and new gloves going between the two, stay out of their faces, etc., you should be fine. My mother does not get sick when the daycare kids are sick...maybe once a year..and this is her 25th year.

Answer 5

They only give it back and forth to eachother if theyre unhealthy- in the sense that they dont eat right and theyre already sickly children.

Siblings live together, and if it were true that sick kids just keep infecting eachother than every multi-child family in the world would be forever sick after the first cold season.

Chances are they caught the same cold bug, which means the mutation should be the same, and they wont pass it back and forth. If its just a virus, they'll form antibodies and get over it.

I wouldnt worry about it too much. Day cares are different, since its more than one child coming in, they all have different sicknesses, and if they all came in with their colds everyone would be perpertually sick from all sorts of different strains.

Answer 6

They probably wont pass it back and forth the way you are thinking, once they get a certain strain of a cold (or flu or whatever) then they are done with it. So one will pass it to the other one time. It's impossible to keep kids from being around other kids that are sick. They probably cant stay home when the child just has a cold. If working parents stayed home every time the child was a little sick, we'd all never go to work! lol.

Answer 7

Unfortunately, because you have not made a rule that sick children be left at home, the parents have the right to leave their sick children in your care. There are a few things that you can do to keep the illness as short as possible. The main thing is to wash all of the toys that the children put into their mouths before the next child plays with it. Also, wash your hands thoroughly between handling the children. That way you aren't inadvertently spreading the germs between the children. The last tip that I have is to not lay the children down next to each other. As babies, they like to stick their hands in their mouths and then touch things. If the children are laying next to each other, they are going to be wiping the germs from their mouths onto the other child. GOOD LUCK!!

Answer 8

If the nanny was sick, I would expect that she would stay home....but (and this is probably not what you want to hear) I would expect my nanny to take care of my child if he was sick and she was ok. Even with the nanny share, I would expect the two children would be like two siblings at home with each other....and they will probably both get over it around the same time.

You can't compare the policies of a daycare to a nanny situation.

Answer 9

It's a proven fact that you can't catch the same cold twice. So as far as passing the cold back and forth, that wouldn't be an issue. However, yes the parents should be staying home with the children. My nanny and I have rules about that. We talked about it ahead of time though. A runny nose, or low grade fever, or slight cough she still takes him... Otherwise I stay home.

Answer 10

I would suggest you seperating them and keeping a bottle of disinfectant handy. You may be able to keep them in seperate rooms. Just try to manage germs the best you can, your the nanny so it's your job!! :) Since they are only infants you defidently want to keep everything as clean and sterile as possible because their immune systems are not too strong at that age.

GoodLuck and God Bless!