Keeping Kids From Getting Sick

Video Transcript

" Hi! This is Patti Billings. I am a certified pediatric nurse practitioner on behalf of expertvillage.com. In this clip, we are going to talk a little bit about some of the common illnesses that we see in our office that may or may not influence your decision on childcare. Probably ear infections and upper respiratory infections are the most common thing that we see. Here again an ear infection is not contagious, and a child can attend childcare with an ear infection, but the upper respiratory infection that they have is contagious and that is a judgment that you and your childcare provider can make provided they are not running a fever. The other common illness that we see is what we call gastroenteritis and this is a child who is vomiting or having diarrhea. These are often viral illnesses in children. They are contagious from one child to the other and a baby who is having a lot of diarrhea stools contaminates everything they touch basically and so that is something that is rather contagious if you send them to childcare. Hand washing is important, sanitizing, the surfaces are important but unfortunately many of these children still tend to spread these germs to the other children in daycare. Conjunctivitis or pink eye is the other thing that we commonly see. Now this is often a secondary reaction to a child who has a little congestion in his nose and rubs his hand across his nose and up into his eye, or has played with a toy that another child has played with and then rubs his eye with it. So, this is a highly contagious situation in a childcare center. Here again when they have been on the antibiotic drops for a day or two, they are generally not contagious and they return. "