Originally published December 18 2005
Pediatric research examines sickness in daycare settings
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Kristen Copeland, MD, a pediatrician at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, conducted research on day care centers and the guidelines set up by pediatric experts to help parents decide when their child should stay home.
When is a child too sick to go to day care?
Does a kid's runny nose mean he should stay at home?
Parents and day care providers don't always agree on those decisions.
National guidelines on the topic were updated three years ago.
But many people don't seem to know about those guidelines, a new study shows.
The researchers included Kristen Copeland, MD, a pediatrician at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
The guidelines studied by Copeland and colleagues aren't law.
They were designed by health experts to simplify decisions about excluding kids from day care for health reasons.
Copeland's team gave surveys about the guidelines to 80 day care providers, 142 parents, and 36 pediatricians in Baltimore.
Most weren't very familiar with the guidelines, the surveys showed.
Each of the three groups didn't know how the guidelines addressed four out of 10 children's common health conditions.
The guidelines come from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, and the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care.
Try your hand at these questions, adapted from Copeland's survey.
Read each scenario and decide if the child could attend day care, according to the guidelines.
Your child has a thick green or yellow discharge from the nose for 5 days but no fever.
Your child has a new rash, but he or she is behaving normally and doesn't have a fever.
Your child is wheezing or coughing uncontrollably.
Your child has a fever and isn't acting like they usually do.
Your child shows signs of illness that prevent participation in normal activity.
The children in the first 2 scenarios can attend day care.
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