Is Your Child Too Sick for Daycare?

Daycare helps working parents juggle their schedules yet knowing when to keep a sick child at home is often hard to judge. When must a child stay home, when is it acceptable to send them and how long should they stay out? “These questions can be challenging,” said Zachary Hoy, M.D., a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Pediatrix® Centennial Hospitalist of Nashville. Some symptoms have clear, standard policies, while others are less clear-cut, he explained. Fever is the most common reason children stay home from daycare. “Young children have many viruses in the first several years of life that create symptoms, including high fevers,” explained Dr. Hoy. “When children have these higher fevers, those illnesses can be spread more rapidly due to increased shedding of infectious particles.”

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