Summer Sickness
The close quarters of a childcare center can often be a breeding ground for cold and flu- even outside of the winter season.
Every year a new group of kids comes into my center and every year I end up catching some mysterious ailment that is going around our children and staff. Years ago, when I began working in childcare, I was told that the first year every childcare worker gets sick as they adjust to the close quarters and new germs of the kids, but after that I would be fine because I would build up and immunity. Somehow though, I inevitably end up with a cold or flu each season.
Thankfully, I typically have a strong immune system and I have built up a little bit of tolerance for the common cold, but I still wish that what I had been told was true. It likely would have been more valid if I had worked with the same exclusive group of children from the time I began until now, but that hardly every happens in modern childcare. Children are constantly entering and leaving different centers, and bringing with them the germs of their former home away from home.
With the beginning of this new summer, and with the cold that I am suffering from as I write this article, I have decided to begin a series on illness in the daycare and what parents, educators, and children can do to avoid it, and what they should do once if occurs. The first part of this series may be found at:
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