Daycare recommendation

[hehateme]

Hi:

I am not sure if this is the correct forum for posting this question but I thought that I will start here.

My son is 11 months old. He has been going to Kindercare in Plymouth, MN since he was 3 months old. We had visited many daycare facilities before choosing Kindercare. He is our first son so we were newbies. My son began having ear infections in December. He had cold followed by ear infections all the time. Doctors kept on telling us to wait us spring was near before getting ear tubes for him. Finally after 12 ear infections we broke down and get him ear tubes last month. Even after getting ear tubes he got another cold and had an ear infection. So in 30 days after getting ear tubes he has had 1 ear infections. This is still better than 2 ear infections he was getting every month.

We are trying to find ways to help him. We are trying to determine if the particular daycare we are going to is the cause of the problem. Even though we have warm weather in MN more than half of the kids in his room still have cold. There are 10 kids in his room and 5-6 kids have cold.

When I asked the daycare about how often they sanitize their toys they told me that once a week but they do it more frequently if kids are sick. Since one or more kids have had cold since December I am sure that they are not sanitizing the toys everyday. Another thing that bothered me was the fact they allowed parents to enter the infant rooms with their shoes on.
Another issue I have seen is that his daycare has 2 infant rooms. Due to teacher schedule they sometimes move the kids from one room to another. This exposes him to even higher number of kids(15-18).

I have called a few other day care facilities like New Horizon and Primrose School and both of these facilities sanitize the toys everyday and sometime even multiple times a day. They also don't allow parents to enter the infant room with their shoes on.

My son is doing well for the most part but he has runny nose for 8 months without any break. We took him out of daycare for 6 weeks and he was healthy during that time. My son loves his teachers and seems generally happy.

I am considering moving him to another daycare. I feel that a cleaner environment might help him. I know that he will have to adjust to new teachers and students but kids can adapt quickly. Our doctor told us that changing daycare will only help if our son is exposed to less number of kids.

Please share your thoughts on what we should do.

[BabyBearsMom]

I would check with your state on what requirements they have for daycares. The way you describe your Kindercare, they would not meet the sanitation requirements in my state (which is not MN, but I would think they would be similar). For example, we have to wear special booties in the infant room, and the room is cleaned and sanitized at least once per day in our state. Our day care actual cleans/sanitizes twice per day. If your daycare doesn't meet minimum standards, you should issue a complete to your state department of health and human services.

That being said, kids in daycare are going to get sick and it isn't uncommon for them all to have the sniffles for most of the year. I wouldn't expect that by switching daycares you would get rid of the constant runny noses.

[mommylamb]

We moved my son from a Kindercare to a home daycare about a year and a half ago. There were a lot of reasons, but one was hygene. There are only 7 kids in his daycare (2 teachers) and they sanitize everything every day after the kids go home. Since we started, he has been to the ped for 1 sick visit-- which probably wasn't even necessary. Though I must say, he wasn't often at the ped even at the Kindercare (knock on wood, the kid just has a healthy constitution).

[swrc00]

My son goes to a Goddard school. They rotate several sets of toys throughout the day and everything is sanitized daily. If a child has an illness that results in them being sent home, the room is cleaned from top to bottom to try to prevent the illness from spreading. Once a week is not enough, especially for still being in the infant room ( I am assuming).

My DS got tubes at 9 months. This is pretty early but DH is 36 and has a tube in one of his ears. Every cold DS got resulted in an ear infection. For me the tubes were not a means of stopping the ear infections but to stop the constant cycle of oral antibiotics. DS has had 3 infections since his tubes and has had them for almost a year.