Thursday, January 21, 2010

When a doctor's note isn't enough

Cameron has been sick all week. She's been fever free since Monday but as I wrote in my last post she has a wicked bad sore throat. I'm allowed to say "wicked" as I hail from Massachusetts. DH and I have been layering her pain medications - Motrin and Tylenol. But still she will eat maybe 3 ounces in a sitting if we're lucky.

I thought ahead and got a doctor's note outlining the dosage of the two medicines. Go me, I thought, patting myself on my back. This way the day care will have to give Cameron her medicine. After all, I had a doctor's note.

Nope. No deal. Apparently the day care will not give medicine unless it's a life threatening situation. Not to put my crass hat on or anything but WTF? I totally get that they are trying to avoid liability but what if Cameron had an ear infection and needed antibiotics while in school? Is DH supposed to interrupt his day and make a round trip to the day care to give her the medicine? I say DH because he is much closer than me and would have to be the one to do it.

Has anyone else experienced this with your day care? Do I have any recourse here? Cameron still has a sore throat and I'm worried she will drink even less than she has been for us.

4 comments:

A. said...

Don't know what to tell you, here. Both our old daycare and our current daycare will give medicines with a doctor's note as long as you fill out a medication dosage sheet. Maybe it's a North Carolina thing?

LauraC said...

Nope, our day care can't give OTC medications either. It's explicitly stated in their handbook. They can do prescription medications, like N&A had thrush once and they were allowed to give them the medicine with a doctor's note and pharmacy instructions. In general, I run down and give the meds to them. When they're sick, I'd rather check on them in person. Sometimes I'll bring them home if they are acting sick but technically "allowed" to be at school.

The other reason our school won't give pain meds is that people abuse them to cover up fevers. Just ask me about the mom who sent her kid to school doped up on meds with swine flu before the holidays. After the meds wore off, she spiked a 104 fever at school. In my boys' room. This is the same parent who gave my boys hand foot mouth when she sent her kid to school with it. And Nate got a second round of pink eye when she sent her kid to school with pink eye. All covered up with meds and/or justified by "it's a cold."

(Also our ped told us we could give the boys liquid malaaox when they've had mouth and throat sores in the past to help them with feeding but maybe she is too little for that.)

Donna said...

Never had a problem. I really think that is odd. Maybe they are worried about overdosing? It can happen expecially with some of the NSAIDs.

H said...

Public elementary won't give out any non prescription meds either- gone are the days of getting some tylenol. I do have paretns who show up during the day to distribute dosages of cough medicine, etc.