Sick Baby - childminder or nursery?

[springerspaniel]

My baby has picked up a couple of bugs from nursery recently. He has only been there a couple of months and has had diarrohea 2 or 3 times and now has conjunctivitis. I am happy that he picks up bugs - unavoidable and better immune system by the time he goes to school. BUT my husband and I are having to take loads of time off work. Sometimes, LO has been genuinely ill and I would not really expect anyone except myself of DP to look after him but all last week he had diarrohea but was laughing and giggling as normal. Diarrohea is total nursery ban. I am finding it really difficult to cope with days off at work. Inlaws can come down sometimes but not always. Would a childminder be better?

Am cross posting on childminding group.

[Blackduck]

Would have thought a childminder wouldn't want him either partic if they have other children.

[HappyMumof2]

childminders are not supposed to take children with diarrohea either. Especially as most of us have our own children & other peoples! You may find a nice one who will take him when ill (like me!) but most won't

[springerspaniel]

I know, that's what I thought but my boss reckons that they would so I feel obliged to check it out. I know he shouldn't put pressure on me but it's kind of tough so I don't really want to go into that!

I wouldn't want to pick a childminder where there were no other children because I want him to interact with other kids.

[bluebear]

Agree with Blackduck - childminder also has other children to think about.
Have you thought of a nanny-share - nannies are usually more able to deal with minor illnesses than nurseries/childminders (as long as you share with a sympathetic family who realise that the babies will share their bugs!)
I've got a nanny-share now, which was going to happen anyway, but i'm even happier about after being off work for 4 days over 2 weeks for what a nursery nurse called diarrohoea but what her manager (after I left work to pick up dd) said was not 'out of the ordinary for a vegetarian baby'...4 times this happened in 2 weeks - manager was extremely apologetic but nursery nurse was phoning without telling manager.

[springerspaniel]

Do you mind if I ask how much a nanny share costs? How did you go about finding one? Isn't a nanny share just like a childminder? I think I want him to be with other kids.

[dinny]

a nanny share means you have a nanny on certain days and another family has her/him other days.

my friend is a nanny and her rate is about £50 a day (plus employer pays tax and NI contributions)

[dinny]

look in Simply Childcare

btw, how old is your baby?

[bluebear]

You can either share the nanny every day with the nanny looking after both families children or, as dinny said, the nanny will work for one family on some days and the other family on others (2 part-time jobs) - these are called 'cost-sharing nanny' or 'time-sharing nanny'.
I have a 'cost-sharing' nanny share - with my nanny looking after both my children and the child from another family..in my home for most of the day. The nannies salary is split between the two families (As a rough guide - in my area of London nannys cost about £12 an hour including all taxes etc so nanny shares come out at about £6 per hour (childminders are £50 per day here, and nurseries are £46 for under 2's). Some nannys may charge more for being involved in a share - some won't!
I can recommend www.sharingcare.co.uk (there's a link from the mumsnet home page) which is where I found my share family, also www.nannysharers.co.uk - which is a new site, and also local noticeboards in kid-friendly cafes, and simply childcare.
You have to be really up-front with the share family and discuss your views and expectations of everything, but it can work - fingers crossed, it's working for us.

[bluebear]

Something I've just thought of - although you will probably have less time off work to be at home with a mildly sick baby - you will need to cover nanny's holidays - but at least you have notice of when they are, and in my share we are also sharing holiday cover between the two families so we don't both take time off work.

[bluebear]

Oh, and a nanny share isn't like a childminder - you have a lot more control over what the children do with a nanny, and they are in their own house, with their own toys, and usually a few less children (a lot of the local childminders have a lot of after-school children). As mentioned previously, nannies will look after children with the sniffles etc. However, childminders are ofsted inspected and have to be trained, CRB checked etc. whilst nannies don't need any qualifications unless you want them to be.
My nanny has NVQ3 in childcare, plus first aid training, and a CRB check, but this is because we wanted a trained nanny. .because of this she can get registered and we can pay her using childcare vouchers (which give us a tax saving) - all childminders can accept childcare vouchers as long as they are happy to do so.
It's horses for courses really - we couldn't find a local childminder who had a vacancy for my ds (who has mild medical problems which means that the minders were more likely to want other - more normal, children), and I wanted dd to have more 'chill out' time (she was in nursey 5 days a week) - so we now have dd at nursery part-time but mainly at home with 2 other little ones (sharer's dd and nanny's ds)..and ds is taken to school and picked up again...with so far only benefits seen.
Good luck, good childcare is so important for you to be able to feel happy at work - I feel for you!

[mumtoone]

Most children who've just started nursery come down with every bug going. In general I think the illnesses come round less often as they get older so with any luck the situation will improve. I know when I went back to work when ds was 6 months I was in and out of work because of sickness such as d&v, conjunctivitis and chicken pox. I would stick with your nursery if you are happy with every other aspect other than the illnesses.

[yossa]

i have had a similar experience this week with ds2 who has one of his big teeth coming through and always seems to get diarrohea with teething (yes- i know there is no scientific link - but i honestly believe there is a connection!)The nursery said he couldn't come in the following day due to his "loose bowels." He was not ill, they said so much themselves. I p*es me off when they look for every excuse not to have him in - i still have to pay full fee for the day. Antway i rang up to speak to the manager, who hadn't even had the decency to call me herself. I was insulted to be honest that they thought i would take my child to nursery when he was ill. Got nowhere as per usual, esp as she is due to go on mat leave at the end of the month. i can't wait until june when he is 2 and can go to the same nursery as ds1, where they take a much more child centered approach and will call you if they are poorly not just because the rule book says d or v = 48 hours exclusion. it's really hard to be committed to your kids and maintain credibility at work - whatever my company's "work-life balance" policy says!

[springerspaniel]

Yossa - agree with you. You do feel as though the implication is that you are a bad mother for daring to take sick baby to nursery! I would never take him if I thought he was very ill. I'm happy with the nursery in almost every way except the sick and run thing. LO is 8 months and has been going for about a month and a half so hopefully it won't last long.

Just heard from my friend who's LO goes to same nursery. He had conjunctivitis last week and nursery still accepted him! Oh well, one less thing to worry about I guess.