Basically, this daycare has a no diary and no nuts rule. Dairy being brought to daycare is an automatic 3 day suspension and nuts are automatic permanent expulsion.
Do you think this is crazy or a great thing for all children with allergies?
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I think the immediate expulsion is a bit much. But I get the rule. Liability with food allergies being so prevalent these days.
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I think it's crazy and way over the top. But the parents must have known the rule, so no excuses. Maybe a warning system would be better if they have that many allergy ridden kids.
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Its harsh but it was part of their policy - the family knew that rule when the enrolled their child.
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I think charging a fine to the parents is a better approach. Or a lesson regarding food allergies or something.
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Everyone knows the best way to get quality childcare is to go to the media when you disagree with your daycare's clearly stated policies.
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Parents know the rule. The parent broke the rule. I agree with the suspension. I think expulsion is a little rough...
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I feel like the punishment shouldn't have involved the child directly.
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I guess I'd rather see the kid just sent home instead of suspended. I'm under the impression that suspensions stay on a child's record, right? Seems like a bogus reason to be suspended considering it's the parent who is at fault anyway.
Another option: maybe just throw out the food and provide the kid lunch, which the parents are billed for?
ETA: Also immediate expulsion is just crazy. What if over the weekend the kid had a package of peanuts, put it in her coat pocket and forgot about it, completely unknown to the parents? Seems crazy to expel a kid over an honest mistake. I don't think an expulsion should happen until at least the second offence.
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How does a daycare not allow dairy? I would assume a lot of the kids drink milk?
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crazy and over the top- esp if this is a first time offense.
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@lawbee11: right?? I am confused about that as well...
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@lawbee11: the article said NO outside food was allowed - so I assume the school only provides dairy free drinks and food
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Rules are there for a reason, and it would be worse if they didn't enforce it. It's too bad for the girl, but the parents should have known better.
ETA: Okay, i think it's stupid if they provide dairy but not allow outside dairy. sheesh.
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@lawbee11: or eat yogurt? My son has dairy at every meal, it's partly because he has oral motor issues and doesn't tolerate a lot of complex foods.
As a parent, I feel for both sides, I really do, but it's not fair to cater to one side or the other. If you really don't want the liability, don't include meals...and don't be in the business.
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@looch: Right, so you wouldn't send your child to this DCP.
But for a parent (not me) of a kid with food allergies I would be thrilled and over the moon to find a DCP like this!!
(just being devils advocate) -
I saw another article about this somewhere else. The dad actually had found the cheese sandwich in the girl's pocket, cause she had stuffed it in there after having some of it for breakfast. He didn't realize it until they got to the daycare, but before they had even gone inside, the dad found the sandwich and actually had asked the people inside to dispose of it. In turn, they suspended her for having it.
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@Dandelion: ah ok - now that's different - sounds like a mistake!
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@Dandelion: Yeah just read this:
"Murray said he knew his daughter had the sandwich in the car, but didn't realize she had put it in her pocket and taken it into class."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/daycare-suspends-2-year-old-girl-over-cheese-sandwich-1.2561458
Seems nuts to suspend a kid for that.
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@Mamaof2: @pui: Yeah, and the dad had actually been trying to do the right thing by asking the teachers to throw it away.
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@pui: Nuts would've gotten his daughter expelled!
In all seriousness though, it sounds like they have a zero-tolerance policy towards food allergies... if my kids had a life threatening allergy, I would appreciate that strictness!
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OMG this boils my blood:
"Murray said parents signed onto the policy when they joined the daycare and said the policy is clearly posted at the front door entrance. The message, however, is only in French, a language Murray admits he cannot read well enough to understand."
THIS IS CANADA. WE ARE A BILINGUAL COUNTRY. GAH. Having an important policy displayed only in French is not "clear". I officially think this daycare is completely in the wrong.
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@Mamaof2: actually, I would expect the director to come up with a plan to address the issue and what could be provided as alternatives.
Do they not accept infants using formula?
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@pui: then the policy should have been posted in both languages, right?
Eta: I see you edited!
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@looch: Exactly.
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I read about this, and it sounds like the dad just made a mistake. However, it also sounds like there are quite a few kids with serious allergies/more complex health issues...so as a parent of one of the other children, I understand.
What I don't understand is how the punishment fits the 'crime'. The little girl is too young to understand why the rules were broken, and it doesn't seem fair to have her out of school just for that. -
As a mother to a child with a severe egg allergy, I think this is appropriate. Especially the peanut issue. I think the parents would feel differently if the didn't obey the rule and a child died as a result.
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@pui: the article above says it was posted in both English and French
" and that they ran their food policy, in French and English, as recently as the January issue of their monthly newsletter"
I hate articles like this - I feel like we never know ALL the facts!!
@looch: There are no alternatives - their policy is NO outside food. end of policy. If you choose to send your child there then they will eat what the DCP serves and nothing else.
No clue about infants and BM/Formula
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They set the rules and the parents agreed to them signing their kid up there. It sounds a little over the top, but I agree with it. Imagine if the story had gone another way - 'child dies at day care when classmate brings in peanuts' - then we'd all be sitting here wondering why there isn't a policy again peanuts when there are such severe cases of peanut allergies.
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@Mamaof2: Monthly newsletter? I'm sorry that's not good enough. An important policy like this where they can apparently expel a child should be in the contract they signed, clearly outlined in BOTH languages. Right now it doesn't sound like that was the case.
Sorry this especially pisses me off having grown up as an anglophone in Quebec lol.
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@Mamaof2: I just don't agree, sorry. If my son doesn't eat what is offered, we'd have to discuss it. Allowing him not to eat is not an option, outside food or provided food.
Preference to an allergy child is just as bad as preference to a non allergy child.
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I'm assuming this is a private daycare, and they agreed to the terms when they enrolled their child (and uh, if you didn't understand the language of the document you were signing, then maybe you shouldn't have signed it?). Luckily, I don't have any kids with food allergies, but this is something they agreed to. They should have selected another daycare (I would have) if they didn't agree with the policies.
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@HabesBabe: Probably shouldn't sign something you don't completely understand (although people do that with contracts even in their mother tongue, I see it everyday), but I still can't believe they had such an important policy in a language probably less than half the people in Ottawa speak daily. That certainly doesn't qualify as "clearly". If they're really trying to protect kids the message should be communicated as effectively as possible and part of that should be having it available in both languages.
Frankly I think a policy like this should be verbally agreed too aswell when the child enrols. We're talking a policy where a simple mistake can get your child expelled, that's pretty serious business.
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This is crazy to me. When I read stuff like this it makes me so glad I live in a chaotic developing country where people are not so uptight and legalistic about everything!!
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@looch: If this were me, it wouldn't be preference to my child with an allergy over preference to a child without an allergy. It's a life or death situation. I count on my day care to keep my child safe.
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@2PeasinaPod: I have the same expectation of daycare. Where it doesn't compute for me is that in our situation, my sons oral motor issues mean he has a limited amount of safe foods, just as an allergy child may. If he doesn't eat, he will starve, so it is also life or death.
It doesn't sit well with me that people would say I should go elsewhere, but if I said that of an allergy child, I'd be flamed.
Do we really want separate places for allergy and no allergy kids? Public school isn't set up that way, at least not where I live. Schools are not allergen free.
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@looch: I understand your point. I think the difference is that if I didn't want to abide by a policy that a specific day care had (let's just say a day care WOULDN'T take my son's allergy seriously or had a policy that went against something I felt was necessary), I would want to look elsewhere. And I think others would advise me to go elsewhere and I wouldn't flame anyone for that suggestion. We all want what's best for our children, and I think finding a day care that best fits that need is important.
Public schools are a bit different than private day cares. Some private grade schools require uniforms vs. public schools that may not. If you don't abide by the rules, you can get suspended and expelled. It's just a matter of how strict the rules are and how severe the punishment is. In the case of the day care, people are choosing to send their children there for a specific service. Some may be sending them there because of how strict they are with food allergies. I think they'd be setting a bad precedent if they let someone slide from published rules.
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Private daycare doesn't mean exempt from state regulations in the US, right? You have to follow the teacher to child ratios if you want to maintain your license.
At the end of the day though, we all want a place where we get that good feeling when we leave our child in their care. It's not always that simple or easy to just look elsewhere and change. I would expect the director to address the issue, just as they would with a child that presents another allergy. To just say go find another alternative to a parent whose child is allergic to wheat for example, or tell all the parents who have wheat tolerant children to find something else? Where do you draw the line?
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@looch: Very true...and you're right. It all boils down to feeling comfortable at the place that cares for your child.
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The policy seems super extreme to me, however if this daycare center wants to cater to kids with allergies then I think they should be over the top explicit about it. Like not just in the paperwork and newsletter, but make it a selling point/talking point every time someone wants to sign up, explicitly mentioning the penalties for failure to follow the rules. Then if someone breaks them? Fine do whatever you want. But at least parents would be super aware of what they were signing up for and if their kid doesn't have allergies-- maybe consider another daycare with a less strict policy.
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43 comments