Cleanliness in Classrooms (Is It So Hard?) More Added!

As a teacher, and a future mother, I had to respond to this. Ia gree witha PP. You may want to have your daughter's immune system evaluated. i teach 26 second graders, and we have almost perfect attendance everyday. Of course kids are going to get sick, but 21 days is alot.

I try and have teh kids wipe down their desks once a week with wet ones, and I try and wipe down the book shelves. But depending on the size of your daughters school, the custodians cannot do all of this in each classroom daily.

I was very healthy as a child and so was my sister. i think alot of it has to do with luck. I used to play outside all day barefoot, and we didnt have anti bacterial everything, and I am just fine. i think as a society we have gone a little to "germ" crazy. Germaphobes can drive themselves nuts.

I have never heard of a child that gets blisters when she uses wipes. that may be anotehr thing to have checked out.

I also agree with MR. Going to the superintendent seems a bit extreme. Start with the teacher or the principal. But I can almost guarantee what their response will be!

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Don't you think it is more appropriate to contact your daughter's pediatrician rather than the school superintendent? I mean, unless every single kid in the class is getting sick with exactly the same frequency as yours; however, that does not sound like it's the case.

A word on sanitizing: My apartment is about one step away from being a HAZMAT situation, my daughter was in daycare for almost three years, and we used hand sanitizer for about a month after she was born and then forgot about it. She still chews on stuff, regardless of whether it's actually food. Yet, save for the passing runny nose or stomach bug, she's rarely sick. I'm not saying you should let your kid eat dirt or anything (although mine would if she could get away with it, LOL) but it may help your peace of mind to lighten up a bit about the germ thing.

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Have you taken her to the Dr.? If not you certainly should to see why she is sick so much. Kids do get sick every now and then but for her to miss 21 days of this semester I would say there is some problem or something going on with her.

On another note I know you are trying to raise her in a "christian" environment...I hope she has never heard you call her father an idiot.

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I think it highly unrealistic to think that you can eradicate germs by being clean. That is an illusion. You might be able to reduce them, but children playing together are going to cough and sneeze and touch the same toys and transmit germs. This is a part of life and nothing to freak out about. Look on the bright side, your child's immune system is developing anitbodies against further infections eveytime she gets sick! On the other hand, if your child taking a long time to recover from ordinary colds and flu, you should prably consult your doctor just to be on the safe side.

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They can disinfect all day long, but it won't help when the virus is airborne or contact.. think of it, the kids cough and sneeze and touch each other and share things all day long, by the time the janitor gets there it's too late.

The best you can do is teach your child how to wash their hands and keep them to themselves....good luck with that!

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I understand your concern, but the Superintendent is the end of the line when it comes to complaining. It is best to start with her classroom teacher to get an idea of what is going on. Make an appointment for a conference with him or her to discuss your concerns. If you're not satisfied you go up the food chain - her supervisor or her Principal. If after meeting with those people you're not satisfied then you go to the Superintendent.

I have a question, but understand I am not trying to place blame. Did your child ever go to daycare with a lot of other children or was she cared for by you as a SAHM or by your parents or a single caregiver/nanny? If so, then it is to be expected that your child might get sick more often due to the fact that her immune system hasn't encountered various colds and such thus not yet building any sort of defense toward them.

Also, there are some predictable times for kids to get sick at school (I've been teaching for 12+ years and this pattern has been seen in all 3 schools I've taught). Three weeks into the school year everyone seems to get sick. That's enough time to get settled into a pattern, have some time for people to be breathing each other's air and touching each other's desks, etc. Furthermore, anytime after a break (like winter break or spring break) we see a dip a week or two after students return. Finally, did you daughter get a flu shot? It isn't too late to get one if she is having this many issues with being sick.

You should definitely schedule an appointment with the teacher and discuss your concerns. But, like another poster said you need to have realistic expectations. I'm a high school teacher and have 5 classes of about 30 students each. If I were to thoroughly wipe down every desk, pencil sharpener, surface, folder, book, after each class leaves we would never get anything done! We have hand sanitizer and tissues available in each of our classrooms but even that cannot stop every single illness. And, as you know germs can be passed through sneezing, moisture in breath, and by skin-to-surface contact (hands touching). Short of forcing my students to wear haz mat suits, there will always be things that will get through.

I know that there are a few women who regularly post on this board who (hopefully) will provide you with information on how diet and supplements can help boost your daughter's immunity. At this point, it might be something to seriously consider.

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I would think that after this long that it is not all about the school. Sorry, but 21 days is a long time to be sick. Your daughters immune system is obviously not handling things well. I think it might be time to ask the dr to check for mono or strep. I agree with the other poster that suggested a flu shot. Kids need to be exposed to germs to get immune to germs. I also think that this time of year that lots of kids are sick. My daughter is on her 3 round of antibiotics this year, so you are not alone! Kids get sick...no one to blame!

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Have you talked to her teacher and discussed the cleanliness concern in the classroom? If they are having a huge outbreak in her classroom they should be disinfecting the classroom thoroughly. If the teacher is not seeing this outbreak, then her immune system may be a little immature. Is she drinking orange juice everyday and taking a multivitamin, at the very least? She could have underlying allergies. You have to determine if it is a concern at the school level or something that you have to address about your daughter. At the very least, it's frustrating for your child to be sick so much.

Kids usually develop a stronger immune system but this could be extreme in the classroom - having so many illnesses at once. Having the teacher host a short hygiene discussion or have the school host this would be a great help. Good luck.

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I would also think that your child has a weaker immune system. As someone else said, there are probably children in your daughter's class who rarely, if ever, get sick.

A word of warning about trying to keep an ultra-sanitary and germ-free environment. There is an immense fear nowadays about germs, viruses and bacteria, and that we have to protect ourselves against them at all times at all cost. However doing so may put you and others in your household at risk for becoming ill. Not exposing yourself to germs makes your immune system weaker and unable to fight off any that come along. Think of it as if you never let your immune system exercise or lift weights because you're afraid it will hurt itself. And all of a sudden a bookcase falls on your immune system and now it doesn't have the strength to lift it off. (I know it's a silly analogy but it's pretty close.)

I used to think that only good could come from being extra clean - better safe than sorry, right? Until I read an article in National Geographic on why there's been such an increase in illness, asthma, and allergies in children. It made a lot of sense! Luckily I was able to find it on their site and here's part of it: "Ironically it's not just the pollutants that are doing us in. It may be too much cleanliness—or rather, cleanliness of a certain sort. A prevalent theory among allergists is known as the hygiene hypothesis. The theory has its complexities and contradictions, but the basic idea is this: If the Liflanders had wanted to prevent Cameron's allergies, they should have moved a cow into their living room. People who live with farm animals almost never have allergies.

'The hygiene hypothesis has been on the scene since people first started looking at allergies,' says Andrew Liu, associate professor of pediatric allergy and clinical immunology at National Jewish. 'John Bostock, the guy who first identified hay fever, noted that it was a condition of the educated. He couldn't report any cases among poor people.'

Hygiene theorists say that while it's true that industrialization brings with it better health care and fewer serious childhood infections, it also brings an obsession with cleanliness. We are not exposed to dirt at a young enough age to give our immune systems a good workout. Also, because of the high cost of energy, more homes are built with an eye toward energy conservation, with better insulation—insulation that seals in mold and dust, enemies of allergy sufferers.

But if dirt is a good thing, why are allergies and asthma so prevalent in poor, inner-city neighborhoods? 'It's not just a question of exposure to dirt that reduces allergies—it has to be the right kind of dirt,' says Liu. 'We're talking about exposure to endotoxin and good microbes in soil and animal waste.'

(That entire article can be found here: http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/glo... )

But that aside, I would definitely take her to her doctor with details about how severely and how often she gets sick. Some kids are more susceptible to illnesses, but your daughter's case does seem excessive. Hopefully he/she can help!

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It's probably less of an issue of the school being clean and more of an issue of childrens' hygene habits. You can't follow the kids around with a disinfectant cloth!

YOUR daughter may wash her hands, but do ALL the kids wash their hands? Your daughter is using the same pencil sharpener, door handle, drinking fountain handle, table and play equipment as the kids who don't wash their hands. Someone would have to disinfect the drinking fountain handle after each child uses it. Impossible.

I have also noticed that many kids do not cover their mouth when they sneeze. They sneeze all over themselves, the kids next to them, the table. OR they cover their mouth with their hand...and then use that hand to sharpen their pencil.

See if you can get the teacher to do a short unit on hygene, or even come in yourself as a guest speaker. She should talk about washing hands after using the restroom and sneezing into your shoulder or elbow rather than all over your hands...or the person next to you!

See if your daughter can carry a small bottle of the gel hand sanitizer with her. Have her sanitize her hands after using the drinking fountain, sharpening a pencil etc. Most teachers only let the kids wash their hands after using the bathroom.

And also, pump up her vitamin intake. Vitamin C is very good for helping to boost the immune system. The make Emergen-C for kids, a packet that makes a yummy fizzy drink with lots of good vitamins.

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Dear H.:

Many children get sick from the cleaning products that the schools and daycare centers use to clean and disinfect not just the classrooms, but the whole facility.

Yes, you did the right thing because you care. Not only about your daughter, but how many other kids got sick as well in that time span? The school should check that out. Maybe if they did and realized something was wrong, they would do something about it.

I know the FDA has guidelines on what cleaning products schools and daycares can use. But we as parents and grandparents should know what is in the schools or daycare's that make our children ill.

I think the FDA needs to read the labels that are on the items that they say is safe for us to use. Maybe it would them them aware of the ingredients in them and how harmful they actually are. But that would cost lost of money.

There are so many products in the stores that are so harmful and dangerous to use. I used to purchase the same types of products to clean my home with until I realized how toxic they really are. Some make you sick, some make you sicker while others can lead to death.

On many of the labels of these products it will say DO NOT MIX with other products or use in a well ventilated area or seek medical attention if swallowed, etc.

Go on line and check out the products you're using and look for the MSDS - that stands for Material Safety Data Sheet. It lists the ingredients of that product; how to use this product, how harmful and toxic it is, what types of illnesses it can cause and how to safely dispose of the empty container.

You may be surprised what you find out. I don't understand how some of these items can still be on the store shelves. Many people are not aware of this and/or don't think about the ingredients because we as consumers want to get in out of the store because we have other things to do so we don't pay attention to the ingredients in them, we look for what's on sale, or continue to purchase what we've been using for years, or what our parents or grandparents used.

Change the store you shop at. Get safer non-toxic products into your home. Look for a wellness company or health food store to shop at.

As far as your husband goes, maybe the Lord will shake him up into realilzing his responsibility to your daughter, not only financially, but as her father. He doesn't realize what he is missing out on. He will be very sorry down the line. (I was married to someone like that along time ago, I stayed single for 9 years and had 2 small children).

We as mother's do what is necessary for the safety and protection of our children's well being. I commend you for having your home a Christian home and helping your parents and your Father in his time of need. Not many adult children help their parents these days, and I applaude you.

If I can be of further help, please let me know.

S.

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Do you sanitize your house? Do you know that sanitizing everything can actually make us more likely to get sick? That's because our body has no way of building up a resistance to the germs.

Second, what do you expect the schools to do? I just got a position teaching in an urban school (I'm from a rural area). There are thousands of kids in the building! MOST of them come to school sick! I don't know how many passes I wrote to the nurse's office in one day earlier this week. I also send my kid to school when she's sick. There's no ~little cough~ and she gets to stay home. Schools are among the germiest places to be because of the large population of mainly kids. You said your house is clean, "as clean as one person can keep it with an active child." Well, imagine A LOT of active children, and having about 10-20 people to clean up after them. Do you think you could thoroughly clean up after an average of 100 kids by yourself? I give the janitors tons of credit! Their job is to clean up after a bunch of kids (and sometimes adults) rip through and act like they were raised in a barn. Instead of criticizing and being part of the problem, why don't you try to be part of the solution? Start a volunteer committee and see if the school will let you all come in and help the janitors out a little once a week or something.

Finally, unless you live in a bubble or never come in contact with people, it's inevitable you're going to get sick. It's not always a bad thing to get sick. It literally makes you a stronger person by helping you build up your immunity. I don't like being sick, but, hey, it happens! It's part of life! It's better to get accustomed to what it feels like to get sick than go through life NEVER sick, and then one day you get sick and you have no idea what to do! If nothing else, then home-school your child.

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I would talk to her dr as to why she get sick so much and what you can o to help her immune system. It sounds like she gets sick a lot maybe she needs to build up her immune system a bit.

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A lot of viruses are spread through sneezing and coughing...things that can't be prevented. As far as the chicken pox...if all people in our country were immunized these diseases would not be an issue.

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Can you send her to school with hand-sanitizer wipes or something? I doubt that it's a janitor issue - germs don't live on surfaces overnight, for the most part. Or did you mean hygeine? You think the kids aren't encouraged to wash their hands enough? I think it's a great point to ask the teachers to emphasize that. You could try getting the PTO to buy hand sanitizing wipes for the classrooms (and buy them for your own child's classroom.)

I'm not sure you can do anything about it, though. The only way to build up immunity is to be exposed. My kids got sick all the time for one full year after they started daycare, and they were different ages. If I'd waited until they were 20, they would have gotten sick for a year at age 20, I guess.

Also, it's been a bad year for viruses and strep and so on. (or so my pediatrician said yesterday when he diagnosed my 5yo with strep.)

For the future, I probably wouldn't start with the Superintendent. It's usually teacher, principal, school board, then superintendent. But I'm sure your letter will get some kind of response!

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I am a teacher and come from a long line of teahcers in the family. I will tell you that I have seen students in my class get sick almost 50% of the school year, while in that same class another child has perfect attendance. Instead of thinking that the school is not cleaning enough I would be more worried about your child's weak immune system. I will pull parents aside and talk to them when their child is getting sick too often. I usually ask if they have discussed this issue with their pediatrician. Now on the other hand, I have seen very dirty classrooms and been a little disgusted with the teacher, but that will not make the children get sick more often. Some kids fair better with germs, while others don't.

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As I teacher (and a mother), I can clean as much as is humanly possible in my room and still have sick kids. I make my students wash their hands, clean their desks, etc., but germs still get through. It's the curse of being at the schools.

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You can now get hand sanitizer that is alcohol free? It's way more gentile on the skin. Costco sells it.

Regarding the other issues: I, too, moved in with my parents and son to give my son a better, more stable environment. It wasn't easy, but it was what was best. Keep it up!

For the germs/sickness/school issue: talk to your pediatrician. He/she will be able to address the issue better than anyone at a school. That's what your doctor is there for!
It's comforting to find blame for things, and a school is an easy scapegoat, but for your sake, your daughter's and the school's, try to recognize the real culprit here.

Best of luck...

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Try to help build your daughter's immune system--the world is full of people and diseases.
Probiotics in natural yogurts are a great start, or a probiotic supplement that you could get at places like Whole Foods.
Also talk to your doc about why your girl has been so sick, not likely that it's from school really.

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I can understand your frustration! One thing I do to help my daughter stay healthy is I give her probiotic supplements to boost her immune system. You can also give a multi vitamin, which you may already be giving her, and extra vitamin C. Garlic is good for combating viruses as well as Astralagus. If you go to a small vitamin store or into Whole Foods and ask for some assistance, the people there will likely be able to guide you as to what may help your daughters immunity. If your daughter has taken any antibiotics in her life I strongly recommend you give her a probiotic supplement at least for a short time to help rebuild the flora in her intestinal tract which will greatly improve her immunity. Unfortunatley there is not a lot you can do to prevent her from exposure to germs but there are things you can do to help her to not get so sick. I would imagine that many people send there children to school when they are sick, which may not seem right, but many people have no other means to care for their children while they work. Hope this helps! Good Luck.

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As a classroom teacher, I can tell you that it is hard to keep a room clean and germ free. Now I teach 4th graders who should have better hygiege skills than younger kids, but I can tell you, I have students who sneeze into their hands and dont clean them unless I stop and make them. I have kids who come in dirty from home bringing who knows what on them, I have kids with runny noses who still use their sleeves. In an ideal world kids would come to school clean and use best hygeine practices and go home clean, but unfortunately, they don't. Being sick 21 days is a little extreme too. I have a first grader and a preschooler and they both are in school full day and they have each only been out once sick.

I would talk to the teacher and ask if many kids in the class get sick, if she notices patterns, etc. This might be helpful as well.

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My daughters Dr questioned me awhile back about things... I told her I do not go anywhere without my sanitizing wipes and sprays! I admit I am a germaphobe!!!! I can not touch doors or cart handles etc. I am so disgusted when I go to the store. She then pointed out a pretty important fact to me.... even though I am protecting my daughter now I am setting her up to be VERY VERY sick when she does enter school! I have since stopped and now allow my daughter to be exposed to it all! It is going to help build her immunity for later.

We spend a lot of time in the hospital because of a disease she has but she has never been sick with a cold or flu. I believe it is because I have exposed her to things in small amounts since stopping the sanitizers. I allow the snotty nosed child who is coughing play with her. I even allow her to play in the play lands at those fast food joints! I do make sure though I wash her hands after playing in them since she is a thumb sucker but I do not go all out like I would on my own.

When she has been in the hospital I start her on Echinacea and Zinc. Trader Joes has ones that are like gummy bears and taste good too! I think that helps as well- it is suppose to help their immune system. I normally get sick with bad resp infections when she has been in the hospital within 2 weeks of her getting out. Since I start them now too I might feel a tickle in my throat but it never gets worse than that- KNOCK ON WOOD!!!!

No matter where you go unless you are to keep her at home you are going to be exposed to germs. Whether it is the little old lady next to you in church or the kid who coughed in the store and you walked by! I would honestly start the supplements and see if that helps.

Also, have you had her checked for allergies? If she has an allergy to mold, dust, pollen etc it can turn into respiratory infections.... mine is mold and 2 times I have had pneumonia brought on by it! Might be worth looking into. If that is the case then a daily dose of Zyrtec would work wonders!

I wish you lots of luck in getting her better and KEEPING her better! Blessings to you and yours!

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Your house has little to do with it! Maybe it is too clean! LOL. Whenever you have that many kids in one area, I don't care if the school was sprayed down every night, your child could still get something from somewhere. It could be at the grocrey store, or church, or anywhere! I would have her immune system checked, if this persists, maybe she has an immune disorder, (my sil has one, she was and is an exceptionally clean person. I know it is frustrating, expecially if you have a job you have to keep, but I assure you, it is not the school's fault. Maybe think about homeschooling and the letter to the school was not necessary, what is the Superintendent going to do?

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Have you tried more natural hand sanitizers? I believe Burt's Bees makes one and there are some sellers on etsy.com that sell them as well (I believe aloe is the main active ingredient in these, but I could be wrong). It's possible something in the regular sanitizers bothers her but possibly one with completely different ingredients wouldn't if you could track one down. It would be worth a shot, but expect it still would only help a little because as people mentioned, a lot of germs are airborne anyway.

Sometimes it can be the chemicals in your everyday products that can cause your daughter to become sick.I read that 1 in 2 children get cancer from chemicals found in shampoos, detergents,and household cleaners! After reading that I switched and found a great place that I can shop that uses only natural,non toxic ingredients in their products. It saves me time, money and our health. Let me know if you would like to know more! Best of Luck!