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Child Care

Monitoring for Illness (Surveillance)

Children are more susceptible to infectious diseases than adults so we must watch for illness at the centre to prevent its spread.

Child care centres must have written policies and procedures outlining the steps to monitor for illness and the steps to take when illness is identified. 

Monitoring for illness includes watching children for symptoms and recording those symptoms on a tracking form. An illness tracking form may include:

  • Attendance and absence of children and staff
  • Symptoms of illness
  • Dates and times that the symptoms started (onset)
  • Date and time that the ill child was picked up from the child care centre
  • Date and time that the child returned to the child care centre

An  illness tracking form gathers information on one page making it easier to see trends.  This helps the centre know when to take steps to prevent the spread of further illness. 

Respiratory symptoms include:

  • fever
  • runny nose
  • cough
  • nasal congestion
  • sore throat
  • chills 
  • muscle aches 
  • fatigue 
  • poor appetite
  • diarrhea (occasionally)

Enteric symptoms include:

  • two or more episodes of diarrhea or vomiting within 24 hours
  • fever
  • stomach cramps
  • chills
  • poor appetite

 Operators may need to gather more information to rule out non-infectious reasons for symptoms such as change of diet, reaction to medication, etc

According to the Child Care and Early Years Act, child care centres must record a daily health check of each child at the beginning of each day to detect possible symptoms of illness.

If a child or staff develops symptoms of illness while attending the child care centre:

  • Isolate the child from other children and staff. The child must be supervised and cared for while waiting to be picked-up. 
  • Parents/guardians should be called to pick up their child as soon as possible. Remind them of the exclusion period as per the Common Childhood Illness Brochure or centre policy. Any child who has a fever or is unwell and unable to participate in activities should be kept at home until they are feeling better. 
  • Keep the child comfortable, provide disposable tissues and encourage hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette.
  • Increase ventilation (ie: open windows) if it can be done safely.
  • Appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) must be available to the staff providing care to the sick child.  Once the child leaves the centre, the PPE can be removed and disposed of.
  • Clean and disinfect the isolation area.
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