Medicating in the Day Care/Day Nursery

Children may need to be medicated during the time they are in day care or day nursery. Since the personnel are not trained in healthcare there should be an instruction from the doctor in any case of doubt.

If the medication is on prescription, it is important to administer it as instructed. Both dosage and time for medicating a child should be precise. Some children will therefore need to be medicated during the time they spend in day care.

When a child – after an acute illness – returns to the day care it may still need to be medicated. A typical case is a child with tonsillitis who returns after a couple of days of treatment with penicillin because it is healthy enough to attend day care. In this case, the child will need to be given its medication for a few more days.

Some children with chronic diseases need to be medicated several times a day and therefore also during the time they spend in day care. A typical case is a child with asthma who has to take its regular medication several times a day.

Since the personnel are not trained in healthcare there should be an instruction from the doctor in any case of doubt. In many cases, it will say on the packaging of the medication how much to give the child. In the cases where a more thorough instruction about medicating is necessary the management of the day care can request that the parents supply them with a written instruction from the doctor.

Guidelines for medicating in the day care:

• Dosage and time should be kept.
• If the child develops a rash or have any other new symptoms you should contact the doctor.
• Only administer the prescribed medication.
• Medication should be kept out of reach for children.
• A chart should be constructed so the personnel can keep track of whether they have administered the child’s medication.

The information above is based on the guidelines of the National Health Service of Denmark.

Further reading on The Individual Illnesses