Bed bugs are a health and safety issue that is springing up everywhere. What happens when a client has bed bugs at home and brings them to your daycare? A daycare owner asks:” Can I terminate a family because they continually have bed bugs? I have had to have my house sprayed twice at $700, and just found one on the little girl. How would you handle this situation?” We asked the fans of OwnADaycare on Facebook who are daycare owners for how they handle having a client that has bedbugs. Here are some of the best responses:
- I would definitely ask the family to leave, obviously they haven’t resolved the problem and you cannot stay in business spending $700.00 to have your home sprayed. You won’t keep the other families if you continue to have this problem. You just need to be upfront with them and tell them it’s time for them to move on.
- I had to ask a family to leave for similar reasons. I thought the little girl had gotten badly bitten mosquitos and it was fleas.
- You do not need ‘permission’ to meet the best interests of your family (not to mention the other families you care for). Be confident in your decision and don’t second guess yourself, you already know what you need to do. Good Luck
- Unfortunate for this client’s child(ren), I’d probably terminate services because client undoubtedly knew about these bugs and knew it was a possibility she would bring them into your home. If you could prove the bugs came with this client, she should pay the $700. However, just because you found one on her daughter, doesn’t prove the bugs came from her home. Nevertheless, YES, you can terminate. At the risk of embarrassment, I would ask if she had bed-bugs in her home.
- I would also give a call to child protective services, they are not going to take the kids but they will help the family solve the problem and the child is not in a good situation OR the parents for that matter
- I would have given them notice a long time ago and might have even passed on the bill to have my house sprayed. I agree with notifying child services. This could be speaking to the environment that this poor girl is living in.
- Do the responsible thing and terminate care. You by keeping these children in your care are putting all the other children and their families at risk of bringing them into their homes
- Treat it like lice. They don’t have to be asked to leave for good, but just until the problem is cleared for 24 hours.
- Treat it lice or if they are sick; don’t bring the kids until they are well! Put your foot down and inform them you cannot babysit until this resolved for the sake of u and your family
- You can always give them a chance to “clean up” and if they don’t terminate. You need to have a healthy environment, not to mention a clean one.
- We just spent $3K getting rid of bedbugs (husband brought from an international trip). I think you must terminate if they don’t handle it.
- Tell them not to return until they get rid of them because they are causing a problem with the other kids, you have to be mindful bed bugs do spread, you don’t want no other child going home with bed bug, plus that money lost on your behalf if other parents start complaining
- How do you know they are from a particular family? The bugs are not just in homes and hotels, they are in department stores and even movie theaters.
- Calling child services on a family for having bed bugs is ridiculous & petty! The problem is, maybe the family doesn’t know how to get rid of them or aren’t following all the necessary steps. The same thing happens with children who get l…ice, sometimes they & their house need to be treated twice to completely take care of it. I would find info online of how to get rid of them, print it out, & give them a copy. I would also give them a business card of the person who sprayed your house & recommend they may want to use the same company. You may even want to pass that info on to everyone in your care. Something you have to be cautious/considerate of is are you 100% positive they are coming from this family & only this family? If so, how do you know, did the parents admit it or are you assuming because you found a bug on the girl? If it’s just because you found a bug, it could have been carried in by someone else or a “left over bug” from at your house. It’s hard to pin point the exact person/place of cause. If I knew for sure it was them, I would terminate, if I wasn’t for sure, I would not terminate.
- This is a matter of keeping the other children in a clean safe environment. I would terminate immediately and although you might feel bad for the child, you need to put the interest of your family and the other kids first.
- The only reasons I would consider terminating is because other parents will get freaked out by the bed bugs and because the mom doesn’t appear to be taking this very seriously. She may be taking it seriously but she isn’t acting that way….they can be hard to get rid of. I really can’t see why licensing would say to call CPS and I really wouldn’t call. Bed bugs happen. The parents didn’t cause it. It’s like lice: annoying, gross, difficult to get rid of but not life threatening.
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