Children and ‘Bloopy Tummies’!

All childcare providers need to react at times to an upset tummy in a child. It’s part of life!

Here’s a quick overview of how we deal with these things and some actions that can be taken to reduce the risks of such happening in the typical Dayton childcare day.

Childcare and tummies

Children’s digestive systems can be a little fragile and volatile.

Of course, some children seem to be able to consume copious quantities of just about anything without any ill-effect whatsoever! Others have more sensitive tums and that just reflects the fact that one sees the same in the adult world.

Most children have moderately sensitive stomachs. They’re getting used to the many different foodstuffs that are available in today’s world. Some might agree with them more than others and of course, there’s always the chance they’ll discover that they had a mild allergy to some things or classes of food.

In a childcare environment, odd tummy grumbles and ‘bloopy tummies’ are far from unusual. Constipation is also seen fairly regularly. Sometimes they arise from foods consumed the night before but they might also happen due to psychological reasons if the child feels stressed for whatever reason.

All our personnel are trained in handling such things and children needing to use the toilet with a degree of urgency! For us, this is never a crisis or problem.

In most cases, these incidents are nothing and the child is fully back to normal a few minutes later. Such instances would be reported to parents at collection time and are no cause for concern. Should the problem be a little more severe or not respond quickly, we would invoke our parent contact procedures.

Avoiding problems

Here are a few tips to help reduce the chances of a bloopy tummy affecting your child in a childcare centre:

• we respectfully request that parents keep children at home if they have experienced some minor stomach issues before leaving home. That’s because some tummy bugs may be contagious;
• it’s a good idea for children to have a familiar breakfast before coming to the centre. It might be risky to experiment with unusual foodstuffs first thing in the morning;
• ideally, the night before, children should eat and have time to fully digest their food before being settled down for the night. Some children might not react well to eating too close to their bedtimes and the results may be just waiting for the morning to appear.

Although no childcare centre is qualified to offer medical advice, it would be advisable to consult a doctor quickly if:

• your child regularly experiences stomach troubles of any kind, including bloopy tummy (tummy runs), excessive wind, constipation, pain/aches or vomiting;
• their poo (faeces) is constantly runny;
• there is blood or mucus visible in their poo;
• they have a stomach problem which also has other symptoms, such as a temperature, fatigue, vomiting, a loss of colour, no appetite;
• they are mentioning tummy aches but it is at the same time every day.

Keeping perspective

The vast majority of tummy troubles reported in Dayton early learning centres are perfectly routine, of short duration and often disappear faster than they arrived. Sometimes all that’s needed is a little hand-holding on the toilet or a few quiet “calm time” minutes away from all the fun and games with their friends. 5 minutes afterwards, it has all usually been forgotten!