Illness Policy

Many children who attend therapy in this office are medically fragile and a common cold can place them in the hospital with serious problems. Even if your child does not have a fever, they can be contagious. It is important to keep everyone in the office as healthy as possible! Your help is appreciated!

Family members who are experiencing any of the symptoms mentioned on this page cannot be allowed in the waiting room. Remain in your vehicle or make other arrangements to allow them to rest at home.

Please contact the therapist ASAP upon observation of symptoms so that the session can be canceled. There are families on a cancellation wait list waiting for a slot to be seen. This allows time to contact them and make arrangements for them to attend.

Contact the therapist immediately if you have been exposed or if anyone in the family tested positive for Covid so that proper action can be taken.

When in doubt, keep them out!

Keep your child home if ANY of these are present in your child:

Positive Covid test for any person in the household. Follow the CDC guidelines for isolation. Parents and children who are in the isolation stage of wearing a mask must remain at home until the mask isolation is over. Since therapy requires close contact, a visible mouth for the child and therapist, and sometimes contact inside the mouth, everyone must be completely clear before resuming therapy. The child returning to therapy must get tested at the doctor's office if they have not been sick but have resided with a person in the home who had a positive Covid test. Recently, many children are not showing symptoms but are showing a positive test result and must go through the isolation period. A home test will not be accepted.

Coughing, sneezing, runny nose, and /or discolored nasal discharge. Keep allergy medications on board, especially during the high allergy seasons. This will assist in knowing if your child's symptoms are allergy related or a common cold. Do not assume it is just allergies unless checked by a physician. Talk to your child's doctor if the allergy medications are not effective. Children will be sent home to rest even if they do not have a fever. These are symptoms of many infectious illnesses.

Temperature is 100.0 and above with or without other symptoms (may return after 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medications). All children will have their temperature taken in the waiting room before each session. Teething will not be an accepted reason. Keep the car cool in the summer and the heater low in the colder months in order for your child to get an accurate temperature reading in the office.

Vomiting or diarrhea withing the last 24 hours. Your child may return to therapy after 2 meals have been eaten without vomiting or diarrhea. Refusal to eat and or drink can also indicate communicable illness so be sure to discuss this with the therapist.

Positive strep test. Children can return to therapy after antibiotics have been taken 24 hours prior to the therapy session.

All rash must be checked and cleared by a physician.

Red eyes with itching and crusty drainage must be checked by a doctor. This could be pink eye which is highly contagious and requires antibiotics.

Unable to attend school or daycare. If your child was not able to go to school or daycare due to feeling ill, allow them to rest at home and cancel therapy. Also if your child was in the ER or was discharged from the hospital on the day of therapy, take them home to rest.