Where the germs hide in day-care.

One of the more vexing problems in day-care is that of outbreaks of diarrhea among the children. Compared to most infectious diseases in day-care, diarrhea is the one problem that really necessitates exclusion of a child from the day-care environment. Other illness, such as respiratory problems, really don't place other children at any more risk if the sick child continues to attend day-care. Usually in those instances, the period of highest communicability was actually before or during the very early days of the illness. But diarrheal disease continues to be a threat to others as long as the child has diarrhea. This is why proper hygiene is so vitally important.

Even though we all know that it is only common sense to wash your hands after touching an ill child, especially one with diarrhea, we …