I went to work for a friend from church that had her own homedaycare. It was us two with 6 kids or so including my daughter.
I was CONSTANTLY sick... I have never been to the doctor so many times in one year or been on antibiotics so much in my life. My daughter had a runny nose that never went away or if it did it came right back again. Because of all the colds we kept getting ear infections and sinus infections. My boss kept telling me it was normal to be so sick like that the first year working in a daycare or doctor's office than after awhile you are more immune and don't catch as much.
All I know is it was to much for us and I quit.
I was broke from doctor bills.
The parents drove me nuts.. they wouldn't take their kids into the doctor, they would give them tylenol before showing up to trick us they weren't sick, they'd refuse medicine and only give weird herbal things that didn't work,they'd be in denial there kids had the chicken pox and not take them in right away stuff like that. And the kids like over age 2 put everything in their mouths.
I quit working there about 2 years ago and our illnesses and visits to the doctor have gone down drastically. Now if we do get a cold it goes away and it's not a constant thing.
My only suggestion is stock up on cold meds., and make the parents use it to control the symptoms because symptoms:(coughing,sneezing,runny noses) is what spreads it.Control the symptoms and you'll not be spreading so much around. And get super strict when the kids are to sick to come and should really be at home.
I'm actually not to fond of cold meds and medicating my daughter at home but at daycare I had to because otherwise it spreads likes wildfire.
I use to offend my boss but I didn't care. I was obsessive with handwashing, antibacterial lotions, if another kid had a nasty nose I told my daughter to not play with them. I just got so fed up with being sick.
Have antibacterial gels wipes all over the house and have the kids wash their hands alot.
We never had alot of problems with flus or vomitting it was always just colds and nasty nasty runny green noses.