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Allow me to point out that you may not have known the medical history of every kid you went to school with. Back when I was in school in the 1950s/60s, I knew of kids on epilepsy meds. Kids have been medicated for ADHD (called "hyperactive" at one time) since at least the early 1970s. And then there are antibiotics, which have been around since the 1940s. Antibiotics for acne is a treatment that has been around a long time.
Your treatise about medications is off-topic.
Re: the last bold, don't break your neck falling off your high horse. We parents "abrogate" various responsibilities every day!
Again, you may not have known the medical history of every kid in your camps. Ask the former camp nurse.
Former camp nurse here. I worked at two sleep away camps, and my job was essentially distributing medication to campers.
At both camps, meds were distributed at certain times. Bunk councilors were provided with a list of campers who needed to report for medication (but not what medication they were taking) and were responsible for taking younger children - or reminding older campers - to go to the infirmary for their meds.
I have never heard of a residential camp where campers are permitted to keep [b]Any[b] medication with them. ALL medications - including vitamins, are turned over to the camp nurse, who keeps them while the child is at camp.
Campers are never permitted to have any medications in their bunks or on their person.
More campers than you might imagine, regularly take medication. Most distributed were psychotropics, especially medications for ADD. Followed by anti-depressants, antihistamines, and asthma medication.
So, you need not worry - children are not responsible for remembering to take their medications.
When your child leaves, the meds are returned to the parents.
What you described has always been my experience with overnight camps as well. I find it really shocking that there apparently was not such a system to distribute meds each morning and keep track of who had received meds and who had not. And, yes, children were not permitted to hold onto their own meds with the exception of Epi-Pens/inhalers. In this case, though, it appears that the children (at least my child) did not receive their meds unless they asked for them. I'm awaiting a response from the camp director to clarify all of this.
If I found myself in a situation where my child required critical daily meds I don't think I could in good conscious abrogate this responsibility to a camp counselor... just couldn't do it.
I think you might sing a different tune if you did actually have a child who required daily meds. Parents of kids who need medication don't want those children just sitting around, missing out on all of the pleasures of childhood. My kid was diagnosed with a food allergy when she was 5. I haven't made her stay within arm's reach of me for the past nine years. She developed a heart condition a few months ago and takes heart medications daily. Again, I can't just keep her with me constantly. It worries me, of course, but she has to be allowed to grow and live her life.
Allow me to point out that you may not have known the medical history of every kid you went to school with. Back when I was in school in the 1950s/60s, I knew of kids on epilepsy meds. Kids have been medicated for ADHD (called "hyperactive" at one time) since at least the early 1970s. And then there are antibiotics, which have been around since the 1940s. Antibiotics for acne is a treatment that has been around a long time.
Your treatise about medications is off-topic.
Re: the last bold, don't break your neck falling off your high horse. We parents "abrogate" various responsibilities every day!
Again, you may not have known the medical history of every kid in your camps. Ask the former camp nurse.
Please read again...
No need to point out because I said the kids I know... "Growing up all through grade school I only knew one child taking any kind of meds... he was diabetic and gave himself the injection in the principal's office each day"
Never said all or every... just the ones I know in my 8 room school grades 1 to 8.
Basically 50 kids together from first through eighth grade... my brother even had the same teacher twice, second grade and then again for fifth grade.
Eight years is a long time in the life of a child to be in school with the same group... 42 of the graduating Eighth Graders were together since First Grade... number would have been higher but the twins left after 7th grade (Dad was a Navy Doctor at Oak Knoll Navy Hospital)
What child didn't have anti-antibiotics at one time or another... mine had to be kept refrigerated... remember I was in 5th grade and Doc said I should stay home and NOT go to school while taking it and that is exactly what happened.
Posters on City-Data are not monolithic... only members sharing opinions and experience.
If it makes any difference... Mom spent over 40 years as a RN and with 28 as charge... my Sister in Law is a Doctor and I have 28 years as Director of Engineering for my hospital... which is now part of a 100,000 employee health care system... all of which you know from previous dialogues.
Still does not change the fact that all through grade school there was only one child that went to the Principal's office each day because he was diabetic... kids being curious it would generate a lot of questions and we were all protective of him... maybe more common in a small school where everyone knows each other?
Since we are on the topic of kids at camp... several in my family worked summers as lifeguards for the regional park district during college... the rules were quite strict and never did they are were they permitted to hold or administer meds... the district citing liability.
Before you say it... of the East Bay Regional Park District while quite large and encompassing many cities and counties IS NOT all or every camp in the United States.
Again... regarding abrogate... simply what I wouldn't do... anyone may abrogate to their hearts content regarding their child or children...
Last edited by Ultrarunner; 07-16-2017 at 12:14 PM..
No need to point out because I said the kids I know... "Growing up all through grade school I only knew one child taking any kind of meds... he was diabetic and gave himself the injection in the principal's office each day"
Never said all or every... just the ones I know in my 8 room school grades 1 to 8.
Basically 50 kids together from first through eighth grade... my brother even had the same teacher twice, second grade and then again for fifth grade.
Eight years is a long time in the life of a child to be in school with the same group... 42 of the graduating Eighth Graders were together since First Grade... number would have been higher but the twins left after 7th grade (Dad was a Navy Doctor at Oak Knoll Navy Hospital)
What child didn't have anti-antibiotics at one time or another... mine had to be kept refrigerated... remember I was in 5th grade and Doc said I should stay home and NOT go to school while taking it and that is exactly what happened.
Posters on City-Data are not monolithic... only members sharing opinions and experience.
If it makes any difference... Mom spent over 40 years as a RN and with 28 as charge... my Sister in Law is a Doctor and I have 28 years as Director of Engineering for my hospital... which is now part of a 100,000 employee health care system... all of which you know from previous dialogues.
Still does not change the fact that all through grade school there was only one child that went to the Principal's office each day because he was diabetic... kids being curious it would generate a lot of questions and we were all protective of him... maybe more common in a small school where everyone knows each other?
Since we are on the topic of kids at camp... several in my family worked summers as lifeguards for the regional park district during college... the rules were quite strict and never did they are were they permitted to hold or administer meds... the district citing liability.
Before you say it... of the East Bay Regional Park District while quite large and encompassing many cities and counties IS NOT all or every camp in the United States.
Again... regarding abrogate... simply what I wouldn't do... anyone may abrogate to their hearts content regarding their child or children...
You're backpedaling a bit here. And no matter how many/few kids there were, it is entirely possible you did not know everyone's medical history. I remember a girl "passing out" in high school choir rehearsal one day. The person next to me said "She forgot to take her pill". She has epilepsy and when she takes her pill she's fine". Until that moment, I had no idea this girl had epilepsy (was not called seizure disorder then). I don't know how the other person knew, maybe they were better friends.
I don't know how old you are; I suspect younger than me but older than some of the very young posters on here. Back in the day, some people were quite ashamed of conditions like epilepsy; they didn't want anyone to know. They'd take their meds privately, at home. You were also a kid then back at that 8 room school. (I can do you one better; I went to an elementary school that had two rooms when I first started; Grades 1,2, and 3 in one room and 4,5 and 6 in another. As I got older and more and more baby boom kids started school, an addition was built and there were three rooms with two grades each.) As a child, I did NOT know the medical history of every kid in my school, even though there were only 12 in my particular grade. I will also point out that back in the day, a) there weren't as many meds for various conditions as there are now, no inhalers for asthma, etc, and b) a lot of kids who actually needed meds were institutionalized.
Your anecdote is just that-an anecdote. You don't know that no other kids took any meds. Big whoop that the doctor told you to stay home while taking antibiotics. That is simply not the way it's done these days. I've seen parents go to school to give their kids a mid-day dose. Some parents schedule the doses so that none are needed at school. This is harder to do at a day care where kids are there for 10 hours or so, thus some staff members have to be trained to give medications.
As you seem wont to do, you are changing the topic when bringing up lifeguards. I never heard of lifeguards being expected to give meds to kids. It has nothing to do with this conversation.
Again, please make sure you don't break your neck falling off your high horse. You use a very pejorative word, abrogate, as if these are neglectful/abusive parents because they've made a different decision that I'd bet you never had to make!
1. Camps are sometimes licensed as child care facilities and would therefore have the same requirements.
However, not completely equivalent because the parent sees the child in the morning before dropping a child at day care for the day (some need an additional dose during the day, I recognize). In an overnight camp situation, the parent does not see the child until the camp is over, so he/she is forced to rely on the camp staff to administer all meds.
However, not completely equivalent because the parent sees the child in the morning before dropping a child at day care for the day (some need an additional dose during the day, I recognize). In an overnight camp situation, the parent does not see the child until the camp is over, so he/she is forced to rely on the camp staff to administer all meds.
Ya duh. I get that. People were discussing training requirements for staff. Someone quoted child care regulations. It is relevant if the camp is licensed as a child care center. Talking to everyone here like we're idiots doesn't help your cause.
Sorry if that came across as snippy. It's just that this thread has gone in 75 different directions and onto all sorts of tangents. If people want to discuss the liability of providing children with medication or policies for school districts, they're welcome to do so on another thread. I was just trying to exclude strict day care/school scenarios from the thread because it is not an equivalent situation.
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