Day Care and MRSA

Since I work three days a week, Pumpkin is in day care part-time. Sadly, he seems to be there long enough each week to catch whatever the latest virus is that is going around. I would love to stay home with him full-time but my husband and I just do not think that we could swing it financially. On the one hand, the three days a week I spend in the office help to keep me connected to the adult world (and up-to-date skills-wise, of crucial importance in the IT world) but on the other hand, I hate that Pumpkin does not get the same personal attention in day care that I can give him at home and I really hate that he has been sick almost constantly since starting day care. Recently we were in the pediatrician’s office for our latest round of ear infections and I asked our doctor if I should be concerned about MRSA at day care. According to the media, MRSA is everywhere and is likely to kill you within days. Rationally, I know that it is not the epidemic that the news reports are making it out to be; however, the mother in me fears it is lurking on every unclean surface at my son’s day care facility. My pediatrician reassured me that, although it is something the medical community has been seeing for years, getting MRSA is not the automatic death sentence that the media is portraying it as being and that recent deaths from MRSA probably had other contributing factors. Apparently, a large percentage of the population already carries MRSA in their nasal passages (without any harm befalling them) so these massive sterilizing campaigns being conducted at schools when MRSA is found are just a waste of time. I was very relieved to hear that the SuperBug was not lurking on every surface ready to jump out and attack my innocent baby (though I am carrying an ointment of anti-biotic ointment in my diaper bag nonetheless!)