Treated with Respect
submitted by Claudia Stoffel
My husband and I adopted our daughter from Korea when she was almost 8 months old. She has osteogenesis imperfecta. I was working part-time at the hospital when she arrived. I told the daycare staff at the hospital before she came that I would need daycare. I also told them what I knew about her special needs. The one change that we made was to keep her in the infants’ room as a safety precaution. They took care of her for two years including when she was in a spica cast (body cast).
I started a different job and used a different daycare when she was 4 years old and attending a preschool for children with disabilities. I called the daycare center and then visited. I let them know what my and my daughter’s needs were. She would go to the daycare in the afternoon after school. Again, my daughter was treated with respect and her needs were taken care of without much bother. She was carried and toileted with a bed pan. I basically taught the daycare workers what they needed to know to care for my daughter. I told them to treat her like any other child. Again, she was in a body cast a couple of times and they handled it well. We live in Paducah, Kentucky, and I sometimes think that in a small town it is easier to find a daycare provider who is willing to care for a child with special needs.
