Rainbow Child Care Centers

Edgewood, KY location - On my son's very first day, Tuesday, September 8th, after only three hours, I was called by Cathy McFarland and told my son had a fever and to pick him up. I promptly arrived within 10 minutes and drove immediately to his pediatrician’s office (0.3 miles) to be told he did not, in fact, have a fever. After leaving the doctor’s office, I immediately called Rainbow to inquire how the temperature was taken and was told under the arm, the same method used as the doctor, however, at Rainbow they always add one degree. I don’t understand this technique, nor did my doctor. According to our pediatrician, Dr. Charles Kelly, and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), a temperature isn’t considered to be fever grade until it reaches 100.4. We were told our son had to be removed from your care when his underarm temperature was only 99.1. Even adding a degree (an outdated method, according to Dr. Kelly) his temperature would have only been 100.1, and completely normal according to medical standards for a child of his age. It seems to me, using Rainbows method a child will always have a fever. Not only did I have to pay a co-pay at the doctor, only to learn my child was perfectly healthy, I also had to take a half day off of work.

Our next dissatisfaction came from the communication, or lack thereof. While filling out the form when dropping off our son, both my husband and I were informed by Miss Donna, on separate occasions, that we didn’t need to fill out the ‘special section’ because she “doesn’t read that part anyway.”

Finally, our biggest complaint concerns the actual care of our son. On two separate occasions after bringing him home and changing his diaper, we found feces residue on his buttocks, resulting in his first diaper rash, as if he had not been thoroughly cleaned during his diaper change.

On Thursday, September 17, when I arrived to pick our baby up from school he had a pink welt under his right eye (see attached photo). When I asked what happened, neither of the two teachers could explain it nor knew it was there. Both insisted it must have happened in the last 30 minutes. And, although Rainbow has a 5:1 ratio, during this time of 2.5:1 ratio, no one was paying attention to our child.

My husband and I brought up these issues with Cathy McFarland on the morning of Monday, September 21st. Upon picking up our son that evening, my husband watched as the teacher changed our son’s wet diaper and did not wipe him. For us, this was the last straw. Properly changing a baby’s diaper should be childcare 101. For us, this is unacceptable.