Germs Transferred From Person To Person???????

[dogluva]

I was bit bit by a special needs student. I had to go on very strong antibiotics. The doctor said it is worse to get bitten by a person than an animal.

I feel bad for this therapist. Did you have to mention that you bleached out your sink and write "gross"? She couldn't help bleeding and needed to clean it! I am sorry, you don't sound very compassionate. I can see worrying about your son but you sound like you don't care about the fact your son actually bit her.

 

[mjkacmom]

Should I call her and ask if it bled through the glove? If she has any diseases I should know about? God, I'd hope she wasn't putting her fingers in kid's mouths if she knowingly had anything.
.

I think I would be very offended if someone's child bit me, and she asked me if I had any diseases! Did she ask you? A couple of my kids bit other kids as toddlers, and not once did I ask the mother of the bitten child if her child had any illness or disease that might be passed to my child! Honestly, it never crossed my mind! The biggest problem with bites is infection to the wound.

 

[bumbershoot]

Sounds like you got the info you would need to care about the therapist online.

So you came here to wonder about your son. Pretty straight forward!


But since you checked out the glove and there were no holes in it, I don't think anyone needs to be worried about the son's germs being on the therapist's finger.

I see the difference between an automatic clamping down (FYI OP you have a little typo in that sentence in the first post, was a little confusing) vs a purposeful bite. When DS was bitty and nursing and would clamp down, it hurt like anything but wasn't done with purpose. Later, when he went through a biting phase (which I believe was caused by his reaction to certain food ingredients, as it stopped once we got rid of those foods), he would bite when enraged, and it was very much on purpose. Hurt a whole lot more, when done on purpose!

 

[minkydog]

I was bit bit by a special needs student. I had to go on very strong antibiotics. The doctor said it is worse to get bitten by a person than an animal.

I feel bad for this therapist. Did you have to mention that you bleached out your sink and write "gross"? She couldn't help bleeding and needed to clean it! I am sorry, you don't sound very compassionate. I can see worrying about your son but you sound like you don't care about the fact your son actually bit her.

totally agree. It is much more serious to be the bitee than the biter because the mouth germs get imbedded into the skin and muscle. OP, I hope you showed the therapists at least some of the same concern for her bitten finger as you have shown for your own child. Kids bite. It doesn't matter whether he "clamped his mouth down" or went to work on her with his teeth. If blood was let, he bit her. She is at way more risk for infection that your child is.

I don't know of a single person who works with kids that hasn't been bitten, kicked, scratched, bruised or spit on. Goes with the territory. As the mother of a former biter, I know it is very hard to teach a 2yo not to bite once they've tried it. And it is very common with children who have special needs(which I would assume if your child has issues which would require therapy.) Move on. This probably won't be the last time, so keep a supply of bandaids and bleach handy.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I'm writing as somebody who has been on the therapist's side of the equation:

The risk to your son is minimal. I have a student who has bitten at least 5 or 6 times to the point he drew blood from me. I still have scars from incidents that happened months ago. This same student has bitten my para multiple times as well to the point of drawing blood. He has also bitten numerous times without drawing blood. At no point did he ever get sick from us. When I was first bitten, I had to undergo testing for HIV, Hepatitis, etc. It was a pain. There was never any concern from the doctors on his part. We would have loved to have known if he had those diseases for testing purposes, but because of HIPAA we could not ask.

The risk to he biter is minimal. At no point has my student ever gotten sick from biting us and this is not a one time occurrence. The mouth has a lot of defenses, that is why you can't get HIV from kissing. Short of him having a cut in his mouth and her blood mixing with his, there is little to no risk .(And even then the risk would be minimal.) The risk is to the victim as not only do they have to worry about potential blood borne pathogens, but also the myriad of bacteria alive in the mouth. Bites easily get infected and many times the victims have to take antibiotics.

Please, do not call her and ask her for that information. I'm pretty sure if the parents of my student had, I would not have given it to them. I would also have been infuriated at their complete lack remorse for their son's actions. Would you share your son's medical history if she asked? Probably not. So don't expect her to share hers.

 

[DawnCt1]

I'm writing as somebody who has been on the therapist's side of the equation:

The risk to your son is minimal. I have a student who has bitten at least 5 or 6 times to the point he drew blood from me. I still have scars from incidents that happened months ago. This same student has bitten my para multiple times as well to the point of drawing blood. He has also bitten numerous times without drawing blood. At no point did he ever get sick from us. When I was first bitten, I had to undergo testing for HIV, Hepatitis, etc. It was a pain. There was never any concern from the doctors on his part. We would have loved to have known if he had those diseases for testing purposes, but because of HIPAA we could not ask.

The risk to he biter is minimal. At no point has my student ever gotten sick from biting us and this is not a one time occurrence. The mouth has a lot of defenses, that is why you can't get HIV from kissing. Short of him having a cut in his mouth and her blood mixing with his, there is little to no risk .(And even then the risk would be minimal.) The risk is to the victim as not only do they have to worry about potential blood borne pathogens, but also the myriad of bacteria alive in the mouth. Bites easily get infected and many times the victims have to take antibiotics.

Please, do not call her and ask her for that information. I'm pretty sure if the parents of my student had, I would not have given it to them. I would also have been infuriated at their complete lack remorse for their son's actions. Would you share your son's medical history if she asked? Probably not. So don't expect her to share hers.

I agree with your entire post and I am just bolding this because it is correct and straight to the point. She is under no obligation what so ever to answer any questions about her medical history nor is she obligated to be tested.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

I haven't been bitten recently in my special ed preschool class. The worst bite I ever received was through my sleeve and caused a welt but didn't break the skin.

One of our aides had a run of bad luck with a particular student a few years ago and she had to follow the same protocol everytime she was bitten. She was required to go to the doctor immediately and have the wound cleaned, checked and bandaged. At that first visit, she had to have her blood drawn as a baseline. Then she had to have blood drawn again at 3 and 6 months after the bite. She had just finished with the last blood draw when he bit her again and pulled the skin right off her knuckle. Then she had to do it all over again. This protocol was required by our district's worker's comp provider. There was no required protocol for the biter since the risk of him being infected with anything was so low.

 

[Magic Mom]

I am not sure what the difference is between "biting" and clamping ones teeth down.

I wondered about that too. I also wonder if she is planning on demanding the child's medical history for her safety.