Isolation at CHEO

What to do: your child's room

• Wash your hands with soap and water or hand sanitizer for 15 seconds every time you enter or leave the room. Also wash your hands before eating.
• Only the adults who received parent passes when your child was admitted can visit, and only two people can be with your child at a time.
• Wear gowns, gloves or masks when inside the room if you have been instructed to do so. Most parents or guardians don't need to do this, since they have already been in close contact with their child but staff may have to.
• Stay home if you are sick. If possible, you can ask a family member or close family friend to stay with your child during this time. If that isn't possible, we'll work with you to come up with a safe solution for staying with your child.
• Stay in the room with your child as much as possible. Because parents caring for a child often carry the bacteria or virus on their hands, it’s important to limit walking around the ward and hospital as much as possible.
• Disinfect items you use in the isolation room (like breast pumps). We have Virox wipes you can use. Ask your nurse how to do this.
• Keep things tidy and try not to bring too many personal items. This makes it easier for us to clean the room properly. Use parent lockers for coats and extra personal items to cut down on clutter in the room.
• Don’t share toys, books or other items with others inside or outside your child's room. To control the spread of infections, we limit the number of toys from the playroom that go into isolation rooms. Please bring a few of your child’s favourite toys from home.
• Remain in your child's assigned space, even if you are in a multi-bed room and the other bed(s) are temporarily unoccupied. Treat the curtains around your child's bed like walls and only spend time/leave belongings in your own space.

What to do: using common areas

Staying with your child at CHEO means you’ll need to use common areas like bathrooms and kitchens. Here’s how you can prevent infections from spreading to others when your child is placed in isolation:

• Kitchens on inpatient units are for patients only but families can use the kitchen in the Ronald McDonald Family Room on the fifth floor
• Never return food or drinks to the inpatient unit kitchen after it’s been in a patient’s room
• Use the bathroom in your child’s room while they are in isolation — when they are no longer isolated you can use the public bathrooms on the unit
• Do not shower in your child’s room — parent showers are available on the fifth floor Ronald McDonald Family room.