Fukuoka day care warned for putting infant with hand, foot and mouth disease in box

FUKUOKA — An infant with hand, foot and mouth disease was placed in a cardboard box to isolate the child from staff and other children at a day care center here in July, the Mainichi Shimbun has learned.

The Fukuoka Municipal Government, having learned of the incident through an anonymous tip, audited the licensed day care in the city’s Jonan Ward and issued a verbal warning for its action as “inappropriate child care” in accordance with the Child Welfare Act. In the future, the city will consider providing written guidance for improvement as well.

According to the city and the day care facility, while the child was in class, their symptoms worsened, including a rash that spread throughout their body, so the facility moved the infant aged under 1 to the office room. While waiting for the parent to pick up the child, the director decided to put the kid in a cardboard box about 60 centimeters on each side with a sheet of newspaper and had the infant sit on it, thinking that “if the child moves around and touches things in the office, there is a possibility that the disease will spread to other children and staff members.”

An employee reportedly accompanied the child without closing the lid of the cardboard box, and the director told the Mainichi Shimbun that “We only put the child in the box for 5 to 6 minutes.” The director was quoted as telling city officials about this response, “I think it was not a good idea, and I regret it.”

Meanwhile, it was also learned that two children in the 1-year-old class at the day care had sneaked out of the facility while in care in October 2021. The city requires a report if there are cases of children disappearing from the facility or if they get lost, but until the city checked on the latest incident after receiving the information, there was no report from the facility.

(Japanese original by Shizuka Takebayashi, Kyushu News Department)