Health Check-In Opening Day

After initial Covid compliance, the accompanying adult and camper will be directed to our open-air gym to complete health check with a nurse.  Reminder: Our health form is online and with our new health form, all medications required for your camper should be entered online on the Medication Form prior to arrival. All medications must be turned in to our nursing staff (in the gym) and will be administered by our Health Care Team. Medications may not remain in the cabin with your camper. American Camping Association requires that we provide a quick but thorough “health check” analysis on all campers after arrival in camp. We prefer that parents or guardians be present for this so that you can expedite the process by giving the health care team any information they need on your child, INCLUDING any medication information that we need to administer while your child is at camp.

Medication

Camper’s medications must be entered online on the Medication Form before arriving to camp.   The directions of your physician are very important to us and to your camper.  You must bring all medications, vitamins, etc. in their ORIGINAL containers with appropriate directions for the administration of the medication.  We cannot, under any circumstances, accept pills in an unmarked container.  Neither campers nor staff are allowed to keep medications in their cabins for obvious reasons.  Life-threatening allergies or situations are, of course, treated as instructed.

Our Nurses Will Call should any Emergency Occur

The DeKalb Regional Medical Center (only 15 minutes away) is staffed with emergency room doctors 24 hours a day.  We will contact parents or guardians (or alternate emergency names as indicated on the health form) should any emergency occur that requires a physician's medical attention, whether illness or injury.  Each child receives individual care by nurses in our Health Care Center. Of course our prayer is always that all will have a safe, healthy summer.

Reminder

If your child should be exposed just prior to camp to any childhood illness to which they are not immune (chicken pox, mumps, strep, virus, etc.) please take precautions before bringing her to camp, to avoid putting other children at risk.  Our nurses should be informed at check-in if this has occurred.  If necessary, you can contact the camp office and schedule a late check-in if you suspect your child is ill before opening day.  Even if she becomes ill on opening day you can check in a day or two late.  Just call to let us know and we will save her bunk.

Lice Prevention at Camp

If we discover head lice, a late check-in is required so proper precaution and treatment can be taken. (Again, we feel that parental involvement is necessary for the best “camper comfort”.) She can check in only after she is “nit free”. Should head lice be discovered on opening day, your attitude as a parent or guardian should be one of a helpful nature. Please do not become indignant or upset. We all realize that these situations happen and you are not personally at fault. Your child will mirror your attitude and the easy way to help your child is to affirm “OK honey, we have a situation on our hands that we have to take care of before we can check in. So, let’s get to it.” And yes, Riverview Staff will be more than happy to save a bunk beside her friends for her.

We realize this health check does take some extra time on opening day and, frankly, we wish it were unnecessary. Other camps may handle the “lice prevention” differently — after parent departure, some camps require that all campers wash their hair with various shampoo options, while others will “call home” for parents to return to camp to handle the situation.

Again, our preference is to not embarrass a child by having to “collect everything in her cabin for lice cleaning” after she is already settled in. An extra 20 minutes “up front” with this check- in procedure helps to prevent hours of labor intensive work later!

Almost every summer since we put this process in place we consider eliminating the parent involvement on the health check. Invariably, we will receive a phone call from various “parent-doctors” who will remind us of the importance and who confirm the necessity of keeping the opening day health check in place! We still do not claim that even we will “catch” every case, but this method has eliminated “total cabin” infestation in recent years and we, as well as our parents and campers, have been thankful!

Check Your Child's Head

It is imperative that you check your child's hair before her arrival in camp. We suggest this schedule:

2 weeks before camp; 1 week before camp; 1 day before camp

Closely check her entire hair surface, near the forehead, behind the ears and along the nape of the neck (early infestation areas). If you see any small (almost minute) opaque to white attachments on her hair that will not loosen when "flicked" (you must slide them off with your fingers), you will need to take immediate and extreme measures to make sure she has a "nit free" head of hair before checking her in to camp.  Please remember that this is not a terminal illness, only an inconvenience that is temporary and treatable.

Lice Prevention Treatments -- check online for great options.

The Lice Treatment Center (LTC)  focuses on making sure campers will be lice-free and able to participate and enjoy the maximum benefits of summer. Camp Riverview is pleased to recommend the products of LTC. For more information on their products, please visit the LTC website.

Ulesfia* is an impressive, effective, prescription lice treatment product that is available now and approved by most insurance companies. *Recommended by one of our camp pediatricians.

Our best resource for keeping lice out of camp is YOU, our camp families.  Though we have experienced lice occasionally, the lack of it at camp is attributed to parent education and involvement in this prevention process.  We thank you for your willingness to form a partnership with us to combat this inconvenience.