Paperwork to leave with grandparents babysitting?

[daisy8869]

Hi All,

My DH and I will be going to the world for five days in August to celebrate our anniversary. We will be leaving our 20 month old son with his grandparents in NC while we go to FL.

I am starting to get together the information for my in-laws while we are away. Besides health insurance info and contact info what else should be leave with them? I am concerned about an accident or illness occurring while we are away.

Would a general permission letter signed by my DH and I be enough for them to get medical treatment for my son?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[mebbradley]

My parents always left a letter stating something like following if they went out of town:

My child, xxx, is under the care of their grandparent, xxxx. They have full rights in case of a medical or psychological or other emergency. If any questions, please contact me at xxxx.


I ended up getting an ear infection while with my grandparents and this was sufficient for my grandparents.

 

[scdak]

Hi All,

My DH and I will be going to the world for five days in August to celebrate our anniversary. We will be leaving our 20 month old son with his grandparents in NC while we go to FL.

I am starting to get together the information for my in-laws while we are away. Besides health insurance info and contact info what else should be leave with them? I am concerned about an accident or illness occurring while we are away.

Would a general permission letter signed by my DH and I be enough for them to get medical treatment for my son?

Thanks for any advice!

A notorized letter with a raised seal may be required, I think that depends more on the institution that your in-laws might have to use in the event that medical care is needed, ie a doctors offce or urgent care might be able to accept a regular letter where as a hospital may need a notorized letter.

I would suggest putting information on any health history or allergies that your child might have on the letter, also that he is up to date on immunizations.

I have always had the following info on any letters that I have obtained before I traveled with my neice/nephews thus allowing me to give consent for treatment for medical issues, I would think the same info would be needed for you to give to your in-laws.

Childs full name, date of birth, SSN
Childs regular doctor including phone number
Both parents names, address, home and cell phone numbers
Insurance information (I have even made copies of cards) but at least the name, policy number and any other pertinent info that is on the cards
Dates of travel - I usually put a day before I left and a day after I would return in the event of being delayed.

I also would add a statement to mine that they gave me permission to obtain routine or emergency medical care, reason being kids get sick with colds, ear infections etc quickly but that is "routine" in the medical world and there are places that might stick to the wording of a medical release stating "emergency medical care" consent and the last thing you want is your child to suffer or more importantly your gracious in-laws to be denied the right to consent for treatment.

I am sure there will be Dis'ers that disagree with some of the above , just giving infomation on my experience dealing with children left in the care of others seeking medical care.

Also, my last trip to Disney was Jan 2012 and I took my great nephew, I found several forms online that I printed out to use to draft the consent I had his parents sign, and most of this info was asked for on the various forms, I just used the form for wording and ideas to make the most complete form I could produce.

 

[LuLuO]

Call your pediatrician. Ours requires their consent form to be filled out. Also, leave a general consent form (you can download them for free on the Internet) for the hospital and copies of the your insurance cards, both front and back. Do not just write down the numbers. Leave them a list of daily medications, vitamins, recent illnesses so they can give that to the doctor if need be. Phone numbers for doctors and dentist.

 

[Hannathy]

The most important thing to leave is the child's insurance card. Not having that can be a real pain and they may have to pay out of pocket for services.

Leave any allergy or medical history info if there is any.

Make sure they have a cell number or two that you can be reached. If your child needs treatment and the facility wants permission they will just call you. Verbal permission is better than a letter. And with the ease of electronic mail it really isn't a problem, if they want something signed and sent after the verbal permission.

If it is a true emergency the child will be treated without anything.

 

[MSSANDRA]

We are raising our 5 year old without full custody. We have had more issues in doctors offices than hospitals. We have a medical power of attorney now so its much easier. I agree to add them on the consent form at any and all medical centers your kids may need, dentist, pediatrician, specialist etc. Our hospital has a copy of my medical power of attorney on record now. In two visits to the same ER, we have very different experiences. Once, they NEVER even asked if he was my child or if I had legal custody etc. The next time, I had to insist they follow the legal papers that gave me full rights to seek medial care. SOOOO.....I would for sure draw up and have notarized a letter saying exactly what you agree to allow them to do including have full access to test results and records. Sad reality is they are often more concerned about the hipa laws than permission! to treat

 

[emksmama]

Ask at your hospital or ped's/dr's office. I didn't even know they existed, but my parents got two forms from the hospital for me for our girls, just in case. They keep them in my dad's desk, and it's consent for treatment of a minor child. The girls' SSNs weren't required, just their full name, address, DOB, DH's & my names and signatures, along with the name/address of the person bringing them in for treatment. There were spaces on the back for insurance information, but I didn't fill in our policy/group#'s, as we've all been seen there before so it's on file at the hospital we use. I hope & pray they never need it, but as a just in case, I feel better knowing it's there.

 

[letsgoreds]

I'm surprised by all of this need for documentation.

My sister went away for an anniversary trip for a week and I had my 3yo nephew, and my mom watched the baby. No need for documentation...that is what cell phones are for?

Hospital charges can be processed later...I wouldn't be worried about not having their insurance card. The information can always be faxed, submitted later on.

 

[melser13]

We always leave a Power of Attorney and a copy of our insurance card. We left our kids for our anniversary trip to Disney last year and made 1 POA for all 3 kids. We left one for both my dad and his wife and had witnesses, not related to our family, sign the forms. We do this for any extended trip where we are away from them for longer than 2 nights, or farther than a 2 hour drive.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[MSSANDRA]

I'm surprised by all of this need for documentation.

My sister went away for an anniversary trip for a week and I had my 3yo nephew, and my mom watched the baby. No need for documentation...that is what cell phones are for?

Hospital charges can be processed later...I wouldn't be worried about not having their insurance card. The information can always be faxed, submitted later on.

Not always true. We, plus our DS's bio mother, have traveled places where you may not have good cell phone service, it be VERY expensive to leave your phone on
( cruises-international travel), or you may just have large periods of time where you may be unable to access your phone;think water experiences such as scuba diving etc. Those few hours can be a lifetime when your child may be in pain in an ER. A true life treating emergency....they are going to treat the child. Other issues...I am finding they may or may not.

Insurance of course is less of an issues....but it is sooooo much harder to go back and file paperwork later and the hospital may, or may not be willing to do this. It could be you having to fill later yourself. It's so much easier to leave everything with your child care person.

As a side note...our local hospital has started this really cool check-in system where they do a hand print scan and place all information into their data base. If a person then come back to the same ER.....EVERYTHING....including my power of health attorney is right there.nice.

 

[thebeesknees]

My attorney BIL told us that we really needed to have a notarized letter on hand stating that my parents had full authority to make medical decisions for our son when we left him behind on our overseas trip last year. I was just going to leave a letter stating that info, but he said that getting it notarized would be the best bet to avoid trouble down the line. I didn't want to add any extra anxiety to my parents if something should crop up and they couldn't get ahold of us for some reason, so we followed his recommendation.

 

[laughinplace199]

Maybe things vary by doctor or by state, but I asked my pediatrician about this before DH & I took our first kid-free trip.

He said to just type and sign a letter giving my parents permission to have the kids treated by the dr's office or hospital if necessary.

We do this every time we go away. Luckily, they've never needed those letters.

 

[MickeyWatcher]

We have a form that we use. It covers medical and authorization to travel. Even has a place for a notary to sign. If you want a copy, PM me with your email address.

 

[mdsoccermom]

I'm surprised by all of this need for documentation.

My sister went away for an anniversary trip for a week and I had my 3yo nephew, and my mom watched the baby. No need for documentation...that is what cell phones are for?

Hospital charges can be processed later...I wouldn't be worried about not having their insurance card. The information can always be faxed, submitted later on.

Not everyone on vacation can be reached easily or immediately. Better to be safe than sorry.

Frankly, I think it's careless to go away and not leave a a caregiver all the relevant information and paperwork.

 

[tink68]

We always leave a letter with all info about allergies, doc, etc., plus a copy of our insurance card. I also leave our itinerary with hotel info and what we will be doing each day. I'd rather be safe than sorry. But I also have a daughter with epilepsy so I am overly cautious anyway.

 

[Pesky]

I leave in a handy-dandy notebook/folder the following:
power of attorney (notarized)
name and contact info of pedi, dentist and nearest hospital ERs
insurance info (medical, dental and prescription coverage)
names and contact info of neighbors who can help in an ER
names and contact info of baby sitters
typical meds (ibuprofen, tylenol, zyrtec, etc.) and dosage info for each kid along with location of meds, preferred dispensing method for each (DD likes a cup and DS is still a syringe guy)
name and contact info of the pharmacy we normally frequent plus another we have used

 

[starsweeper]

I would get a notarized letter stating the grandparents have permission to act as medical surrogates in your absence. I have documents stating previous sugeries/hospitalizations/accidents/medications for each child with DOB and SSN. I have a document with pediatrician, surgeon, and specialist info, and medical card info. I also leave birth certificate, certificate of citizenship and readoption/legal name change as needed (we have two internationally adopted children). Lastly, we leave contact and school info.