How often is your baby ill?

[Wowcherarestalkingme]

My very nearly one year old start nursery five weeks ago. Since then he has had two bad colds and had to be off for two one-week periods because of it. He was premature so spent a lot of time in hospital and when he came out we were very careful around illnesses as we didn’t want him to end up having to go back.
Then of course lockdown happened. So he has never been to a baby group, rarely seen friends with other kids and pretty much spends all his time with close friends. So he’s never been exposed to many germs.
My concern is that due to his lack of resistance to cold germs he is going to be in and out of nursery like a yo-yo through winter.
My older son didn’t start nursery until later and it was in the spring so he rarely got ill. If you had a one year old start nursery did they go through a transition of picking everything up before it settled? Or is this probably down to my son never having been exposed to cold germs up until now. It’s so unsettling for him to be off one week and in the next.

[Wowcherarestalkingme]

Sorry that should say close family not friends

[Ohalrightthen]

DD started nursery at the beginning of October and has basically had a runny nose ever since, with a week of bad cold in the middle. She's just 1. Apparently they all get sick a lot in the first year of nursery and there's nothing you can do about it. DD also has an awful hacking cough when she's sniffly, courtesy of bronchiolitis when she was 6 weeks old, so now of course i live in constant fear of being sent for a covid test!

[Ohalrightthen]

She hasn't had to be off though, as it's just a cold.

[ColdNovemberNights]

Babies are in and out of nursery for afew months. No matter the time of year, especially winter.

We recommend if possible, for parents to put their baby in nursery atleast 2 - 3 months before they go back to work, if they can for this reason

[ColdNovemberNights]

Babies starting nursery i mean

[buddy79]

Yes, unfortunately both of mine picked up lots of coughs and colds in the first few weeks of nursery, and had to be a bit on and off in their attendance to start with. It’s pretty unavoidable. DS1 literally went to nursery for 2 days, got a tummy bug, went back for a week, got hand, foot and mouth, then got a cold... it got a lot better after the first 3 months ish, and gets it all out of the way before school...

[Wowcherarestalkingme]

I suppose it makes sense thank you for the replies. Luckily I can work from home when he is off so that’s not an issue but yes I expect the number of COVID tests done on children will rise a lot over the winter as they catch everything going. Hopefully he is back next week and manages longer than a week!

[user1493413286]

When my DD started childcare at one (also prem) she picked up every cold going even though it was in the spring and the following winter she had quite a few colds too. Before childcare I think she’d had 1 cold. I think it’s fairly normal and you were quite lucky with your older DS. I do find that with being prem everything hits DDs chest though and she’s had a couple of nasty chest infections so I’m quite alert to that with her.

[DemolitionBarbie]

Bad luck OP, his immune system will develop in time.

DS is 18 mo, he's never had anything but the odd cold, not enough to keep him out of childcare. I know we're lucky!

DD is 4, she had bronchiolitis which required going to hospital when she was about 1, and a couple of chest infections that needed antibiotics under the age of 2.

We've only ever had a few sickness bugs. I know colds take people differently, it has to be very bad for me to keep my kids out of childcare, just being sniffly and grumpy doesn't cut it!

Apparently from 2 their immune system is stronger? Exposure to germs at nursery is probably exactly what he needs.

[Letsallscreamatthesistene]

My son has had every cold going, bronchiolitis and and ear infection. It was worse in the first 3/4 months, but it seems to be settling now. I think the only way to avoid it is to lock yourself up. If they're not going to get it from a day care setting they'd get it from baby groups etc.

I think minor illnesses are a necessary evil tbh.

[Wowcherarestalkingme]

I think you’re right @Letsallscreamatthesistene, we just need to ride it out. I suppose everyone is much more alert to coughs and colds these days as well. Roll on spring!