To ask if the first winter in childcare is as bad for germs as everyone says?

This is so true.

Equally our children's illnesses seem to have been less numerous they were with CMs nit nurseriesas less catastrophic than envisioned.
Oldest is 4 never needed more than 5 days off per season.

Childminder here. It depends on many things.

1. the child - luck of the draw I’m afraid. The children that mouth everything in sight do get more illnesses. Keep their nails nice and short.
2. the parents and how good the setting is at upholding the sickness policy - I sent no one home last winter as parents all very responsible and didn’t send them in when ill. They respected my policies. This stopped noro spreading past one child and not too many respiratory viruses.
3. The setting - obviously as a childminder it’s my home so I’m going to regularly clean it constantly!!! Most childminders I know are hygiene freaks. We also spend loads of time outside - this helps! We also wash our hands a lot. Wash your child’s hands as soon as they get home from childcare.

My twins have just done 3 taster days (1.5 hours each time) at nursery. Both come home with stinking colds already and passed it on to their big sister who is feeling a lot more lousy than they are!
I remember my older children coming home a lot too!

Def get all the jabs, I’d consider paying for chickenpox if yours doesnt get it on NHS. Lots of outdoor time. Hand washing and gut friendly food!

I did not experience this - my children have been of for illness maybe twice a w
year?

Mine started last September she was 11 months and the winter was not nearly as bad as I expected. Her nursery are pretty relaxed about going in with colds luckily. She had a runny nose the entire winter but never got worse than that. They do spend half the day outside in the park though, and still breastfed

I know someone who didn’t have HFM as a child because they had a SAHM. They caught it for the first time as an adult and all their fingernails fell off.

My baby had a terrible first winter despite not being in childcare. Hospitalised for RSV several times. All babies built immunity in their early years.

OP, the chicken pox vaccine (is it on the nhs now? If not, pay!) and the RSV jab should make a bit of a difference. We did miss some days but nowhere near as much as 25%. HFM was bad. Not having to worry about the time off due to chicken pox jab was a godsend.

Some kids are absolute beasts they never get ill, some kids have a constant cold and snotty nose not sure why. Very annoying though when a child is sent into school with a sickness bug that is then spread around rapidly

As others have said I think it depends on the child. My daughter had one bad virus and then just the odd mild cold here and there. My son had constant illness for 8 months we barely got a break it was awful. HFM x2, virus requiring a+e a couple of times, constant colds with high fever and viral wheeze, tonsillitis, chest infection and 2 doubts of norovirus. The only ones the rest of us seemed to catch off him was the noro. He's going into his 2nd winter at nursery now and already has a snotty nose, I'm just hoping whatever he gets is milder this time round!!!

Mine both started nursery Sep/Oct around age 1, for 3-4 days a week, similar sized setting assuming your numbers are for the class rather than the whole setting maybe slightly bigger.

It was awful, worse, for the first 2 months or so for each of them. But got better quickly after that, and year on year.

We would need to take time off work for them being sick, and just as they got better so could go back in, we would have caught it and needed to be off work sick ourselves. By the time we were better, they would be sick with something new. I remember despairing that I would never be able to work and get fired.

I then thought it would be better for the second as he had indirect exposure from the eldest and we went to more baby groups and softplays but it was just as bad and that threw me. The GP laughed when I told them I thought it might have been better for the second...

This thread is unbelievable. Do people really think it's okay to do this to a child?

Nursery was terrible for us yes. They were very sick the whole winter including over the Christmas period which was awful. The upside was that by reception their immune systems were strong and they barely got sick.

Yes. As a parent and a teacher, yes.

They have excellent attendance now and rarely get sick. So I do think it was just a lack of immunity thing and it didn’t last.

Mine were pretty poorly. Maybe 2-3 weeks in the first year.

This thread is WILD, between the two of them my two kids spent three years in a nursery setting over the winter (granted, we only got the 15hrs funded so they each did three half days and weren't full time) and I think they maybe missed a couple of sessions each!?

My dd started nursery at 9 months old. The first 6 months were horrendous with numerous colds and viruses, some of which required hospital visits. At the time it was awful and felt never ending but once their immunity builds up it does improve. It’s par for the course and employers should understand this, not everyone has a village when it comes to childcare.

Yes. It’s awful. I dint think I managed a full week in work October to January.

25% is about right. It varies from child to child obviously, you may be lucky but its pretty brutal.

It does get better.

Mine barely had any days off. They did get a few things but they either went in (coughs colds etc) or they had the odd day off. They went two days a week only though and my parents had them for 2 days.

Urgh it was the tummy bugs. Dealing with sickness every couple of months was just hell.
Luckily we had a childminder who had a handful of kids in a home setting and she didn’t make a fuss about snotty noses so kept the kids through that, just not bad bellies. Fair enough.

Granddaughter has been in childcare for three weeks and so far has had a puke bug, and hand foot and mouth. Both parents also laid low and off work with same illnesses a few days later.

It wasn’t for us, I’m not sure mine ever actually missed a day of childcare through illness. But mine did forest school while probably helped.

Save loads of annual leave for winter.
Expect to maybe use unpaid parental leave for really grim periods.
Don't share towels at home. Keep your hand own hand towel out if reach of your dc's.
Take your vitamins and fresh juice.
Keep the odd weekend totally free and quiet, just get out for walks. Get as much UK winter sunshine as possible.

If it's any consolation, mine had 100% (or near enough) attendance from year R onwards.

Mine were in quite big nursery settings. Ill every 2-3 weeks all winter for the first winter. With DC1 I caught most of it as well. DC2 not so much. They tended to get ill on Thurs/Fri then be ill all weekend, so less nursery missed but a lot of other plans got cancelled!