Being ill with a toddler to look after is really hard...can we agree? How do you cope?

[SoloMumJustMuddlingThrough]

On NYE I came down with flu. No warning, just BAM. Luckily there was another adult on hand to entertain DD for a couple of hours on 1st January so I could 'rest' after a night of no sleep. Since then, it's been a rough ride. I need to be in bed but can't. DD has been really good up until this afternoon. Since she woke up everything has been a battle of wills (unlike her, but I think she has noticed the change in mood). We've been to the park, walks, done hours of stories, puzzles, building castles, and pretend play but she still hit me with line "mummy's poorly, mummy's not nice today" (ouch!)

She is also recently potty trained with no accidents for a couple of weeks...until today (she peed on the bed). So, I've done three loads of washing, food prep and had to parent a deregulated toddler. I'm broken. It's now sitting on my chest, I can't stop shaking and all I've managed to stomach is crackers and cold cooked vegetables.

How's your 2026 looking? 🤣 Please send survival tips because it is looking like at least another few days before I can go back to real life.

Oh no! My first advice would be get to sleep right now assuming toddler is sleeping. Next would be where is her father??? Im rarely ill and have fully just jinxed myself but when I have been its usually caught from ds so we're both sleepy and poorly together (thankfully, I guess?)

CBeebies, iPads and crap food - McDonald’s deliveroo etc. it’s survival. I am still scarred from the sickness we all got one night when dd1 was 3 as dtds were about 18 months. Trying to change bedding covered in sick while having to go and be sick myself. That was 14 years ago and I remember it. After that I became an expert in infection control measures.

I was a single parent during the toddler years and it was bloody hard! Half napped rested with him in my room with a baby gate on, toys and crap kids tv on and food deliveries and ready meals for him! Back then I beat myself up feeling guilty but when hit with flu or norovirus and all I had the energy to do was ping a meal in a microwave for him but now I think he was fed something even if it was crap temporarily! Safe in my room with me where I could see him

CBeebies. And I always have emergency Annabelle karmal meals in the freezer

Towels on bed and sofa to catch accidents, screen time and deliveroo and book her into extra nursery days is what I would be doing and have done in the past!

You poor thing. I made myself a nest/bed on the sofa and put the TV on mainly. Dig out any toys that haven't been touched for a while. A washing up bowl with an inch of water and a bit of washing up liquid, whisked up into a bowlful of bubbles. TV programmes that encourage movement, music toddler can dance to if they need to wriggle. Walks in the park are not essential I promise.

My lowest point was when I had toddler, very young BF baby and a stomach bug. I sat on the sofa BFing and heaving into a bucket simultaneously at one point.

Give cereal for breakfast. Then if they have sandwiches/stuff on toast for both lunch and dinner it's only 2 bread based meals that day, not all 3.

Turn on the TV and leave it on all day.
Camp out on the couch.
DD can play, draw, sing, dance, etc.
Bring a potty to the sitting room.

Order a food delivery.
Forget the park and all the rest of your normal activities or you'll end up with pneumonia.

Is there anyone else who can do laundry?

How do i survive...

Octonauts Paw Pa-fucking-trol and all the snacks...

Sending solidarity.

Maybe I shot myself here but she's nearly 2 and not watched TV before (we don't have one!). I tried to show her an episode of something over Christmas but she wasn't interested 😭
Luckily I've done food prep now so only have to heat stuff up.
Curse soft play (we went to a party on the 28th) which is where I almost certainly picked it up. She is absolutely fine, extra bouncy even.
Going to try to get some sleep now she has finally drifted off (after she mugged me for a hundred stories, forced me to be a horse for at least 20 minutes and insisted on sitting on my head...)
@Helplessandheartbroke no dad. It's just me &her

Sending you all the love. Sounds shit, you’re doing great.