Are repeated tummy bugs after starting nursery normal or a setting issue?

[Isitreflux]

I’m so sick and tired of the sickness bugs. One month ago he caught noro - turned out there was an outbreak at his nursery.

He had x2 weeks off for Easter, returned last week and has an upset tummy all weekend, has no appetite, slight fever and diarrhoea.

He has had multiple tummy upsets since joining - as did older brother when he was at the same setting.

The dilemma is that I’m not sure if this is just a problem within our particular nursery or if it would be the same in any other setting but I’m so fed up! Is it just a nursery thing? Or is it normal to get reoccurring bugs?

Urgh I feel your pain. My LO hasn’t done a full week at nursery since February half term. We have had D&V, ear infection with antibiotics so had to have 48hrs off because of that and then she had another day off because it made her have softer poo and the nursery had an outbreak 🙄, came out in spots head to toe but not chicken pox and the GP was unsure but content she could go to nursery, one episode of sickness so then had to be off for 48hrs (I can not be that mother that tries to pull the wool over their eyes because someone did that, child was sick in the room and then my child was sick and lost a whole week at nursery because of that).

We do hand washing as soon as they come home but there is not a lot you can do. Once it is in the nursery it takes everyone to stick to the rules (it was doing loop the loop in mine and it was only Christmas that was the firebreak)

It's very normal for your kids to catch literally everything when they start nursery. The problem is how rigid some nurseries are about when they can and can't come in.

On the other hand, you're investing in their immune system. My two caught absolutely nothing once they started primary school and that continued because their immune system had already met so mcuh of this stuff.

Nurseries are pretty filthy places but repeated sickness bugs sounds unusually bad.

Very normal for children to catch a range of illnesses when they first start!

could be helped significantly by parents actually following sickness policies.

Constant viral respiratory illnesses pretty normal, but repeated stomach bugs are not, in my limited experience. My son has been at nursery for over a year and has had two in that time. It might be your setting is not cleaning thoroughly enough? Guess it also depends on whether other parents are following the 48hr rule.

Edit to say: he was at a childminder for two years before nursery and hardly ever sick. A few colds here and there and one sickness bug in the whole two years. In case you were wondering about bugs at childminders for comparison.

@YorkshireIndie it’s AWFUL! I’m truly at the point where I’m considering to stop sending him, but then again his brother is at school so he catches things any way.. plus we would have to spend more time out and about if he wasn’t at nursery and so could end up catching something that way

@JanetRobertaSnakehole ah, thank you - I was wondering! I will look into childminders near to where we live.

Yep was also going to say this. We've had cold after cold but no tummy bugs yet!

The problem before Christmas was (I think) parents were not keeping to the 48hr rule. We had two weeks of DD being sick Tuesday morning and it meant I lost four days of work out of 10 which is a lot. I knew it was nursery as no one else in the house was ill.

There has been a couple of times when DD was sick in the night and I was so tempted not to say anything but then I remember the issue we had with my son and just could not do it.

I was angry with the soft poo/antibiotics but when they say no it’s a no. I would see what happens over the next couple of weeks/months to see if it settles as your LO gets use to being at nursery.

Sounds unusual. My 2 year old was sent home for the first time since October last week with a upset tummy. Other than that she has been off twice in 18 months. My son was similar, I could count on 2 hands how many days off he had in 4 years.