to not have realised that so much of childhood would be taken up by illness?

[toomuchillness]

Before I had DC, I knew that obviously DC would be ill at times but I genuinely didn't realise how much of their time they would spend in illness. I have one at school and one at nursery. Their noses seem to run for 6-7 months at a time virtually constantly from September to when the weather starts to get warmer. Colds, chest infections, conjunctivitis, diarrhoea, vomiting, molluscum contagiousm, chicken pox, coughs which last for a month a time - it just doesn't seem to end

Everyone says it will get better when they get older. The annoying thing is I end up catching quite a few of the illnesses too

Sounds grim, OP. If there isn't an underlying problem it will probably get better when they've had everything that's going round the school at least once, keep going with the vitamins, I'm sure it makes a difference! With the runny nose thing have you considered the possibility of allergy? (says I who spent a childhood and most of adulthood with constant colds/ chest infections/ pneumonia until I worked out that I can't cope with dust, damp, carpets, aerosols or most cleaning products).

Missy, I too grew up with constant blocked nose... Do you take anti histimines/inhalers now to help? Or spotless house...?

I do think if you/ child is unfortunate to have be asthma/eczema/allergy prone then yes they often ate ill more often, chest infections are serious.

Mine were constantly ill too, it's normal and ignore all this nonsense about it's how you define it, people are just having a dig

Thank you

Martorana Tue 18-Mar-14 20:37:22
"I would notice if my child had German measles, concussion, dilirium or was the colour of Kermit! "

If the spots were not in a highly visible place and they kept out of your way as much as possible, if they did not tell you for several hours that they were seeing everything double, or if they did not inform you of the voices in their head because they were afraid you'd think they were going mad, you might not.

A friend's ds (infant school age) did not tell his teacher that he had banged his head at lunchtime and only asked his dad at bedtime why he had two noses! Concussion.

As for me, I sat through the whole first act of La Boheme without realising that dd was hallucinating next to me (toxins from totally unsuspected kidney infection- she had no other symptoms but was very ill).

Otoh one of my brothers would make a massive fuss about the slightest sniffle; if you listened to him you really would think a head cold was a fatal disorder.

Experience told my mother to take anything my db said about his health with a pinch of salt but to watch me extremely narrowly if there were any signs of anything. Somebody who didn't know us might have struggled with this.

Dd is one of those people with a naturally low body temperature, so she will be quite badly affected by fever before she actually feels very hot. Ds has a normal body temperature, so will feel and look hotter but will be less ill.

Dd's school never believed her about her joint pains despite her diagnosis because they didn't show outwardly, but told her she was imagining it and that she had to make an effort. Later we were told by a specialist that this may have done permanent damage to her joints.

I think it all boils down to people being individuals. As a parent, hopefully, you get to know them. But won't necessarily know somebody else's child.

But Cory- even the most vigilant parent would have missed most of those!

True, Martorana.

Except for dd's joint disorder, which I hadn't missed, nor in the end did the rheumatology clinic. But the school spent several years trying to convince dd that she was making a fuss about nothing- because if they couldn't see anything clearly there couldn't be anything there.

I had to endure countless talks from other parents about how I should make her walk because they would never stand for that kind of nonsense and the benefits of this approach were proved by that their children being perfectly healthy. Particularly from my SIL who had a very robust and healthy child a year younger than dd.

Particularly bad in the years before dd was diagnosed, when I had nothing to go on except my mother's instinct that there was actually something wrong with this particular child.

The horrible thing was that I did actually give in to that kind of pressure and make dd do things that I knew were beyond her. We had several serious accidents and, as I said, there is some evidence that her body was permanently damaged by overstrain. All because I could not bear the thought of not belonging to that happy category of cheery no-nonsense parents.

Which brings me back to my point that there is no substitute for knowing your own individual child.

Not least because the same cheery no-nonsense approach that was so disastrous with dd has proved just right for ds.

Being young and at a nursery and school environment - obviously that going to major source of infection and therefore explanation. If you've moved in last few years to new area then IME also tend to much more illness in family as well.

Constant coughs and colds - could be an allergy to mold spores. I was that DC and later developed hay fever and much laster asthma where GP said given time of year mold spores - Sep onwards were likely thing that tipped me over. My DC that was diagnosed with asthma was similar with constant colds.

High mold count are found in houses that have damp washing in - a constant when DC were young for us - can only really air the house.

Only time chest infections were common among us - were when we lived in a very damp mold ridden house - improved upon moving.

I have tried magnesium and zinc supplement as - found some limited research showing being low associated with asthma in small studies but also in frequency of colds. TBH the foods were were eating were low in them but only took minor tweaking to change that.

D & V some years with DC are worse - corresponding to years at school being bad - just bugs going round. conjunctivitis they just seemed to stop getting as they got older.