How often should I expect my DD to get ill ?

[whiteleathersofa]

My DD is 13 months. She's not at nursery.

How often would you expect her to get colds / tummy bugs etc ?

I know it probably varies, but I would love to get an understanding. How often do they get fevers ?

How often would you expect her to get ill once she goes to nursery ?

I'm quite anxious about it generally because of covid, it really stresses me out. But also just generally I hate it when she's sick. Since she was born she's had 2 - 3 episodes of a fever with no obvious symptoms and one proper snotty cold. She also sounded congested a lot as a newborn ( nasal congestion ). I just wonder what else I'm in for.

We've had a hospital stay because of one of her fevers, as they thought it could be meningitis. So that was a bit scarring for me.

My DD started nursery the term she turned 4. Rarely had a cold before that, but that first term (Autumn) she literally had a cold the entire time...sometimes mild, sometimes rough but the runny nose stayed. Sorry, that’s probably not what you wanted to hear! After that she was fine though. She was also fine through Foundation, but when she went back to school in September for year 1 she has had a couple of horrible colds. Waiting for the next one to materialise now as she went back to school on Monday!

She hasn’t been sick since she was a tiny baby though (touch wood). She’s 6 now. And she has never needed antibiotics.

@TheShudderingDentist ah ok ! Yes that's what I hear about starting nursery. Mine isn't starting anyway so it's fine. She won't be going for quite a while. But just wondering generally !

Coughs and colds would depend how much she was mixing with others.
Tummy bugs are usually down to poor hand hygiene and usually avoidable.

@TheShudderingDentist by sick you mean vomiting ? Stomach bug type thing ?

[quote whiteleathersofa]@TheShudderingDentist by sick you mean vomiting ? Stomach bug type thing ?[/quote]
That’s right. The last time she vomited was when she was about 2 months old!

@TheShudderingDentist ah that's good! I mean not good that she vomited at 2 months. But great she hasn't had it since. Mine hasn't had a vomit / diarrhoea thing yet. I personally suffered constantly as a child. It was a chronic recurring thing unfortunately. I hope she doesn't take after me.

I just feel so worried / on edge all the time that she'll get sick. I'm literally thankful for every day she's OK. I hate feeling so on edge though. I constantly check her forehead to make sure she doesn't have a fever.

I just worry so much.

Oh I know that feeling well. I am like that too. It doesn’t help that health, checking for fevers etc has been in the news since she was born either - that’s bound to have an effect on you.
You sound like a lovely mum - I’m sure if/when she is feeling under the weather you will have her back to her old self ASAP

depends a bit on BF (provides resistance to bugs) or not. Mine were pretty clear of bugs until I stopped. Eldest (pre-mmr) had a rash that was probably mild-measles. She's probably about normal ? Colds are normal, and so is teething

There’s a lot of luck of the draw involved. DD started nursery at 10 months, is now 3 and has been off twice with sickness/diarrhoea. DN is same age and must have had 10 bad colds in that time but no stomach bugs.

If they go to nursery/childminders they can get ill more than if they're at home.

Other than that, it depends on the child. DS1 always catches everything first and gets it much worse than DS2. DS2 is rarely ill.

When they start nursery they tend to pick up lots of illnesses, ones that you've never heard of.... But all run if the meal, abit poorly....

Mine used to get a cold maybe every 3 weeks over winter at nursery. So a few days between each one. And maybe a raised temperature once every month or so, but a proper fever (over 38) maybe twice a year. A sickness bug once a year and a bad tummy once a year. And maybe conjunctivitis once a year and something else random like an ear infection or hand foot and mouth once a year.

It was fairly rare they would be too ill for nursery though (maybe two or three days, twice a year), often it fell on my day off or a weekend, and when shared with my husband it wasnt many days holiday we had to take. The first year is shit but after that their immune system is a lot stronger.

Also with covid precautions I'm finding a lot less nursery illnesses (sure I've jinxed it now!)

First year of a group setting one of mine got hand foot and mouth (which they gave to me, I felt horrendous), noro (which they gave to the whole family) and multiple colds one of which resulted in both conjunctivitis and hospitalisation for viral wheeze. It turns out they’re asthmatic.

The other one got hand foot and mouth, slap cheek, chickenpox (though that was caught from other one, who caught it at school) and multiple colds.

It’s not fun, but it’s not a massive deal for the most part. Kids get sick sometimes, the human body is designed to cope with it. We vaccinate against a lot of the really scary diseases.

DS has been at nursery since august. He's had lots of colds, just a runny nose really but he picks them up quite easily. He's had two infections which he needed antibiotics for. One when he was very small and before he started nursery. One in September/October last year. He was a reflux baby and so sick all the time. Touch wood no sick from other sources yet.

One of the differences between children seems to be the extent to which they get a fever when ill. Some seem to get a fever with every cold, others don't get a fever often at all. I know families where one child gets a fever with anything and the other doesn't. This is often the difference between being able to go to nursery with a cold or not. Though perhaps caution over covid may change that too.

I think a tendency to get mild illnesses in childhood can also be familial.

You might want to consider private vaccination for chicken pox. Otherwise that can cause quite a long time off nursery.

Totally varies. My first did the classic thing of getting Ill just after starting nursery but she’s generally not too bad. Had some nasty vomiting bugs winter she turned 2 and then nothing too problematic other than mild chicken pox for a few years.

My second got a load of lurgy from the first while I was on mat leave and we had many hospital trips with her. She didn’t get sick when starting nursery but has had a sickness bug and a nasty virus (requiring yet another hospital trip) in the 6m she’s been there. My second has consistently been more of a worry than my first illness wise.

First term is the worst term.
It depends on the DC too.
They build their immune system, DS has tonsillitis every 6 weeks he is ill often unlike DD who hasn't been sick much.

My Ds started nursery at a school and caught every bug going.
Except Chicken Pox
The Gp said that the first 18 months of them starting Nursey/school was the worst as they will pick up everything.
That was actually quite accurate for my Ds because around the 18 month mark he was fine.
Obviously caught coughs and colds but nothing like before.

No nursery experience but just to say:
It can be totally normal for newborns to sound congested as their nostrils and airways are so tiny so any minuscule amount of snot/mucus can block it.

My kids are young teens. They’re rarely ill, a cold maybe once every few years. My youngest is 13 and never had a day off of school, my my daughter about 3 days, she suffers with eczema. I was plagued with tonsillitis when I was younger and ear infections. I’m glad they’re more robust than I was.

Not in nursery but regularly going to playgroup/classes/social mixing with other children:
A few colds
1 D&V bug
1 virus that causes a rash
Hand, foot & mouth

Nursery:
A fairly constant mild cold
Covid

My daughter has been in nursery since June and has just turned 2. She has had one or two colds and a tummy bug (which she shared with us!) with one of the colds she also had conjunctivitis which meant she couldn’t go to nursery.

It's impossible to say. My twins were at nursery from a year old. One was never ill, the other missed at least a day, every 2 weeks or so and picked up everything that was going round.

First year of nursery for both was basically permanent cold, runny nose, cough, also picked up hand foot and mouth, chicken pox...whatever was going round really. Only one vomiting bug right at the very start for one of them. Now eldest is in school, gets the occasional cold but able to go to school with it (ie bit of a snotty nose and sneezing, nothing to keep them off for). Both started daycare from around 7 months and I think it helped build up their immune system. They are rarely ill now (although lockdown has probably been key there).