Is this the usual course of toddler illness ?

[gagababy]

My DD (2 in January ) started nursery last week and got sick right away.

Everyone says it's just how it is.. And to expect more of it and basically, it's constant when they're at nursery and unavoidable.

She's a lockdown baby and has barely mixed with other children and people. She's not been sick that often. A few times, but it only lasted a few days. She's had a couple of stints in hospital when she was a small baby, for random high temperatures I couldn't manage at home.

Now she's been sick for a week and it just keeps getting worse. It started mildly but has ended up being croup and now an ear infection.

We've been in hospital and to the GP. She's on antibiotics now. Today she had a raging temp of 39-40 all day. Calpol and Neurofen barely touched the sides. The docs said it's fine, just keep her as cool as possible etc and that she'll be fine.

Is THIS what all her illnesses are going to be like from now on ?? Is this what I am in for ? Or is this one quite extreme ?

My eldest has done three winters and I work in a Paeds ward, this has been the worst one in my experience for just constant back to back illnesses! But I guess my family is being exposed in two places. Youngest will hopefully be having an immune workout ready for them to start nursery soon.
Parents on the ward, and me, are absolutely knackered.
Lots of them also saying it's the first time their 18month - 2.5 year old have been ill etc so they're not sure what to do.
Body needs to be exposed to viruses to prompt the immune system to 'remember' how to fight it. Think the kids have definitely been affected by lack of exposure last year and are feeling it this year but all for the best long term hopefully!
But SO MUCH SNOT

Thanks everyone for your input. Finally she seems to be on the mend, I think. Now I'm scared to send her back in next week. How long do people usually wait to send them?

My dd 2 started nursery 6 weeks ago. She goes two days a week. Each week she has caught something new (literally) Last week it was hand foot and mouth. Just waiting now for another illness to appear. I’ve caught most of them myself too annoyingly.

I’ve sent her back every week.

OP that seems normal to me too. My little one started in March and since then she would have attended nursery half the days at max as she's constantly catching bugs.. slight fever n temperature we need to get her RT PCR done and until negative we can't get her back even if she is feeling better. Hoping it will settle soon for us n you ..

I have a 16 month old who started nursery at 12 months and what you describe sounds extreme to me.

DD had one cold when she was three months old. That was it until she started nursery. So far she's had two bouts of D&V, multiple colds and conjunctivitis. I have been a bit worried about how long she had a cold for in the summer so took her to the GP to have her chest listened to once, but otherwise she's not been seen by a health professional or had anything prescribed. I did ask about the conjunctivitis the other day in terms of if they can prescribe any soothing drops as she kept waking up crying rubbing her eyes but they said no.

She's also been sent home with temperatures a few times but it's not been significant and related to teething I think.

Your LO sounds like they've had it really rough with illness even before nursery

It's normal. Hard, but normal. I was a zombie when I went back to work after mat leave & 1 year olds started nursery. Look around you for support - maybe not your baby group friends as if they haven't made the same childcare choices it's easy to feel judged. Speak to the nursery staff & parents of older ones there, they should be able to reassure you.

@Auntycorruption

It's normal. Hard, but normal. I was a zombie when I went back to work after mat leave & 1 year olds started nursery. Look around you for support - maybe not your baby group friends as if they haven't made the same childcare choices it's easy to feel judged. Speak to the nursery staff & parents of older ones there, they should be able to reassure you.

I'm lucky in that regard actually as my baby group sent their kiddies to nursery already, earlier than I sent mine. They do all moan about illnesses. But it doesn't sound like they've needed to go to a and e and stuff like that. One of the girls has also suffered from croup a few times, but just had the cough, rather than breathing difficulties like my DD had.

Their illnesses don't sound as severe - however - they may just not be sharing that kind of stuff with the group.

@HowBad

I have a 16 month old who started nursery at 12 months and what you describe sounds extreme to me.

DD had one cold when she was three months old. That was it until she started nursery. So far she's had two bouts of D&V, multiple colds and conjunctivitis. I have been a bit worried about how long she had a cold for in the summer so took her to the GP to have her chest listened to once, but otherwise she's not been seen by a health professional or had anything prescribed. I did ask about the conjunctivitis the other day in terms of if they can prescribe any soothing drops as she kept waking up crying rubbing her eyes but they said no.

She's also been sent home with temperatures a few times but it's not been significant and related to teething I think.

Your LO sounds like they've had it really rough with illness even before nursery

It's just like most times she's been sick, she's had to be seen and it always gets really extreme. She had two hospital stays before she was 6 months old, for random high temperatures.

She was ill in October and January this year before this bout of horrible illness and thankfully we were able to manage it at home with no medical intervention at all.

But for the longest time, it seemed that every time something was up, it escalated massively and we had to take her to hospital. Then I saw she got over her colds in January and October and I was feeling more confident she wouldn't always end up very sick.

But then this week has been a nightmare ! Hospital trip at 3 am due to not breathing well, caused by croup. In any case, she's probably been a unlucky. She doesn't have any medical conditions.

Although she had severe infected eczema when she was l5 weeks old and my paediatrician mentioned that sometimes kids who have that, are a little more prone to not getting over viruses very well. He said it's nothing to worry about. But that she may struggle. Maybe he's right.

She also wasn't breastfed very long. Who knows ! She's up to date with all her vaccinations though.

Us as well OP. It’s physically and mentally ruined me over the last year - DD seems to go from 0 to 100 with everything - she never has a bit of a temp, it’s always a 40 degree temp. Never a bit of a cough, always a bad one & breathing struggles. We have been to A&E more times than I can remember, and I dread to think of my attendance at work. I’m so utterly fed up with it, but they just keep coming. No advice but I really feel for you.

Extreme end of normal - I'm not sure DS ever got up to a temp of 40 but he has been at nursery 2 years (now age 3) and has had maybe 7 ear infections, a chest infection, 2 viruses resulting in hospital stays for viral wheeze, 2 episodes of random hives and a few colds. This academic year has definitely been worse though. Nursery was open in the Nov 2020 and Jan 2021 lockdowns but with fewer kids so now it's winter and they are all mixing.

Speaking of temperatures... what thermometers do you use ?

I used to use an in ear one, as I read they're good. It always gave completely different readings. Also one ear was always different to the other and generally just wild readings all over the place.

I've started using a forehead thermometer. I know they're not as accurate. It's always pretty accurate when I try it on myself...

Yesterday it went up go 41.2 degrees on her. I nearly had a heart attack.

All day it was pretty much at 40. Could it be faulty ?

It did go down sometimes to 39 ish.

I had my friend bring by another forehead one and two under arm ones and their readings were much less frightening - say 38.9 etc.

I feel like I should throw mine away. But regardless, it will show 41 on her, but on me it still shows my normal temperature of 36.8 etc. It makes no sense. Any advice ?

A temperature that high not responding to paracetamol or ibuprofen is unusual. When tou went to hospital, did they assess for sepsis?

Also, if they have had a temp for more than 5 days (it's unclear from your post whether this is the case) other serious things need ruling out - ie. Pims-ts, Kawasakis or Leukemia. I don't meam to scare you - I speak from hindsight and this was the info the hospital gave me when my daughter was hospitalised.

Fairly normal, both of mine were ill for 3-4 months at the start of nursery, one day of recovery to go in and catch something else. However since starting school they have not had much illness touch wood going forward!

I would ,make sure she is getting a good multi vitamin AND mineral supplement every day. It should include at a minimum zinc, magnesium, Vit D, Vit C and iron if you can find one. All of those are important for immune function and she is probably using her stores up rapidly fighting off everything. If you can get all of that in one pill, think about mix and matching, just keep an eye on recommended daily intake for her age group

Yep, I'm afraid so.
My DS was also hospitalised for fits when his temp got too high, it was awful, 1 stay was 4 days! Started nursery at 15 months and both of us were sick off and on for about 6 months, colds, flu, conjunctivitis! It was vile and work weren't very happy but as a single mum, what could I do, I couldnt take him to nursery sick!

However he's strong as an ox now, nearly 8, and rarely ill and I know when he is truly ill because he will actually sleep during the day.

It does get better, your DD just needs to build up her immune system. Also give her vitamin D drops, very important this time of year.

@Doggydreaming

A temperature that high not responding to paracetamol or ibuprofen is unusual. When tou went to hospital, did they assess for sepsis?

Also, if they have had a temp for more than 5 days (it's unclear from your post whether this is the case) other serious things need ruling out - ie. Pims-ts, Kawasakis or Leukemia. I don't meam to scare you - I speak from hindsight and this was the info the hospital gave me when my daughter was hospitalised.

She hasn't had a 5 day continuous temperature at this point.

She had a small temperature in the evenings, for maybe three days and then it escalated.

The doctors are saying it's definitely linked to the ear infection she has now as well.

In terms of responding to paracetamol and ibobrofen, it minimally worked during the day yesterday. But by the evening it worked properly, thankfully.

I explained in detail at the hospital and at the GP, they seem to think it's linked to a virus. But I'll keep the things you mention in mind.

Bristol recommend the Handi app - it's about when childhood illnesses need escalating and when they can be cared for at home etc.

@ResentfulAF

Bristol recommend the Handi app - it's about when childhood illnesses need escalating and when they can be cared for at home etc.

When I search for that app the only thing that comes up is about hotels searching app. Do you have anymore info.

*please (very rude of me sorry!)

Since my 3 year old started Nursery in September we've had constant illnesses brought home, then his older sister gets it, and we get it... it's just relentless. Sickness bugs, hand foot and mouth, random high temperatures, colds and coughs which mean having to go through the whole rigmarole of PCR testing. We worked out that the longest we've gone with no-one in the house being ill since September is one week. It's exhausting, stressful and makes it impossible to plan anything. We've ended up in A&E a couple of times with high temperatures that we couldn't bring down and once with dehydration due to a bad sickness bug. The lack of sleep, the stress of trying to juggle all of this with full time work and the constant worry about DC has definitely taken it's toll on me over the last 3 months or so and I've started to feel quite low.

Poor thing! Lockdown has made it so much worse I think

hi OP - yes it's normal. It nearly broke me and DH. We had constant illnesses between Sept- April when DS started nursery at age 1, starting with hand, foot and mouth and ending with norovirus. He had had lots of other illnesses while a baby but the nursery bugs were relentless.

When we got an email from nursery saying that chicken pox was going the rounds I cracked and got DS privately innoculated. We had only just recovered from norovirus and really really really couldn't deal with chickenpox

The people I know who didn't have this started their kids in nursery in spring / early summers so had 5-6 months of nothing significant before hitting winter bugs

OP we were told at the hospital that sometimes calpol or kids ibrufen doesn't bring a high temperature down that much but it's symptoms such as lethargy, vomiting, disorientation you have to be concerned about rather than a high temp as such.

I’m not sure if this is very helpful seeing as your daughter only started nursery last week but for us it improved a lot after about 6 months of nursery.

Also, a decent multivitamin seemed to help a bit (not claiming it was a magic shield obviously!)