To wonder if/when the nursery illness will ever end

[Dowhatdowullywup]

Please tell me it gets better.

My 2yr old has been going to nursery just over a month and has constant cough, colds, thick green snot running down his nose making him more ratty and miserable then he usually is.

Not only that my 5 month old is catching everything too making sleep a nightmare..plus I am falling prey to it too making looking after both even more challenging.

Ds only goes two half days a week and screams everytime we drop him off which is so distressing. He's even more emotional when he's under the weather. This along with the revolving door of illness is making me question if it's even worth it. I only send him to socialise and for a bit of a break.

Please tell me both these things improve!!

Yes if he is only 2 ,and you are not needing the childcare .May be stop for a while. Sounds like you are getting more stress than benefit .atm he may settle down with a break.have some days out at the park instead, you will meet other mums and children there.hope you all feel better soon!

Mine used to cry dropping off it's just what she did.
But she was ok there. I did believe that.

And mine kept getting poorly for 9 months after starting nursery.
After that she had a really good immune system

DD is 19 months and has been going for 9 months now. Honestly I'm currently asking the same question. With no family support it's a wonder DH and I are still in employment the amount of times nursery have called to say he's unwell and to collect him. I'd love to know when it improves!

My 2 year old is the same, one illness after another (currently tonsillitis only a week after getting over chickenpox).

I don't have any wise words other than, you're not alone.

OK so it seems it doesn't particularly improve.

Anyone taken their little one out of nursery for this reason and started them later at 3 for pre school. If so are you glad you did this/regretted it?

Just with a young baby I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a struggle right now. I appreciate illness with kids is part of the package but feel like I'll handle it better when they're both a bit older maybe ..

What are you talking about that doesn't improve?
The illness will as per my above post although it will probably take some months.

The protesting at drop off with most kids does get better but there are always those kids who just don't like being seperated. I would be more thinking about it he's happy once he's calmed down there. I'm guessing he is as you've not mentioned that as a concern. Although of course it's up to you if you don't have to send him

The illness takes a long time to get better in my experience. And it’s worse over winter. October to March has been hell for years. This last one was the worst in existence. I didn’t make more than one full week at work Nov to Feb.

I also wonder if 2 days isn’t enough for him to settle well. I totally understand why you’ve put him in nursery - 2yo and 5mo would be hard work.

DS started nursery full time at 7.5 months. He's 3.5 now and still gets ill constantly will coughs, colds, chest infections etc. Can't honestly say it seems to have got much better, but we're more used to the pattern of it now and just get on with it, take it in turns when he has to have the day off etc. The crying at drop off I think is different/separate as he's never done that.

The drop offs improved a lot for my daughter all at once and I would say it was after about a month so you may be nearly there with that. Though I have heard that settling actually takes longer when they go less and 2 half days is not a lot - we do three full days.

The illnesses are still pretty relentless after a year of nursery I’m afraid. It is not as bad as it was at first but we’ve had covid, HF&M and slapped cheek plus 3 stomach bugs and countless colds. There are loads of chicken pox cases too now but I’ve paid for a vaccination. I keep thinking she must be getting better immunity by now and then she gets ill again.

Are you all taking vit d and zinc? I take 4000iu vit d a day (with additional vit k as it helps absorption) plus 40mg of zinc a day. I also give my kids vit d and zinc. I use a version of sambucol which has both for my older child, and drops from Holland and Barrett for my 1 year old.

Vit d and zinc are good for the immune system.

My mum always told me don't worry the constant illness stops when they're 7. And she was right lol

My DD started nursery at 10m and is almost 3 now, and I'd say it's tailing off now. She does have an underlying issue with her adenoids and tonsils not doing their jobs properly though, which means constant ear infections until she's 3 and can get them taken out (or probably 4 by the time we get to top of the waiting list).

I'd say two half days aren't enough to settle him and that's probably adding to him being upset at drop off, usually nurseries recommend at least 1.5/2 days per week for this reason.

Make sure everyone in the family (minus baby) is getting decent multivitamins everyday which does help a little.

DS is almost 3 and started nursery in September. Since then he's had countless colds, a chest infection, 2 viral (he was ill but couldn't pinpoint a course) and quite a few tummy bugs. It started to calm down in the last month although he was diagnosed with scarlet fever on Monday. So it does calm down as such.
He's been very distressed with dropping off lately, after a couple of months he'd been fine but went back to being carried in again. He really enjoys his time there and calms down after drop off. I've started taking him a few minutes later, before they broke up, when there's not a queue of people and this seems to have helped.

It will calm down. But he’s not been exposed to any of this yet to build up an immune system, especially as Covid social distancing put paid to most casual interaction.

Illness length will depend on the kid I think. Our family, (like many others it seemed) had a horrific winter bug season. He didn't even start nursery until Jan but we'd had 4 months of back to back illnesses before that. I would say we went through another 3 months of illness from nursery and now he's much better. He currently has a sniffly nose but is handling it much better than previously and hasn't had to come out of nursery this time.

He also cried at drop off for about 5 months which was tough. Things that helped were being allowed to go into the room with him and also doing some shorter sessions. He would always settle within about 2 mins of me going out of sight and i got photos of him playing happily. Which were actually really useful for showing to him and reminding him how fun it was!

You either push through the illnesses caused by opening up your family's social circle now, via nursery, or in a year via preschool, or two years at school. It will come, you will feel dreadful, you will (all) get over it. Only you can decide if now is the best time on a cost benefit basis.

It’s rubbish isn’t it. For at least 6 months when both of mine started, I feel like we were all constantly ill. But neither of them have been ill in school really and I thank nursery for that for priming their immune systems.

We started 2.5 days a week at nursery aged one, like others we had constant illness. However, DD is 3.5 years old now and there is a definite improvement. I'm finding the colds aren't as heavy either. I think regardless of when you start you'll get that long stretch of illness while their immune systems build. I would imagine kids who don't go to nursery get this when they start school?

Haven’t read all the replies so sorry if I’m repeating. It will improve but it takes time. He will continue to catch the bugs, but he will be able to fight them. Very hard for your 5 month old but at least she will be stronger when she starts!

with crying when he’s dropped off, 2 half days isn’t very long to get into the swing of things. Can you afford to do a bit longer? I would consider that if you can. If not, no advice I’m afraid - my boy does 3 full days and was very upset for the first 3 weeks and is now fine and can’t wait to see them

Oh god, similar situation. I shouldn't have opened this thread. I was hoping it would be measured in weeks not months or years :(
You all have sympathy x

I’m in the same boat OP but with only one and that’s bad enough so I sympathise!

since he had covid it’s been literally one thing after another to the point I was starting to worry about an underlying cause but the doctor was like nope, par for the course especially after covid/lockdown. Interestingly he also said that kids who get ill a lot at nursery tend to be very resilient from 3-4 onwards as their immune system has done everything it should so I’m holding onto that!

regarring drop off does he cry while he’s there or just at drop off? Mine does have a little cry sometimes but as soon as he gets round the corner he stops and he has fun while he’s there - I know because we have an app with daily pictures etc!

It’s the ambiguous viruses I find the hardest - spike in fever etc but no real obvious anything going on so harder to work out what’s causing it! This period has sent my health anxiety into
overdrive so I’m praying it lasts months not years!

Long term it goes get better, especially for school. They should happily skip into school without anxiety and their immune system is much better then but it's hard in the short term where you are now. Dd would cry and I always called after drop off and she was happy within a short while. She's 13 now and has no memory of it.

To illustrate, mine has now got another temperature. Unsure if related to previous things or if it’s something new. Still has a lingering cough from last time.

it’s a nightmare. I have a lot going on at the moment already and this feels like it’s about to push me over the edge! It literally feels like it’s every two weeks at the moment and then the guessing game begins as to what it could be.

3.5 year old here and illnesses are not as thick and fast as they were, but still ongoing and still get a bad run of seemingly back to back illnesses every so often. In the last two months everyone in the household has had a phlegmy cough, a diarrhoea bug and a cold with a spikey temperature one after the other. But I live in hope she'll have a great immune system by the time she reaches school (as will we!).