Is this normal? Nursery related

[slapdashsal]

Dd (just turned one) has been in nursery for two days a week for the past month. In that time she has had strep throat, an ear infection and now had a hacking cough. I expected her to get unwell due to exposure to all of the new germs but this feels excessive. The strep throat in particular was very nasty and she had to have two courses of antibiotics to clear it up. No sooner is she better from that then she gets a nasty cough. I'm hoping it's not a chest infection.

I'm listening to her coughing in her bed wondering when I need to worry about it. Is the first 6 months of nursery just an endless course of antibiotics? Was your child like this when they first started nursery and how long before it improved? Thank you

I think it's almost worse when the child only attends a couple of days a week!
To buck a trend my DS attends 2 non consecutive days and in 3 months has touch wood never missed a day. Plenty of sniffles but never anything that bad. Maybe because he’s a second though so his immune system has already had a solid work out. Although his sister was never terrible either, the odd mystery fever at the beginning, a few colds and one case of strep but it wasn’t constant and the strep was weirdly in August! But get the chickenpox vaccine! And a flu vaccine (next year, probably too late for this one)!

Mine's actually ok with Covid tests now (we were still testing before seeing grandparents until they finally caught it this winter). But jeez, trying to hold a screaming 18 month old down to administer a test while the testing officials watch and silently judge was properly shit.

Yeah mine too. It was depressing though. And I'm a bit sad that they accept it so easily in a way.

I'm with you. My DD started nursery in Sept and it's been near constant ever since. And she bloody gives it all to me..!!

My 20 month old started nursery in September and since then has had a constant cold, runny nose, sore throat, conjunctivitis, chest infections etc it has been endless!! From what I've been told it's hard, but very normal - poor little ones! It's reassuring reading other's experiences though, like you it worried me how often she's been ill!

Normal unfortunately. I didn’t do a full week for the first 8 weeks when I came back from mat leave with no.2. It has settled down but still have the odd bout and now I have two it’s even worse - one catches it from the other.

Yep but on the plus side I found mine had less infections at school age

Sorry very normal. It gets better, second winter has been much better for us.

Oh god yes! It was awful and DH also seemed to catch it all. Better once she turned 1 but we had six months of illness after illness.

Totally normal I'm afraid.

Once your little one has built up immunity it will happen less and less.

It's normal. It's awful. You do wonder if they will ever be well again but it does improve.

It's normal, I'd suggest a good multivitamin for the little one and the rest of the family really, as the sleep deprivation does mean your immune system will also take a knock.

Was about a year -18m, before it settled for my DD. We still get things now but not every week

There is a thread exactly like this very often here, unfortunately it is normal. My DS started nursery in September when he was 11 months old. He has been unwell roughly every alternate week since then. He has had permanent nasal congestion and cough since November. He has been to A&E a handful of times, most of those times he was sent there by the GP, and one time he was admitted to hospital for a few days. He is currently unwell with his 6th bout of bronchiolitis. He has had hand foot and mouth three times, the second time he got eczema coxsackium as a complication. He has a phobia of medical settings/staff/examinations and also of oral medicine after our months of hell. Im surprised me and DH still have jobs, its been, and continues to be, a total nightmare. DD got ill roughly once a month for the first year or so of nursery and that felt like a lot. However it's been much worse with DS.

Yeah it’s no fun but it’s super normal, op.

I was actually told by a doctor that the little kids in covid who missed all the bugs they’d usually get when starting school or nursery for the first time - but didn’t because they couldn’t go - were worse off because they hadn’t built up their immune systems.

All sounds very normal. In our experience it's mainly been viral infections , colds mainly and constant snotty nose! Dr told us it's normal for toddlers in nursery settings to have around 8-10 colds a year so it's pretty much constant. It will get better as they start to build up an immune system

My son was ill every other week throughout his first year of school. Thankfully his brother built up some immunity at the same time ! Hopefully he'll be a bit less sick.

Yeah really normal unfortunately. My son didn't seem to get ill when he was only doing 2 mornings a week but then we changed nursery and he does 4 days a week.
I don't think he's managed a fortnight without being ill. Ear infection, hand, foot and mouth, endless colds, chicken pox, chest infection. It just seems endless.
Probably slightly better now but it's taken 7 months to get to this stage. Nursery insist on antibiotics being given by the parents for first 48 hours. I'm lucky I work there but don't know how other people manage it.
I just hope it means he will have a super strong immune system by the time he starts school..

Not normal in my experience with 3dc, the odd old or quick vomiting bug alright but not antibiotics or endless infections at all.

Yep. There was a time when it wouldn’t have surprised me if I’d been phoned to collect my child because they had Ebola. It does pass. And now, they have immune systems of steel.

DS1 had two colds, tonsillitis, a stomach upset and an irritable hip (which wasn't something is every heard of!) in the first six weeks at nursery. Subsequent winters haven't been as bad, but he did manage croup, Covid and chicken pox in six weeks last year (the week before he was booked in for the chicken pox jab...).

DS2 starts next week and I'm dreading it - he's definitely had some exposure to his brother to help toughen him up, but he also tends to spike a fever at the slightest illness in a way DS1 never did. I think there will be a lot of sick days in our near future...

With my first DH and were literally tag teaming sick leave to care for DS for 3 months solid. He ended up in hospital twice before age 2 but he has literally not been ill since and he's 7.5! The child got covid and had a temp for a few hours (1 dose of Calpol) threw up and was fine again. He astounds me.
Little one was a covid baby and seemed to be ill every 3 weeks after starting nursery culminating in a ambulance ride on oxygen.....hopefully that was his one dramatic event and he'll follow in his brothers footsteps!

This!! I've had more sick days since my child has been at nursery than I've had in my entire working life. Recovering now from a dreaded sickness bug!

My kids started 2 days a week in February and they're CONSTANTLY ill. It's driving us mad because they're being sent home from nursery early (or having to miss it altogether) every single time they're in.

My DD has had a bad case of tonsillitis that antibiotics eventually shifted, followed by a chest infection that also needed antibiotics. Both have had awful coughs and never ending snotty noses since starting there. I'm fed up of my daughter having temps of 40 every week. Surely their immune systems have to improve at some point!

Yep totally normal. My girls started when they were both 11 months and they would come home with something every week.

They are now both 3 and 4 and it's got a lot better, they still sometimes come home with a snotty nose and cough but nothing like they used to.

Constant bugs when they start nursery is sadly very common, DS has been going for over a year and still rarely lasts more than two weeks at nursery before getting ill. Thankfully no illnesses requiring antibiotics though, just colds and stomach bugs.