Can any mums help me out on how to prepare for this?

[Haop]

Lone parent. Baby 13 months and will be in nursery Tuesday to Thursday. No family support in a practical sense. I’ve been told basically either me and/or DD will be ill for months.

What can I do to prepare? I’ve thought about always having second set of bedding ready and clean, lemsip, paracetamol stocked up etc.

Would you get DD the flu spray or whatever it is as a vaccine? I’ve had a flu jab.

I am worried I will lose my job and as ex is paying the grand total of 84 pounds a month I don’t know what we’d do if I’m not employed. We’d definitely lose our home.

Mine's been sent home from nursery once for 'not seeming herself'. She's never had a sickness bug. Guess she did have a permanently snotty nose her first winter, but nothing to keep her off. It's definitely not guaranteed she'll be endlessly ill.

Both my kids had a 6mo period with lots of mild bugs. It did not coincide with the start of nursery, but rather with the end of me BFing them. But it ended.

Your plan sounds good. Make sure you’re sleeping enough, that you’re both eating enough fruit and veg, and vitamins - especially the winter immunity ones (C,D). Save AL if you can. Depends what you do, but if you can WFH on days she’s a little off, or flexy and catch up the week after, or do extra shifts when she’s better, that might help. And work hard and BE SEEN WORKING HARD (not the same thing!!) when you are at work.

Good luck.

I think/hope that last year post covid sickness season was particularly bad. Our DD was born right as covid happened, and did not get any bugs until she turned 1, and then it was a week a month of being home from 1-2. She turned 3 and now her bugs seem to last a day rather than a week. Though the bad sicknesses started on 30th October last year, so I am on the countdown to see if it starts again :).

Calm down. Until I came on mumsnet, I didn’t know every child was ill constantly for a year when they went in a childcare setting.

in my real world, that didn’t happen.

Get the chicken pox vaccine as you have to be off work for quite a while if they get it. Otherwise, try not to worry - she will get lots of colds but send her in anyway! They will send her home if she gets a temp.

I think the flu spray is only for 2+. My 3 year old is having hers tomorrow and my 8 month old is definitely too young.

We had an awful few months with bugs when DD started nursery. Not much to be done about it really except pray that work are sympathetic and remind yourself that it’s not forever.

A basic stockpile of calpol, a humidifier for coughs and stuffy noses and a couple of days’ emergency food in case you can’t leave your house are the only things I can think of. That and lowering your expectations on screentime!

Oh, and following another thread on here, think about the chickenpox vaccine if you haven’t already or have calamine lotion or similar and oat bath pouches ready.

Yes some kids pick up every big going but not all do.

My advice for the practicality of single with sick kids is have calpol and nurophen in stock. If you have summer/winter duvets as soon as someone vomits make up the spare bedding ready so you can just swap the duvet not strip and change a vomit bad at 2 in the morning.

How large a drum does your washing machine have? My 10kg drum can wash a duvet.

As soon as someone vomits make sure you are up to date on bedding and towels and clean the bathroom. I once had 2 vomiting children and myself and we ran out of bedding was so bad.

Have a designated sick bucket. As your kid gets older teach them the first time to not try get to bathroom if they don't think they will make it. A singular vomit puddle is better than a trail through the house!

Work can't sack you for needing parental leave. Is ex not on the scene at all? Presumably he will be an emergency contact for nursery? Ex may refuse to have kid if it's you asking but if you tell nursery to call him he may not want to look like a shit parent to them?

But honestly don't stress as much as you are. Sick bugs as a single parent are horrible but manageable.

My other tip is don't allow much screen time generally because then when you are unwell they don't get board of the screen. Because it's always as they are better and full of beans you come down with the bug.

Vitamin D with probiotics

https://www.boots.com/metatone-original-flavour-tonic-500ml-10000770

This stuff is great if you're run down.

I'm a lone parent with no help and tbh my daughter was off at least once a month for the first year of nursery. I just used my annual leave and then unpaid leave.
It sucks but there isn't any choice really.

Even now I try and save as much leave as I can to use for emergencies.

This. A multivitamin, cod liver oil, and probiotics from holland and barrett in the night time milk made a huge difference for us. The bugs cut right down

I agree with this - we are over cleaning our houses and our own kids, and that's in part why they get ill and why things like allergies are on the rise. Let them get mucky! My DD (2.5) has never been bathed more than once a week (unless she is seriously filthy). This obsession most people have with daily baths isn't good for building up bacteria on our skin - bacteria is good for us. My DD has never missed a day at nursery through sickness - of course that could be a coincidence, but I do think a more liberal approach to hygiene helps.

You might get lucky. They're bound to catch something but might not be as bad as you think. Are you normally prone to illness? Try and work on your immune system- good diet, good sleep hygiene, plenty of walks in the fresh air. I haven't had flu or covid jabs, only the whooping cough one as pregnant. My son has been going to nursery since he turned two and he's done ok with it tbh he's had a few bugs but nothing major thank God just the old cold or tummy bug.
Only you can decide whether the jabs are best for you and LO- I only decided against them as I've already had covid and was OK and I've got a pretty robust immune system.
Like you said stock up on all the potential supplies you might need, and invest in a decent multi vitamin. Fingers crossed for you that you escape the Worst of the bugs going around x

I have always worked full time and I can probably count on one hand how many days my 2 dds didn’t go to nursery through illness. Sure they had a few sniffles etc but really nothing that significant. Good hand washing etc as usual and keep yourself as healthy as possible too. You’ll be fine

My only advice is to get your DC vaccinated against chicken pox. It's one illness you can tick off the list at least!

With both of mine it was a lot of minor illnesses. So HFM, chest infections, some sickness bugs
Runny noses a lot. Not a huge big deal.
I advise the chicken pox vaccine. Flu jab not available for little ones.

I have found my people haha!!! I only bath my son if he's filthy or if I want him squeaky clean for visitors. Otherwise I let him go days without a bath- he gets spot cleaned as and when throughout the day so I don't find it necessary. I need a daily shower as I'm an adult who sweats and I like them. But I don't do hand gel. At all. I'm religious over hand washing when it's important but at other times I can be lax.

This! My DD has been in nursery a year and been off sick for the grand total of..... One day. One.

The fact your DC is only in 3 days probably helps as she will have 4 days to fight anything off before the new week. It'll be fine 🙂

Sometimes it doesn’t happen 🤷🏻‍♀️ DD started nursery at 10 months, she’s now nearly 3 & a half and I can probably count the number of times she’s been off nursery on one hand. Her nursery-mates would come down with D&V, colds and all sorts and she’d be as fresh as a daisy. She was also a covid baby so I was expecting the worst, what with her being a minimum of 2m from general society beforehand.

My twins have been in nursery since last Jan. One day off and actually that was one twin not both. Bb

Yeah, my ds has been off more days than I can remember, and last winter both he and I ended up in A&E. (Him croup, me pneumonia). It can be quite bad.

Fortunately my work have been very understanding. I have been able to work from home when necessary, and work extra hours to cover missed hours when needed. My advice is to be open with yours. Lots of people have small children they may be understanding.

If no, there's always parental leave.

Too young for flu vaccine. Chicken pox vaccine is a good shout though. Make sure dd takes her vitamins. I like vitamin c for me too. Stock up on Calpol.

And good luck! It was bad for us, but I still have my job, and do it well. And it does get easier. I think you'll be OK. 🌸

Get yourself a big bucket for if you catch d&v - we didn't with our first, but we've had 2 lots this year - and cheap towels for your baby to vomit in. They'll get used one day. In my experience they can't use a bucket reliably until 2 or 3. Keep a stock of long life foods - crisps, crackers, etc - for when you or you both are too sick to do anything. Better to have and not need :)

My first caught everything going. My second though rarely gets ill beyond a snotty nose. Teeth are a bigger issue! Ice pops are great for teeth and d&v :)

My nipper had a tummy bug literally every week the moment we switched from childminder to nursery ....I genuinely have no advice how to prepare, I was extremely lucky to have an understanding employer ......yanbu. Good luck OP you got this xx

Chicken pox is when not if, unfortunately, though they might avoid it until school age. Even then it'd be disruptive, and it's no fun for the kid either. So if you can, and if there's no other reason not to, I'd pay for the vaccine. It's not 100 per cent but even if they do get it, the vaccine should reduce severity and duration. Other than that, just hope you have a robust kid, many are, constant illness isn't everyone's experience.

Good luck with the juggle

My daughter went to nursery 2 days a week at 9 months. For the first 4 weeks she didn't do 2 days but after that she has been fine. This nursery had quite a low bar for sending children home. She was also a COVID baby so these were her first days of being ill in her life which probably contributed more.
Our new nursery has sent her home early twice in just over a year and she has been in with a variety of coughs and cold. One of two times the only phoned as they thought I might need to speak to a pharmacist about her hayfever as she was struggling with it and at my normal pick up time is after the pharmacy closed.
The pair of you probably will spend the next two months with low level viral illnesses, it's winter and all bugs are new to little ones but that's not to say that you will be so ill you won't be able to work or baby not got for nursery. Imagine a slightly scratchy throat when you wake up and most of your belongings covered in snot unless you are unlucky.

The big stumbling blocks are the infectious diseases that have mandatory breaks from child care for 3-5 days usually which are things like chicken pox, hand foot and mouth and things like impetigo. My friends son caught hand foot and mouth during his first 1h settling in session. It can fly through nurseries quite quickly. We were lucky that chicken pox coincided with days where I had booked off due to her having her MMR vaccine so only had 1 extra day off nursery and impetigo was half a day as she started on Saturday morning and she needed to be on antibiotics for 48h