Do you have adult children? Can I ask a quick question?

[Naptrappedmummy]

Were childhood illnesses always this bad? It seems the norm now among parents I know for children to be unwell every other week (and I’m not exaggerating) until they reach school age at least. I don’t just mean snotty noses but also things that regularly require antibiotics, hospital admissions for oxygen and so on. A lot of newborns seem to be hospitalised with RSV at the moment.

My DD was unwell for about 2 years after starting nursery to the point I spent many nights sobbing, broken by the lack of sleep and inability to keep up with my job. I very nearly had to hand in my notice.

My mother in law is of the view there must be something wrong because while her children got sick, it was never as bad or frequent as this. The doctors just tell me it’s normal for children now.

YABU = yes my children were always this unwell this frequently, it’s normal
YANBU = they were unwell at times but not to this extent, it’s worse than it used to be

Mine were just like that. Born in the 90s and went to nursery 2 days a week.

The eldest was in hospital 3 times in his first year. My mum stepped in a lot but overall I used up my entire annual leave on child sick days. Those were days when they were too poorly even to leave with grandma.
There isn't a photo of DS1 in which he doesn't look pale and snotty.
Both improved by the time they were at school and are perfectly healthy adults.
They had mmr and all the other vaccines but both had chicken pox but it was all the respiratory viruses as babies and toddlers that were the problem.
So no, I don't think lockdown is the reason, I think it's the germ cess pit that is nursery.
It's one of the reasons I regret going back to work.

My brother born in the 1970s was often ill with bronchitis and chest infections the doctor used to call to our house to see him. I was not ill as often.
I worked in a nursery for several years and many illnesses went round all the children, chicken pox every year and often norovirus.
I think children mix at a younger age than they used to, going to nursery so both parents can work rather than having a stay at home parent or going to grandparents so they get exposed at a younger age.
However I don't remember any children I know getting mumps or measles since I was a child, thanks to vaccination.

Yep. Endless rounds of antibiotics for ear infections, and chest infections. Middle one had croup a little and vomited with every fever. 0-5 was an endless round of sickness.

Mine are teenagers. Started pre school aged 2.5 and 3. Never had anything major wrong with them (despite being born at 33 weeks) although I expect they got the usual colds etc when they started school.

DS had tonsilitis once aged about 3 and has had it a couple of times since - he also gets sore throats when he has a cold so that is his 'thing'. DD used to get horrible coughs a few times a year - the doctors tried various inhalers but nothing helped, but it eased off by about 8. She does occasionally get breathless during exercise and has a blue inhaler, but rarely uses it.

I do think asthma and breathing issues are more common these days than when I was a child, but I haven't heard about many other serious issues with newborns or pre-schoolers. But if a doctor told you that, it may be the case. As PPs have said, maybe Covid related, in which case hopefully it will be a temporary thing.

My older daughter was very rarely ill. The only thing I really remember was an ear infection when she was about 18 months.

The younger one picked up more from nursery, but mainly just various colds or sickness bugs that didn't last more than a couple of days.

Neither had chicken pox and they both had the MMR jab so didn't have measles etc.

They are now in their early and mid twenties.

I have two girls in their 30s and I don't personally feel like there were as many bugs about back then, no.
I blame the current obsession with making sure no germs get anywhere, near anyone, ever! I mean, there's even a laundry disinfectant available these days. Utter madness in my view. And none if it helps build up a healthy immune system.

I have a 30 year old DD and a 10 year old DS. I haven't seen any difference in the frequency of illness with them. DD had antibiotics a couple of times as a kid, DS has never had them.

My daughter is 53. She's never been herself to A&e ( though she's accompanied me a couple of times).

She's had antibiotics twice in her life, she's had exactly three days off sick from work in her entire life.

Some people have immune systems like her, others (most of us) are not so lucky.

Luck of the draw I guess.

@TooShortToReachThatShelf the UK started vaccinating all children against measles in the late 60s as part of the standard childhood vaccination programme and girls were vaccinated against rubella from 1970. Your DC should have been offered the measles vaccination as babies and before they started school, along with diptheria, pertussis, tetanus and polio immunisation if they were born in the 1980s. The rubella vaccine was given to girls when they started secondary school and pregnant women without immunity.

There was a pertussis vaccine scare in the 70/80s, so vaccination uptake dropped - maybe that was why your DC weren't vaccinated against measles?

I don’t think it’s changed- mine are 6 and 3 and we’ve only been to A&E once (touch wood) and they get colds/chicken pox etc but aren’t ill often. Same with most of their friends. As babies in nursery I remember snotty noses most of winter but they weren’t sick IYSWIM.

I have a toddler who has been at nursery for 6 months now & soft play multiple times a week since before he could walk. He’s had hand, foot and mouth and that’s it. & no doctors visit or treatment for it.

I’m an 80s baby and I was ill all the time. Particularly with tonsillitis. I was told to get on with it. I was sent to school with chickenpox and my parents rolled their eyes when the school sent me home. So my experience so far is no, my child isn’t ill more often than I was but when I was ill it was definitely dismissed much, much more. If we were going swimming one day and I woke up with a fever, tough titties, we were still going swimming!

As a child I had frequent ear infections and colds that made me vomit 🤢 but no running to the GP.

My kids have never had those sort of cold but my LO had a 8mth spell aged about 2 when he was hospitalised with wheeze 4 times.

I think it's just different kids. Possibly more kids in nurseries spreading bugs around.

Eldest, now 21, had 2 separate serious illnesses, as a toddler a v bad chest infection - many rounds of antibiotics- and in yr R and yr 1, an autoimmune illness.
Healthy now tho.
Youngest was always quite well.

Mine are 23,28 and 30 .
My daughter was on ABs almost permanently with tonsillitis and had them removed on her 4th birthday,number 2 had regular ear infections and number 3 regular chest infections…it was awful nearly always one off from school/ nursery !

i think advice has changed.

if you follow advice many kids would get taken to A&E

ive never taken mine, but have ridden out temperatures over 40 in the middle of an illness.

if I’d asked in here or called 111 I’d have been told to go.

i watch over my kids through the night if they have a fever. I’d taken them if seriously worried

but I also understood that a high temperature is natures way to fight an infection and have minimum calpol to let it do its work. (Generally I’d give call at over 40 and would have taken them to A&E if the temp didn’t come down but it always did)

i always reflected on - was i worried enough about them to think it was in their best interests to travel to hospital and spend a sleepless night there.

I’ve avoided anti biotics - first child had them once and they really messed up her digestion so I’ve avoided since.

second child has never had them.

again, they’ve been prescribed a few times and I’ve had them made up and kept them int he fridge but given them time and care first to see if they’d get better themselves and they have.

anti biotics weaken our gut microbiome which is the foundation of our immune system

so give them often and it weakens kids natural defences.

weve forgotten how to nurse through illness and the downsides of suppressing purposeful symptoms (high temp / calpol) and over treatment (antibiotics)

Mine are between 32 and 28 and they were hardly ever ill in infants or juniors. They had chicken pox and one was good at breaking bones but a constant stream of colds etc, no.

Nits on the other hand, I spent years of school tackling those.

I've got 4 adult children, now in their 30s and 20s
If I add it all up it seems a lot, but then if you divide by the number of children, maybe not so much
2 had asthma and until they could effectively use an inhaler, had a few admissions to hospital with that
broken arms x 3
eczema- this was the worst
migraine- 1 suffered with this, would occasionally have nearly a full day in a darkened room with headache and sickness, then be right as rain
chicken pox x2
measles x1

colds, ear infections, tummy bugs- not much, or at least they weren't serious
they were all mixing with other children at toddler groups, nursery and then school, and I don't think we were particularly germ phobic- no pets though

Mine are in their mid to late 20s now. They had all the usual childhood illnesses but never anything that required admission to hospital.

I have 3 adult DC and the boys were rarely ill but my DD used to get tonsillitis. My DGS's are ill far more frequently. I wonder if it's the central heating because I didn't have that when my DC were young. I had a coal open fire.

I was talking about this recently, my 2 year old grandson always seems to be ill, but I don’t remember my son being ill as a child. He had HFM but that’s it, probably the odd cold. I worked full time but never had to take leave because he was ill.

I
wasnt often ill as a kid, nor my sister, mid thirties. We Both had chicken pox. Never hospitalised with childhood illnesses. No
asthma, no tonsillitis. Still rarely
ill

My kids, even during nursery years theyve never been really ill
more then the odd cold, not excessively
So even after starting nursery. Just 1 hospital visit with bad Tonsilitis age 11 months. so anecdotally here no, my kids seem to have as good immune systems as we did in the 80s.

they werent breastfed for long, average diet, active kids, rarely remember to give them their vitamins, both had full vaccinations.

My children are in their 30s and no they didn’t have so many cold and viruses as my grandchildren do. However, I was a SAHP until my children had started school. Yes I took them to playgroups, play dates etc but if your child was ill you didn’t take them out to prevent another child from getting their germs.
My grandchildren all go to nursery and as parents have to work they take them to nursery even if they have a runny nose.
Another thing is that we are far more travelled than we were 35 years ago so more germs are getting spread around. I hope this means that all these young children end up with a super immune system.

The MMR wasn’t around but there was definitely a measles vaccine - I’m a couple of years older and was vaccinated againer measles and that was the one childhood illness I didn’t get. So I’m surprised your kids got measles.

I seemed to be constantly on antibiotics as a child for ear infections and had a couple of nasty UTIs / kidney infections. Never hospitalised though and thankfully as an adult I’m not prone to any of that. I seemed to be at the GP surgery far more than my friends’ children are now,

I don't remember nits in the past. I was really shocked at how common they are now.

I'm mid forties I had measles, mumps, German measles and chicken pox as a child. I don't really remember having colds although I assume I did. I didn't go to child care. Started school at four.

My dds are early twenties. They both had chicken pox. I remember when they started nursery at three they had about six months of constant illness. I worked in childcare and had continuous colds. One had asthma as a baby and suffers with reflux. the other has eczema.

I have a eight year old he's had chicken pox, constantly gets colds, is allergic to dairy soya and nuts.

There seems to be more viruses and more allergies but who knows could just be better diagnosis