Anyone else absolutely SICK of this winter already

[Edizzler25]

The germs… oh the germs!!

my household has had hand foot and mouth, flu (which is led to a chest infection and double ear infection which im struggling to shift) and the baby has bronchiolitis twice, including once where he was hospitalised. and it’s only early December.

how does everyone else survive the winter months especially with an older child bringing bugs home from nursery and making the baby poorly? We’re so careful with hygiene to reduce spread but it sometimes isn’t enough. And I’ve tried to focus on eating plenty of veg and protein which hasn’t been easy when I’ve felt so unwell myself with kids to look after who’ve also been poorly!

appreciate there’s 1000s households in the same boat right now.

feeling especially pants post partum with weight gain, and it’s so hard to exercise at the moment with one illness after another.

sorry just having a pity party here… sick of feeling sick!!

I live in Oz, it’s going to be over 30 all week, and I love it. I bloody hate winter, even though Perth winter is very mild. There were plenty of people at the beach yesterday, I don’t think many of them were longing for colder weather!

@Edizzler25 - wrong. Read this .. a healthy immune system is key and that immunity can defeat viral and bacterial pathogens.

The immune system’s job: defend against disease-causing microorganisms. Its goal is to keep us healthy. The immune system is a vast and complex interconnected network of many different organs, cells and proteins that work together to protect the body from illness. A healthy immune system can defeat invading disease-causing germs (or pathogens), such as bacteria, viruses, parasites—as well as cancer cells—while protecting healthy tissue.

I'm completely fed up with it too. I think the fact that we've not had a good summer for a few years now doesn't help as there's less opportunity for respite from wintery weather. I've had back to back bugs for the last month and sick of feeling rough now. I'm going to have to drag myself into work tomorrow even though I feel crap as they will start complaining about me being off too much soon. My middle DS is coming down with a cold and he has asthma which is exacerbated by bad weather and viruses. At the start of the year my youngest was hospitalised with pneumonia. And then there's the heating bills and the cost of even a very modest Christmas. I'd quite happily sack off Halloween, bonfire night and Christmas for good if we could have year round summer and everyone well. 25C by day and light till 10pm would do me nicely at the moment!

Yep, this. It doesn't get as hot here (NZ), but it still can get pretty hot and I've never heard anyone say they wanted to get away from it to colder weather. Lots of people do leave the country for warmer climes in the winter however.

Just because many in the UK can't cope with temps over 25o doesn't mean the rest of us feel the same.

Not really, it has hardly been properly wintery in SE England yet- long may that continue, I'm not a fan of minus temperatures. I really enjoyed the summer as it never got too hot or dry. We're nearly at the shortest day, then it starts getting lighter. I approach winter like a perennial shrub - don't do too much and save your energy for spring and summer.

Did an AI write this? It makes no sense

I’m sorry to hear this, sounds like you’ve had a really rough time. Not being able to enjoy your usual Xmas activities really compounds things!! Hope you feel better soon

Vitamins! I'm the only one taking them and so far am the only one not to be hit by anything! Got some for DD to start taking as well and hoping that helps. DH is refusing to take them despite the fact that he has a horrific cold that I don't have (we share a bed, we kiss etc, if I was going to get it, I'd have it...). Probably wouldn't help with the HF&M but it's helping with all the colds/coughs and flus that everyone else in my house has had so far and I've just breezed through.

'it’s so hard to exercise at the moment with one illness after another.'

A lot of extra weight is due to the foods we eat, not the lack of exercise.

If you say you feel 💩 because of extra weight but can't exercise, just reduce your calorie intake.

So helpful, thanks 🙄

exercise has benefits beyond weight loss you know… like mental health?!

I’m totally with you OP. Four year old hasn’t missed a day of school / pre school / nursery in a couple of years. One year old has barely managed a full week at nursery since god knows when. He’s had HFM three times this year (I naively thought you could only get it once), two bad chest infections and everything in between. My eldest seems to get the bugs and bring them back but they don’t seem to actually make him poorly. I’m exhausted trying to juggle work and sickness and it makes it so hard to get in the festive spirit. And this weather is awful because it does make it hard to get outside, I’d rather it be colder but dry!

Oh and my MIL recommended vitamin D, reckoned I wouldn’t get ill so much if I took it. Firstly I already take it, secondly I think it’s got nothing to do with vitamins and everything to do with living with two little germ factory kids.

No-

https://www.pfizer.com/news/articles/howtheeimmunesystemmprotectsyouufrominfection

It does make sense. Obviously there's a lot of microbes out there that we don't want that will make us ill, so handwashing with soap, ventilation and decent hygiene are important, but there are also a vast range of benign or beneficial microbes too, and being too liberal at sanitising everything frequently reduces exposure to them.

Excessive hygiene is associated with inflamatory conditions like allergies where the immune system hyper reacts to stimulus that should be benign. The immune system doing its job on the normal range of environmental microbes helps it respond effectively to more serious threats to health, and reduces the risk of the immune system attacking healthy tissue.

The importance of gut bacteria for digestion and general health is a relatively new area of research but its showing that diverse, balanced gut bacteria is a strong feature of good health- a lot of these will originate from a varied diet of foods, many in a natural state.

Being overly zealous about avoiding all dirt and trying to maintain a sterile environment is not healthy (unless there's a specific immune defficiency involved)

If someone is ill, it's worth reducing the risk of spread by good ventilation, hand washing, and cleaning high frequency touch points.

Sometimes with a young family it is just rough while an infant's immune system plays catch-up with the older sibling.
Ahh the joys of your 2 year old getting chicken pox before your newborn is old enough for calpol... happy days!

I'd wonder about the nursery, either its standards, or if some ill children (or parents) are coming in because of employers insisting on five day week attendance in an office. When last year it perhaps was hybrid working.

You will be barred from MN, Op!
In MN world winter is tobogganing and snuggling cosily on the sofa afterwards with the obligatory hot choc.

Haha sorry quite new here… these people must fall for all the winter marketing and social media lies 🤣🤣

Sorry you'be been through the mill a bit recently. Small children and babies are so good at passing on lergy especially in winter.
I remember periods of illness that seemed never ending.
It gets better mine are 8&16 and this year so far we have only had one bad cold passed round everyone and that was brought home by DH from the hospital where he works - 10days tops
Hope that gives you some optimism for the future.

Hate this time of year - agree once 21st Dec is over, nights get shorter even though I don’t feel it for a while!!

Vitamin D is a good idea and maybe multi vitamins?

My son was hospitalised with bronchiolitis as a baby and it was awful. Really worrying. Hope you all feel better soon and roll on Spring

If you're struggling with your diet, you really need to be taking a good multi-vitamin every day at the very least. I don't always manage to eat regularly and well during the week due to the nature of my job, and good vitamins really do make a big difference.

I take iron, B12, folic acid, an "immune" multivitamin and a probiotic. I started around August time and feel a lot better. When DH and I got a cold last month, I was fine within a couple of days, DH was sick for nearly two weeks.

Obviously that's just "anecdata" but it won't do you any harm to try.

I'm fed up with the darkness and the weather but am holding onto the fact that the shortest day is less than a fortnight away...

I don't think I could cope with all that illness on top!

Sympathy OP. The relentless illness over the winter months is absolutely the thing I have found hardest about parenthood (and also sort of wasn’t expecting?!) I think I read a statistic that adults with children in nursery/primary school are 7x more likely to catch a virus than those without. Not good odds!! It’s hard on loads of levels.

Also some children/adults are absolutely more prone to severe illness - it’s not an even playing field at all genetically!

it’s still no picnic now mine are primary age but definitely less brutal than the nursery years.

I'm with you. We had the worst winter of my life last year. This year so far has been "better". Aka only colds, snotty noses, coughs and a mild ear infection,3 or 4 rounds since September.

Thanks I’ve always taken decent multi vitamins but they only seem to help me a little bit!

as someone else said it seems to be luck on genetics for how prone people are as adults for catching things! I don’t think luck is on my side on that front.

but some lovely replies assuring me it will get better as my kids get older