Nursery illnesses; how much is normal?!

[Hellskitchen24]

My 10 month old started nursery in January and since then, has been ill literally every week. It’s been relentless. Coughs, colds, high temperatures, conjunctivitis, bronchitis, dehydration. Everything. I know some illness is normal but there has not been a week in 3 months where she’s not been ill. She’s been in hospital twice. I haven’t slept in months as every illness means sleepless nights for days. Weeks if I’m unlucky. Then I get ill. I feel dreadful inflicting this hell on her but I’m due back at work soon and cannot afford to not work. I don’t have any alternative childcare. There are no childminders available for the best part of a year in my area. I’m so stuck and don’t know what to do.

Sorry op we had this for a full year on and off. Fortunately I’m a sahm now but I really feel for those who can’t just take off work.

It is very normal OP, but it does get better. Hang in there.

We had something very similar. It's hard at this stage but they are building up resistance. The usual pattern is that illness becomes less frequent. By the time they get to school, they are rarely ill.

Yup - normal I'm afraid. My DS's first winter in nursery he was ill, on average, every two weeks from Nov-Mar. It was hell! And I got about half the things he had too, so I was constantly unwell myself, ending up with a sinusitis, which was absolutely awful. However, after that winter it was never as bad again.

Loads and loads is normal. It’s a tricky time. But it does end. And the bonus is that when you have a second child the parents don’t get any bugs.

Yes, normal I'm afraid. Mine was also hospitalised and he was prescribed both the blue and brown inhalers to reduce complications from colds. We're coming out of the worst months now so hopefully it will start to ease. I've heard that if they don't go through it now then they will just go through it when the start school. Best get it out of the way!

It was the same for us, I was close to either losing my job or quitting. Give it another month, the weather gets warmer now and come season should be over soon.

Agree that this is unfortunately normal. My child is at school now and is very rarely ill, so it was a short term pain for long term gain.

Would get the chickenpox vaccine for your kid if you can afford it (when old enough) as it could potentially save 10 days off work

Yup, normal. It improves in spring

@ZippyPeer OP’s kid is in the age-group that gets Chickenpox as part of the 12 month vaccinations - it’s called MMRV.

Totally normal unfortunately, I remember the first winter my child was in nursery was awful. Constant colds, permanent snotty nose, high temps and hospitalised for bronchitis. Spring is just around the corner now, so hopefully things will improve over the next few months. It gets better as they get older and prepares them well for school.

We’re having a few nursery illnesses here too OP. I’m told it’s normal…

It's "normalised" but it does mean we should mindlessly accept it. There is NO benefit to sickness, it doesn't "build your immune system" in fact covid and measles damage your immune system, and there is plenty of research showing that children who have frequent respiratory infections have worse long term health outcomes.

And it's not like there's nothing we can do.
These are airborne illnesses. As parents, we can demand nurseries implement airborne mitigation, including:

1. monitoring co2 levels and keeping them below 800ppm, or 1000ppm at absolute max
2. Opening windows or other ventilation to keep co2 below the limit
3. Run HEPA air purifiers to trap exhaled viral particles
4. Rigorously enforce sickness policies and keep symptomatic children off.

There are many resources to support this eg

https://www.covidsafetyforschools.org/
And
https://www.safeairschools.org/

It is totally normal but its relentless, exhausting and very stressful so you have full sympathy. My youngest is newly 2 and still constantly snotty but would say the severity is decreasing a bit - in that it doesn't go on as long and she seems better able to fight it off.
My 7 year old is very rarely ill so she must have built up the immunity when she was at that stage!

My son's first year he had attendance of 90%, so I guess a day off every other week - but more usually two days every three weeks etc.

Sometimes they were due to nursery rules rather than actual unwellness. But our first Christmas in nursery we were both absolutely hammered.

If I could turn back the clock, we'd have put him in at 14m and skipped half the winter.

Two things I would recommend if not already:

• sleep training, which really eased the effect of bugs as he could rest properly.
• piriton (if over 1 year), helps dry out coughs for sleep overnight and speeds up recovery.

My two were ill every week for the first year or so at nursery. They attended from 7 months old. Then just winter colds thereafter.

Good news though, by the time they went to primary school they must have already had everything under the sun, built up resilience and strong immune systems, because neither had a single day off until they went to secondary.

It gets better OP.