To ask if the first winter in childcare is as bad for germs as everyone says?

[childcaresettling]

Particularly if it’s a small setting (5-8 children total each day, goes two days).

no other new starters so they’ve all done at least a year in childcare. My LO is nearly 2, so went to baby classes etc last winter but I’m sure that’s not the same

So I have an idea, can everyone share how disruptive it was to their work (or not), how often they were off and if it really was like everyone says?

My dd started nursery at 9 months old. The first 6 months were horrendous with numerous colds and viruses, some of which required hospital visits. At the time it was awful and felt never ending but once their immunity builds up it does improve. It’s par for the course and employers should understand this, not everyone has a village when it comes to childcare.

This thread is WILD, between the two of them my two kids spent three years in a nursery setting over the winter (granted, we only got the 15hrs funded so they each did three half days and weren't full time) and I think they maybe missed a couple of sessions each!?

Mine were pretty poorly. Maybe 2-3 weeks in the first year.

They have excellent attendance now and rarely get sick. So I do think it was just a lack of immunity thing and it didn’t last.

Yes. As a parent and a teacher, yes.

Nursery was terrible for us yes. They were very sick the whole winter including over the Christmas period which was awful. The upside was that by reception their immune systems were strong and they barely got sick.

This thread is unbelievable. Do people really think it's okay to do this to a child?

Mine both started nursery Sep/Oct around age 1, for 3-4 days a week, similar sized setting assuming your numbers are for the class rather than the whole setting maybe slightly bigger.

It was awful, worse, for the first 2 months or so for each of them. But got better quickly after that, and year on year.

We would need to take time off work for them being sick, and just as they got better so could go back in, we would have caught it and needed to be off work sick ourselves. By the time we were better, they would be sick with something new. I remember despairing that I would never be able to work and get fired.

I then thought it would be better for the second as he had indirect exposure from the eldest and we went to more baby groups and softplays but it was just as bad and that threw me. The GP laughed when I told them I thought it might have been better for the second...

As others have said I think it depends on the child. My daughter had one bad virus and then just the odd mild cold here and there. My son had constant illness for 8 months we barely got a break it was awful. HFM x2, virus requiring a+e a couple of times, constant colds with high fever and viral wheeze, tonsillitis, chest infection and 2 doubts of norovirus. The only ones the rest of us seemed to catch off him was the noro. He's going into his 2nd winter at nursery now and already has a snotty nose, I'm just hoping whatever he gets is milder this time round!!!

Some kids are absolute beasts they never get ill, some kids have a constant cold and snotty nose not sure why. Very annoying though when a child is sent into school with a sickness bug that is then spread around rapidly

I know someone who didn’t have HFM as a child because they had a SAHM. They caught it for the first time as an adult and all their fingernails fell off.

My baby had a terrible first winter despite not being in childcare. Hospitalised for RSV several times. All babies built immunity in their early years.

OP, the chicken pox vaccine (is it on the nhs now? If not, pay!) and the RSV jab should make a bit of a difference. We did miss some days but nowhere near as much as 25%. HFM was bad. Not having to worry about the time off due to chicken pox jab was a godsend.

Mine started last September she was 11 months and the winter was not nearly as bad as I expected. Her nursery are pretty relaxed about going in with colds luckily. She had a runny nose the entire winter but never got worse than that. They do spend half the day outside in the park though, and still breastfed

I did not experience this - my children have been of for illness maybe twice a w
year?

Def get all the jabs, I’d consider paying for chickenpox if yours doesnt get it on NHS. Lots of outdoor time. Hand washing and gut friendly food!

My twins have just done 3 taster days (1.5 hours each time) at nursery. Both come home with stinking colds already and passed it on to their big sister who is feeling a lot more lousy than they are!
I remember my older children coming home a lot too!

Childminder here. It depends on many things.

1. the child - luck of the draw I’m afraid. The children that mouth everything in sight do get more illnesses. Keep their nails nice and short.
2. the parents and how good the setting is at upholding the sickness policy - I sent no one home last winter as parents all very responsible and didn’t send them in when ill. They respected my policies. This stopped noro spreading past one child and not too many respiratory viruses.
3. The setting - obviously as a childminder it’s my home so I’m going to regularly clean it constantly!!! Most childminders I know are hygiene freaks. We also spend loads of time outside - this helps! We also wash our hands a lot. Wash your child’s hands as soon as they get home from childcare.

I teach children as soon as they arrive that they should cover their mouths when they sneeze and cough. I’m also constantly wiping their noses and teaching them how to do it by themselves - I’d expect a three year old who had been with me since a baby to be able to sort their own nose out. I think if you pick up your child from a childminder or nursery with a very snotty face then it’s a massive red flag for me.

This is so true.

Equally our children's illnesses seem to have been less numerous they were with CMs nit nurseriesas less catastrophic than envisioned.
Oldest is 4 never needed more than 5 days off per season.

My daughter didn't catch anything. She's only had two bad colds in her life.
I caught every bloody thing going though.

Mine were both totally fine. They both seem to have freakishly strong immune systems though (I was hardly ever ill as a child either). They were commuting to nursery as well.

So your milage will vary!

It's not a universal truth.

Mine had snotty phases. Chicken pox got DS1 18m after starting, but there weren't a huge volume of occasions where DH or I had to take time out of work to care for them. I can remember walking around work with poorly DS2 snuggling in a sling to collect work for the weekend a few weeks in. Both of mine were winter starters in nursery too.

Both are generally quite resistant to stomach bugs; DS1 never vomited until he was 6 and a bug was sweeping around the hotel, and as a family we've never had more than two of us ill in a time.

DS2's worst phase for absence was y5 and y6 with a combination of issues which mostly weren't contagious. In y8, he hit the cold/flu season early (bad season for it) and after the 4th round of him being wiped out, I put vitamin D drops in his morning smoothie which co-incided with his health picking up. In contrast, I had a couple of dose-up-and-carry-on type colds and one day off ill, which isn't bad after my first winter working in a school hit hard and doesn't like sending vomity children home until they have their afternoon mark despite vomiting on your classroom floor. I have rarely had more than 1-3 days off per year anyway.

It's luck, constitution, and a bit of boosting the immune system with vitamin C & D supplements doesn't go amiss.

Neither of mine have missed much nursery to illness but it was me and DH who caught everything when DD1 started. She would get a mild version and bounce back within a day or so, we spent from October to January ill that first year, it was awful. Nothing like that with DD2 thankfully!

Not that bad for my two tbh, definitely didn’t get 7 bouts of illness, but we’re all lucky to be blessed with good immune systems. Also they only went two days a week to nursery so that helped.
My youngest did catch hand, foot & mouth a couple of times though which wasn’t nice.
We planned for a couple of days off work a year each and then we had my parents to help too and I worked part time so sometimes swapped days if they were ill.
Honestly illness has never been a massive problem for us though, depends a lot on the child

Dd went to a medium sized nursery three days a week and on the other two days some play groups and we had no real problems. She got a bit snotty a couple of times, and had temperature once time that came to nothing so had a day off. She never vomited or caught any stomach bug thank goodness. I think it depends on luck and your childs immune system. It's not guaranteed that they will be ill.

Yes but we found giving sambucol has helped reduce the number and how long they are ill for

DC1 had 6 weeks off sick in 18 months of (London) nursery. DH also had a couple as he caught stuff.

It was one of the reasons we chose a childminder for DC2, where DC2 had only a few days off. There were a couple of other different variables.

Lucky with both DC and rarely ill when they reached school age.