DS always ill at nursery - CM better option?

[littlelentil]

Hi
My son has just turned one and I will be shortly starting a new job. He has been at the nursery now for 2 months on and off, and he has been constantly ill. 3 colds, and hand, foot and mouth. This on top of non-stop illness while on maternity leave.

Would we be better off with a CM? Or what I'm really asking is, in your experience, do they get ill less than when in nursery? I'm very happy with the nursery otherwise, but it is quite large with many rooms so he is exposed to so many children, as they mix them up often, and therefore bugs.

Someone please tell me if my thinking is correct, or if I'm merely fighting a losing battle anyway!

don't know if CM will be any better as have no experience of it, but my DS had everything going on starting nursery (i'm a a nursery manager so you think i'd have been prepared for it!). It did settle down after a while. I use boots own brand multivitamin syrup and since starting on that (and religiously giving it every night) he has not been ill for months (was back and forth to doctors requiring antibiotics prior to this).

Hope it settles down for you. I guess logically speaking he will mix with less children but they will mix at toddler groups and those with older brother/sister will bring bugs in anyway.

I think its just the stage where he is mixing with others and so picks up everything going.

This isnt a bad thing though, can seem like it... but hes building up his resistance to infections.. its life.. I am a cm and it comes in waves, we go for weeks with all well and the one catches something and all go down with it..

if hes happy keep him there..

when i started working in a nursery they didn't pay sick leave for first three months and i then found out why when I had only two completely sniffle free days in the first three months. constantly had ear issues, sore throats, general colds, temperatures, gastrointestinal stuff etc. I was then completely fine for the rest of my time there and beyond! suppose CMs would be less of a risk but its still children mixing and they will ahve siblings and some also go to nursery. no easy answer.

Think it just depends... DC goes to CM, not nursery, and has had a few nasties (bad colds, slapped cheek, conjunctivitis) but over the last year has only had two or three days when he was too ill to go. Two friends' DCs had to stop nursery for a while, because of constant illness but many more friends have found nursery fine.

But isn't it that the more things they get, the quicker they build an immunity?

One thing CM is good for I feel is that if DC is a bit under the weather but ok to go (e.g. a cold) the environment is possibly a bit more relaxing at a CM house? But maybe that is just my perception.

Hmmm...thanks for all the advice/opinions above General consensus seems to be that a CM would not necessarily be better in terms of catching bugs. I'm going to try to ride out the next 4 months and see how it goes. I'm fearful of taking him out as he gets bored easily and might drive the CM mad with his whining!
x

I looked after a child for 12 months and she didn't have a days illness in all that time.
She's now at nursery and mum is tearing her hair out! She's had gastroenteritis, conjunctivitis, and numerous colds/ general sickness bugs since starting.

Mum has had at least 5 weeks off I. The last 4
Months and is desperate for the child to come back to me, but I am now full.

In my opinion, the Illness is down to one of the staff bringing their own child, when ill, because they have to work.

For what it's worth, I switched from nursery to CM for the same reason and DS has only had one day off for illness in 18 months.

personally, I've found that a childminder can take a more relaxed view about what is 'ill', eg my son went with the tail end of cold/fevers (once settled on Calpol), teething diarrhoea, 'too much soft fruit' diarrhoea, etc, etc, and because my lovely childminder was a mother, she'd seen it before and wasn't worried - ie she could tell the difference between 'runny poos but absolutely fine' and 'ill child'. So my son missed 2 days in 2 years, yet has missed many times that at preschool/school. I don't know how that fits with formal illness policies, but I don't know of any bugs having been swapped during that time. HTH.

I do have to agree with tokengirl on that very good point - I am a childminder and after having worked in nurseries I take a more relaxed approach to illness. For example, I had a child off today with and ear infection, I expect they will be back tomorrow with anti biotics and calpol and be ok......I am not sure a nursery would take them ?

I think on average, my mindees probably have 2-3 days off a year

Would also agree with last two points, have found this IME with my CM who doesn't seem to have the same rigid 'rules' about symptoms that would bar dc from going to a nursery (disclaimer have only heard 2nd hand about what rules nurseries have, obviously all nurseries are going to have their individual policies. And all CMs are going to have their different approaches. If you ever do in the end look into CM option, maybe this would be a useful question to ask when you go round visiting potential CMs.)