So much illness is this normal?

[Starlive23]

DD started nursery on 12th September and since that time she's had 2 colds, covid and a vomiting bug. She's only really done 2 proper full weeks due to her 10 day isolation and then mine (I couldn't take her as mine was 2 days later).

Is this normal, or at least at the moment? I remember when DS1 started nursery he picked up a few bugs, but at least somewhat spread out, this feels like shes ill all the time.

She probably had 3 colds in 3 years before this, went to a childminder 2 mornings per week but nothing like this. I'm starting to worry she's got some sort of weakness. She eats quite healthy, lots of outdoor time etc has a multivitamin so I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

I don't actually know what I'm
Taking about but I think there was some talk of this happening after covid, wasn't there? That loads of bugs would whip round because people hadn't been together and hadn't built immunity. So it sounds like normal nursery bugs on post covid boosters?

Yes, annoyingly in my experience it is normal. I don’t think my daughter did a full 3 weeks at nursery without some bug or another for a full year - it was an awful time, endless sleepless nights & worrying about work etc. She just seems to have turned a corner now at 2 (she started nursery at 15 months). I’m sorry but all I can say is buckle up, stick up on calpol & get a digital ear thermometer.

It may be coincidence but I started using toddler hand gel on my daughter’s hands before nursery just about when she stopped getting sick so much. Might be worth a go..?

The only thing which surprised me in your thread was when I realised it was DC2. When DC1 started nursery at 13mths (and I started a new job) she was off for at least a day every other week for the first three or four months. DC2 didn't fare as badly but I think that's because he'd had several more illnesses as a young baby, caught from DC1 and her chums. I think in your case that, due to Covid, your DC1 will have been bringing many fewer illnesses home so there hasn't been the same opportunities for your DC2 to catch these things until now.
DC1 only had 5 days off in her entire time at primary school (and two of those were after a classmate accidentally injured her) and DC2 is heading for a similar number so it did seem to build up their immunity.

Dc1 is 15 now, so perhaps had most of the lurgy by the time DC2 was born. I just don't remember it being this bad. Obviously getting covid thr first week was a real stinker but still, its almost like the illnesses are overlapping now. DC 3 is 6 months and he's getting all the bugs she brings home from nursery except suffers worse, I assume due to being so young.

Very reassuring to hear its not just us though.

It sounds normal for this year. Apparently with all the weakened immune systems from Covid lockdowns things are spreading like wild fire.

My DD started at 10months. She had maybe 1 illness every couple of months in her first year of nursery. She's now 2 and since the Covid restrictions lifted it's been something every 2-3weeks.

And before she'd be off for a day or two, this time she's off for a week at a time. I reckon she's been in less than 50% of the time since restrictions lifted.

I'm just hoping all this illness over summer means her immune system will be a bit more built up in time for the tougher winter months.

Yup, normal. Improves their immune system though

We're in much the same position with a toddler and baby, and pretty much permanent sickness since the toddler started nursery. Month 3 and counting...

That does seem a lot even allowing for normal start of nursery bugs, she’s only been there 5 weeks and presumably had to isolate for 10 days with covid.

However, I’ve read that toddlers get on average 8-10 colds a year, so your previous experience of just 3 colds in 3 years is low and is presumably at least partly due to covid, lockdowns etc.

@SickAndTiredAgain

That does seem a lot even allowing for normal start of nursery bugs, she’s only been there 5 weeks and presumably had to isolate for 10 days with covid.

However, I’ve read that toddlers get on average 8-10 colds a year, so your previous experience of just 3 colds in 3 years is low and is presumably at least partly due to covid, lockdowns etc.

Absolutely my thinking, she was only 1 when the first lockdown started and we lived in quite a remote part of Wales during that time, so even when restrictions lifted partly, there wasn't really many opportunities to mix. I think it's bad luck but just wanted to check really for reassurance but sadly sounds like plenty in the same boat.

@TheBoots

We're in much the same position with a toddler and baby, and pretty much permanent sickness since the toddler started nursery. Month 3 and counting...

You have my sympathies! Really is hard with 2 sick kids on the bounce, repeatedly. I feel like I've aged 5 years in 6 weeks!

Yeah, completely normal. And probably worse for this years cohort since there were less normal bugs last year due to covid. Sending sympathy!

Normal but awful when you’re going through it.

DS first year at nursery was an endless horrific routine of bacterial tonsillitis, chest infections, ear infections and then we’d start the cycle again. Sometimes with a HFM, croup or norovirus thrown in for lols.

Went on for a year. Went to a&e with him I think 7 or 8 times?! (fevers over 40 not responding to antipyretic, retractions when breathing, petechial rashes...) it was fucking horrific. He was so ill. And miserable. I lost an incredible amount of weight with the worry. I’m a single parent so was barely sleeping then working all day... god it was desperate.

In the end, I paid for a private paediatrician to run bloods (GPs advice as waiting times super long on NHS) to check for autoimmune issues. Nothing to see. Private doc said one more bout of tonsillitis and we’d do broad spectrum long term antibiotics and book a tonsillectomy.

So with that hanging over us, when he had his first christmas holidays a few weeks after, by which point I was on my knees and he looked like a Victorian workhouse kid- all blue under the eyes and sickly pale- I basically banned all family visits, bought really good quality vitamins for him and me, set a strict routine of breastfeeding, walks in the fresh air and naps, and early nights, and did it for 3 weeks religiously. Like a sort of at home sanatorium

I don’t know what it was - maybe coincidence, maybe the rest?- or the break from nursery to let his immune system just take a breather?- but something worked. seemed to break the cycle of illness and after that he was fine. Never went to a&e again- oh actually just once, for acute croup, and once for a nasty fall and head bump.

Not suggesting you do the same, but just to say.... been there. We survived and you will too DS now a thriving 5 year old- asthmatic, but very well.

We had 4 solid months when we were all ill once dcs started nursery, one thing on top of another as well as after each other, relentless, but so healthy since and starting school was no problem ailment wise

My dd went to nursery when she was 1. I left work to move after 8 months. In that 8 months I had used up all of my carers days because she was ill nearly constantly. Colds, vomiting bugs, chest infections, then ear infections because of the colds. However she is at school now and she has a pretty strong immune system compared to other kids who didn't go to nursery. They are saying as well that it'll be worse at the moment because of nobody really seeing each other for a long time so nobody really got colds etc and now we're going to get everything.

In a way I suppose I'm lucky to be on maternity leave, looking at the above posts. I can't imagine having to try to navigate time off work on top of all this.

I'm really, really appreciative of the replies, it's a bit of a comfort in my sleep deprived, worried state that others have been here and got through it fine. I expected illness don't get me wrong but not at this level. Probably doesn't help that the whole family had covid and it felt like an age getting over that trauma, only to be thrown right back in to other various ailments.

Sounds totally normal to me. We had exactly the same with DS (DC2) when he started nursery at 10 months. We spent the whole winter rolling from one thing to another, it was rare we got two consecutive weeks where he wasn't off. It was absolutely relentless. Once we hit late spring he was loads better.

Normal for both my DCs, literally some kind of cold or something every 4-6 weeks I’d estimate, sometimes more or less. To me your 3 colds in 3 years is unusual but I’ve met other parents with that experience. Also I have not found the idea that ‘it’ll make their immune system stronger’ to be true - I think they just have poorer immune systems than some kids tbh.

In the first six weeks at nursery, DS had two colds, a stomach upset, tonsillitis and an irritable hip that meant he couldn't walk for a week! (Apparently the latter is an after effect of viral infections). So yes, I'd say normal but unfortunate and probably not helped by Covid.

@VaguelyInteresting, we had a similar experience to you that the Christmas holidays seemed to break the cycle (although he was ill all through them), but we didn't do anything special beyond resting. Perhaps just coincidence, but perhaps something in it??

I could have written this. My 13 month old started at the same time as you. 3 colds, ear infections, brochiolitis and now a vomiting bug (all of which he’s shared with us. Raging temperatures every few days. 3 PCR tests. He’s been in maybe half the days he was due to be there.

Oh I forgot, tonsillitis twice.

My daughter did the whole of Reception last year with no days off sick. (Obviously not in school during lockdown). She picked up a vomiting bug day 1 of Year 1 and was off the next week with a cough that required testing. Since then it's been constant low level cold symptoms. It's a tough period.

I knew this would start with “just started nursery” Yes it is normal. In the first 6 months DS had a cold for more often than not, I even mentioned it to the GP at some point as I was concerned but they also assured me it is normal. Hang in there!

Normal

But I don't buy the "improves/strengthens immune system" stuff.

I'm getting all DS' illnesses and yet I went to nursery and been through school etc so how come me and DH immune systems aren't strong?! It's all bollocks. A virus is a virus and you get it if you're in contact with it

DD had multiple colds, two tummy bugs, bronchiolitis, various mystery viral rashes and then flu (which was perfectly timed to coincide with Christmas) after starting nursery in October when she was 18 months.

I was close to pulling her out of nursery as it was just relentless but the staff encouraged me to give it another couple of months and I'm glad I did as things improved so much in that time.

Sympathy to you OP. It's rubbish at the time but hopefully will save going through this at the start of school.

Yes my first DS and all his friends who were first children had this in nursery/reception.. bug after bug. Then by end of reception it had stopped.
All our second children barely got ill because they had already had the germs brought home by DC1!