Toddler germs and baby

[Justwanttocry]

This may be a stupid question but how much do you try and prevent newborns getting sick?

LO is 5 weeks old and just had really bad bronchiolitis which was a bit of a horrible experience all round and I feel so guilty. We hadn't really been anywhere or seen anyone but DS1 is at nursery and had a cold so I guess it came from there.

There are now hand foot mouth and chickenpox outbreaks at nursery and I know some of this can be contagious before symptoms appear so should I be keeping my toddler away from my baby?

I took the toddler out today for a treat and as it was half term the place was very busy and am also paranoid now he will have caught something there like a sickness bug and my baby is going to be constantly sick in the first few months.

We tell my toddler to kiss the baby's head rather than face but sometimes he does before I can stop him and also loves holding the baby's hands. Should I be keeping him away more and avoiding taking him out to busy places?

I seem to have developed health anxiety in the last few months so not sure what's reasonable or not anymore...

We've just let our toddler interact with the baby as she wants because we don't want her to feel left out.

We've had various bugs in the last 8 weeks since she was born but I think it's just part and parcel.

Bronchiolitis is scary though so I can understand your reservations.

My baby wasn't all that ill in her first year, despite having a filthy three year old big brother! I think the immunity from my colostrum definitely helped, as well as the immunity she still carried from being inside me.

My toddler was also at creche when her brother was born and was all over him constantly. I can't imagine how you could even start to keep them apart?

And I wouldn't..

Yes it's tricky as I don't want him to get told off for interacting with the baby and getting bad feelings.

After hearing the doctor at the hospital repeatedly telling me that my baby was so young and bronchiolitis can be very bad for them I'm just freaking out a bit that I was careless and should have been wrapping them up in cottonwool.

Massively freaking out about taking my toddler out today and wishing I hadn't even though he had the best time. I couldn't relax and kept bugging him to wash his hands. Equally don't want him to miss out and be housebound after a year of Covid already because of his new sibling.

Argh perhaps I should just get help for the anxiety as a first step!

Our eldest is in Yr1 and the school is, as you'd imagine for winter term, rife with all kinds of coughs, colds, COVID, chickenpox etc. We've just let him be as involved as he wants with our youngest (almost 5mo now).

He's going to bring germs home so we've just had to assume it'll happen. DH is also a teacher so baby is exposed all round! Baby will be at nursery at 10m and will be getting all kinds of horrible germs from there!

Thank you its good to know others aren't doing any different and we aren't just being careless.

Usually I d think they need to build their immune system anyway but after the bronchiolitis I'm just worried when they're so little. I think after 3/4 months I'll relax a bit more

Thanks think the doctor is to blame here for making you feel there is something you could have done. There is so much going round atm and there is no way you can keep your toddler away from your newborn. And keep them away from nursery? You could but then you shouldn’t go out shouldn’t do this and that etc. This must happen all the time. Please don’t keep your toddler away from their sibling xx