Constant illness - no cause identified. De register from school??

[Yetanothervirus]

Dd is now 8. Since she started nursery at 3 it has been constant illness. The first year I expected it and we had a lot . HFM, sickness bugs, constant fevers and coughs / colds.

All vaccines up to date and good diet/vitamins.

We decided to vaccinate for C Pox as well.

We also had roseola virus made her really really unwell and she was hospitalised 3 times with croup and ‘viral wheeze’

Since then it’s been relentless except for during lockdown. just years of illness. Every other week she suddenly gets another fever and virus.Since last September we’ve had x 2 sickness bugs, 1 ear infection, 3 throat infections (1 with a chest infection at same time) , A UTI and multiple heavy colds with fevers for the first 1-2 days.

The GP says ‘normal childhood illness’. I pushed for bloods. All normal. We went privately for an ENT assessment and no abnormality again we were told just childhood illness.

Attendance is 49%

Dont really know what to do except de register to stop this cycle

Maybe your threshold for keeping her off school is quite low? Because even all those illnesses don't account for 4 months off school since September.

I keep her off if she has d or v and for the schools required 48hr period afterwards. For all other illnesses I keep her off if she has a fever . If she just has a cold or sore throat she has paracetamol and goes in. I’ve told
the gp how concerned Iam at the frequency of her fevers and they are not concerned at all and say with normal blood results it’s just childhood illness .

Each infection has been roughly a full
week or more off school as the fevers are so persistent

When you say fever, what temp if she spiking at?

How unwell is she in herself? If you threw away the thermometer how different would her attendance be?

I mean if it's "just" a cold and she's inclined to throw a fever with everything, I would send her in with Calpol, for example.

No different , she gets very shivery and shaky with the fevers and is lethargic. Even when ibuprofen and paracetamol bring it down she is still exhausted and they wear off and the fever spikes again

My threshold is to only keep her off for a fever 38 or above as per the nhs guidelines . Typically for every illness especially heavy cold viruses her fevers are 38-38.9. When she had the UTI her fever was 40. Also when she has a throat infection the fevers are getting up to around 39 (the doctors prescribe 10 days of antibiotics when she gets these )

We do if her temperature is under 38. Unless d and v which she doesn’t always get a fever with but obviously she has to be off school. One bout of noro was 6 days of on and off d and v then plus the 48 hour policy which they won’t waive under any circumstances

I just feel so sad for her she is constantly feeling unwell and she’s actually down about it . She misses parties and activities and it’s not fair but I’m being told it’s ‘normal’

Poor love, yeah she’s going to feel awful with that.
When you say she had bloods what did they look for? If they were in range what were the actual numbers? My sons iron and ferritin for example are in range but by a point. He still has iron supplements to boost it.

Also the d and v. Do the rest of you get it? Other kids?

Are you giving your daughter a Multivitamin? If she has been on courses of antibiotics give her a daily probiotic, this should help strengthen the gut and build immunity. Does she practise good hand hygiene?

I agree with PP, just send her in with calpol if school allow it.

I tend to agree with this. My son has a chronic health condition for which he has multiple hospital appointments, is often sent home with pain, has had multiple hospital stays alongside the usual illnesses that go around and his attendance is still around 78%.

Have you been keeping a diary of every instance, her temperature, symptoms etc. and bringing it to the Drs so they can see the frequency of her illnesses?

I definitely wouldn't deregister her unless you feel pretty expert at early years teaching - these are critical years for education and 49% is better than 0% surely?

No health advice here but massive sympathies!

Surely she needs to mix with others to help build her immune system; wouldn't deregistering have the opposite effect?

Yes she has a multivitamin and mineral liquid and a kids probiotic supplement. We’ve always given this from when she was little. She eats well too , she does have a dairy allergy but has things like coconut yogurt / oat milk etc

I thought this at first but it’s relentless I feel that maybe her body needs a rest ?

Is she really unhappy at school. Are the school coming down heavy on you about the attendance. If she wants to go to school then let her but if she is very unhappy then you could look into HE or finding a different type of provision. Does she stop having illnessess during th school holidays?

Has she been checked for inborn immunodeficiencies?

Yes and they see her most times as we always have to check if it’s viral or bacterial. They said when she has sore throat viruses or infections that they don’t think her tonsils are too large and the ENT doctor agreed and just said it’s bad luck

How clean are you at home? What I mean is are you too clean, so she didn't develop any immunity while young?

I'd go private for a full bloods assessment if you can.

No the bloods we had were just full blood count and they said that everything was completely normal.

If you could post blood results we can take a look, especially for Vit D. It can be seen as ok but the number could be on the lower end and only just meets satisfactory requirements etc same for all the others. Or if you review them with a professional

She washes her hands before eating always that’s the one rule we’ve alway had. Not OCD about germs but I do bleach properly after each time she has d and v