Anyone noticed their kids not getting general bugs and illnesses since march

[DidSheReallySayThat20]

I was thinking today my dd hasn't had any coughs and colds she would normally get and my 5m old hasnt had any at all.
Obviously this is due to not doing what we would before. Playgroup, parks, swimming, soft play and childminder for the 2yr old.
She often had bugs of sorts.

I worry now they'll not have much of an immunity then when it all re opens, will things like common coughs and colds get confused with thinking people have covid?

Or am I being daft?

Their immune system will suffer

@Mumsnestgolden

Their immune system will suffer

Yup, just one of the many harms lockdown is doing to the populace.

No illness at all. Pollen allergies also improved - I think from sustained exposure. All healthier - fitness levels improved. Mental heath really good. Homeschool has been painful, but doable - age difference causing most trouble.

Both of mine are illness prone despite being exposed to everything, so interesting.

We are all generally healthy. During lockdown I've had several colds, as have dd6. Dh has had laryngitis. Dd had an upset stomach one day. So not really any better than usual!

I’ve said the same all along.

My kids rarely get ill so not noticed anything with them but it is something I’ve thought about with older people especially.

My dd is always ill with something or other but not so much as a sniffle since March. I'm not so worried about her as she must have a pretty tough immune system by now but the baby at 7m has had nothing at all since birth... I think one afternoon he was a little snotty but it never came to anything, his first cold or tummy bug will hit hard.

I've not really noticed a difference but wouldn't say we're a family who gets I'll regularly anyway.

I never really get ill (or didn’t before children). During lockdown I’ve had tonsillitis and a horrid gastro bug. Don’t know how! The children have been nice and healthy though after a bloody horrific winter with 2x hospital admissions and seemingly constant visits to the GP. My eldest has a constant cough from September to March every year. Slightly nervous about how often they might be excluded for non Covid things come the autumn.

I find that kids at nursery get much more sick than kids who are at home or with grandparents etc (my own child is at nursery - not knocking it!) So a few months off won't do any harm. Nurseries are absolute germ factories and I think it's quite a modern thing for such young kids to have bugs constantly - in the past, they weren't mixing as much while at the stage of putting everything in their mouths etc.

Yep, last illness mine had was just before lockdown. My eldest had a rotten cold and cough keeping him up at night. My now 5 month old caught that virus too and had the most horrendous cough (like he was struggling to breathe at times) I took him to A&E. They ran all sorts of tests and told me that he didn't look right but couldn't admit him as his lungs were clear and just put it down to a virus. My eldest also had a red eye (as did I) and I sometimes wonder if we had covid, my 5 month old cough was horrible. However, since then both have not had one single cold. I do worry about harming little ones immune systems with no exposure to normal coughs and colds.

part of the reason they think children are affected less by Covid is that their immune systems are primed to fight it as they come into contact with so many other bugs

There may be some truth to that. After my first year of teaching (during which I got a horrid flu), I have been Teflon to almost every other bug that has come along.

Just talking about this today.

2 year old DS hasn’t had a runny nose since stopping nursery. Baby has a ridiculously high temp and rash for a weekend in March (111 suspected Covid but the rest of stayed clear) but that’s been it....

@Deelish75

I think going forward into autumn everyone will be on high alert for Covid and second wave. Not sure how workplaces and schools are going to deal with people going into isolation.

Especially if they keep going into isolation as a result of going to pubs etc. Can’t imagine employers reacting positively to that.

Yes. Totally healthy.

Yes it's amazing none if us here have had any bugs either, obviously hand washing and social distancing has helped.

I’d be far more amazed if we had got something! Flu and colds tend to have much lower R0 than Covid, so if you’ve been socially distancing, it’s difficult to see how you could possibly get a cold!

I wonder if it will have knocked some viruses out of circulation completely!

Especially if they keep going into isolation as a result of going to pubs etc. Can’t imagine employers reacting positively to that.

If we get to the point when people are routinely going into isolation after going to the pub, it follows that Covid has become widespread again and pubs will probably be closed once more.

Their immune system will suffer

If we isolated for years perhaps, but not a few months!

@Derbygerbil

Their immune system will suffer

If we isolated for years perhaps, but not a few months!

You should tell Sunetra Gupta that.

Might have something to do with being in lockdown

If we isolated for years perhaps, but not a few months!

For most people it's no big deal, but I am somewhat concerned about babies born at the beginning of social distancing.

The world's foremost leukemia expert has actively told people in the past few years to get babies exposed to plenty of bugs in their first year, because there appear to be window periods for the immune system where not being exposed to enough stuff raises the risk of autoimmune conditions in the long term.

www.theguardian.com/science/2018/dec/30/children-leukaemia-mel-greaves-microbes-protection-against-disease

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is caused by a sequence of biological events. The initial trigger is a genetic mutation that occurs in about one in 20 children. For full leukaemia to occur, another biological event must take place and this involves the immune system.

“For an immune system to work properly, it needs to be confronted by an infection in the first year of life,” says Greaves. Without that confrontation with an infection, the system is left unprimed and will not work properly.” And this issue is becoming an increasingly worrying problem. Parents, for laudable reasons, are raising children in homes where antiseptic wipes, antibacterial soaps and disinfected floorwashes are the norm. Dirt is banished for the good of the household. In addition, there is less breast feeding of infants and a tendency for them to have fewer social contacts with other children. Both trends reduce babies’ contact with germs. “When such a baby is eventually exposed to common infections, his or her unprimed immune system reacts in a grossly abnormal way,” says Greaves. “It over-reacts and triggers chronic inflammation.” As this inflammation progresses, chemicals called cytokines are released into the blood and these can trigger a second mutation that results in leukaemia in children carrying the first mutation. “The disease needs two hits to get going,” Greaves explains. “The second comes from the chronic inflammation set off by an unprimed immune system.”

I do think we will need to keep an eye on this cohort.

In Japan we never had a full lockdown and are coming back to normal right now so this is not such a concern for me, but I have made a point of getting the kids exposed to plenty of dirt. Lots of play in parks and other green spaces, and gardening on the balcony.

We were last ill in February

You should tell Sunetra Gupta that.

I’d be happy to. Sunetra Gupta is a maverick at odds with most of her profession. She presents the most wildly optimistic possible view on Covid with her position being increasingly untenable as we have real data to compare to her earlier claims in March.

I'm a teacher. I normally get a cold about every 6 weeks or so. Some bad, some mild.
I've had not a single sniffle since March. I feel so much better. Being constantly run down is draining.

There's no reason that quite so many bugs need to be prevalent through nurseries, especially things like conjunctivitis and there was even scarlet fever around last year with children hospitalised. There's got to be a balance between catching a few normal bugs and hammering little immune systems. I know a few nursery kids who are never not ill, because they don't get to recover from bugs. A few months off will have helped those little ones, but under-1s getting nothing through this winter can't be good for them. Until there's a vaccine I can't see playgroups opening though, it's a challenge.

Same here! No viruses since march. Im hoping norovirus dies out but I'm sure it won't!!

I'm also worried but I tend to try make up for it in other ways.

They play with mud, grass, dirt and water.
My son drinks bath water which is gross!
I try walk them in fields and stuff. If they are getting grass and pollen exposure then I hope it's building them up.

I think they will all get run down massively this autumn. The tiredness from going back to routine will be a shock to us all.

Vitamin D, zinc and magnesium and vitamin c I think will be what I look into