Children who regularly show one of the “three” symptoms.

[ReindeersAreBetterThanHumans]

My daughter reacts badly to a lot of viral illnesses. She gets temperatures at the drop of a hat (not just spikes, sustained for a few days). It’s obvious when she gets a temp as she goes very pale and get bright red cheeks. She tends to get lots of colds and coughs with them. I’ve been following official guidelines and getting her tested, isolating the household whilst awaiting results etc. She’s now had FOUR tests since July, three of them since we’ve been back at school.

Is anyone else in this position? It feels crazy. I have plenty of common sense yet it seems like I’m ignoring that every time I toddle off to get her tested. She’s going to end up getting tested practically every month at this rate. She doesn’t mind it luckily, and she’s good about doing her schoolwork but it just seems a bit crazy.

I’m not sure if I want reassurance that I’m doing the right thing no matter how many tests she has or what...

Please tell me someone else has a child that gets ill at the drop of a hat?

Oh, and not to drip feed, she’s ended up in hospital on numerous occasions due to having a random virus (they’ve suspected everything from meningitis to leukaemia and cancer previously) and she currently has a couple of underlying health issues although nothing serious. This isn’t a case of me being overprotective, I’d much rather her be at school!

My dd had whooping cough as a baby so coughs pretty much constantly from September to April and a bit in between too, mostly through the night and when she first wakes. She first cough through the day. I have not had her tested as the guidelines state NEW continuous cough and this cough is 7 years old now, it's certainly not new. If it becomes different in anyway to her normal pattern I'll get her tested. We have a little boy in our class who is asthmatic so we don't send him home every time he coughs (he'd never be there otherwise)

I'm with you OP.

DS had bronchiolitis as a newborn and pneumonia at 10 months. He's now almost two and the consultant who discharged us after the pneumonia which landed him in hospital warned at the time he was likely to be more susceptible to respiratory illnesses than other children.

Sadly that's proven to be true and since he went back to nursery in June he's had 5 pretty bad colds, which have each resulted in a horrible cough. Each time nursery have insisted we get him tested and each time the test has been negative, but what can we do? They know his history, but it doesn't really matter. In theory, every cough is "new" and "continuous" at the point he gets it, so I can't argue it's an existing one, because there's always a small chance that next time it'll be covid.

I'm thinking it's going to be a long winter for us too...

So far DS cough has been very much inline with his chest issues so after discussion with the respiratory team we haven’t tested. But if there was anything in his cough that wasn’t normal for him or it was accompanied by a fever then we would test.

I think with a fever you don’t know the cause of it so it’s best to take a proactive approach and test than to potentially miss a case and spread it.

@rottiemum88 it’s awful for you and your son but I’m sooooo pleased I’m not the only person living like this! I’m sure school are judging me (she started a new school in September so they don’t know her illnesses like her old school). It’s hard isn’t it, whilst you are used to coughs there’s always a chance it could be COVID. Same with my daughter and her temperatures!

@Sirzy that’s what I’ve been doing but it seems so over dramatic!

My kids always run hot. Daughter had a cold and temp nearly 40. Got her tested. Luckily she's not at school (home educated) or we'd be getting tested every week with colds! With a fever you're doing the right thing, even if it doesn't feel like it.

DS1 coughed continuously from March - June this year (hayfever)
Now its winter and the heating is on I have been extra fussy with airing out the house and lots of extra hoovering to stop any allergy coughs.

I have an asthmatic ds who coughs in cold air and so we get the evil eye on the morning school run which is more annoying and no real inconvenience to us but he also gets a temperature with just about all his colds. Fortunately, it was just the one cold last term and we managed to get a test locally at the same time others were getting sent across country. Roll on spring.