Have your school-age DC had less illness this year compared to other winters?

[cheeseismydownfall]

We have three DC - two in the same primary (Y6 and Y4) and one at secondary (Y8).

The younger two are currently under the weather with their third cold of the winter. They (predictably) got their first within a week of going back in September, another mild cold before half term, and then this latest one a few days ago. All very normal - sore throat, snotty nose, feeling a bit crappy, but getting on with things as normal.

As I said, this is all very normal for this time of year. In fact, it seems exactly the same as any other year. But surely with all of the covid measures in place in their school (class bubbles, facing the front, windows open, frequent handwashing etc), shouldn't the children be less likely to pick up normal cold viruses as a result?

It makes me wonder how effective these measures really are in preventing covid transmission in schools, if the incident of common colds seems on a par with a normal year.

Obviously I only have my own experience to go on, so I am curious to know if anyone else's children have had less illnesses than usual?

Yes my reception aged DS hasn't been ill since February. My nursery aged DC has had a steady stream of mild colds, but he only started nursery in January and then was off March-July with lockdown, so totally to be expected.

DS1 does seem to have a good immune system (thanks to all the viruses he had in his first year of nursery most probably!) but he hasn't caught any of DC2's colds, strangely...

Fewer colds here. One at start of term and one now - this time last year we’d had a good few separate instances where they were off school. My annual leave reflects that!

I think we've had less - DS2 started reception which with DS1 was pretty much 6mths of snotty noses but he's had 2 fairly short sharp colds (about a week each time) and DS1 who is in secondary got his first cold this week probably from his little brother licking him 🙄.
I'm immunosuppressed (have been for 20yrs) and this has been the first autumn winter I haven't picked something up 🥳, fully expecting to get something at some point but so far so good.

We had a letter home about nits after 2 weeks back at school, there is no social distancing 🤣

Way,way less. We had one cold when they first went back and are shaking off another mild one now - that's it. Normally I'd expect at least one person to be streaming snot at any one time between September - Easter.

Definitely less illness. I’m delighted!

No, in fact I think we’ve had more. Dd in year 3 came home ill after the first week of school with a cold that took me 8 weeks to recover from. I never got tested because I didn’t have the three symptoms but I had rashes, headache, difficulty breathing and ended up having to get my heart checked in hospital in the weeks that followed. Since then, she’s constantly been coming home with coughs, runny nose, fever etc

Mine have definitely had less illness this year in general. As have me and husband.
Both children have had the sniffles for a few days but definitely no proper colds, I’ve got a cold/sore throat at the moment but suffer terribly with my throat and would usually have a few throat infections over the course of the year. This is first time I’ve been a little under the weather and seems much milder than I’d usually suffer with. I think the current measures must be the reason for us having less bugs

We are in the Middle East where things are being taken very seriously. This is the healthiest winter we have had as a family touchwood 🙏

In Our household, we haven’t had a cold or sniffles for about 18 months now, my daughter’s 15, we’re all out at work and school every day, popping to shops most days, travelled in out of London a few times on the train, gone to quite a few restaurants. I can’t get over how we haven’t got anything yet. I haven’t had a virus for over 2 years now. I put it down to having the flu jab first time ever last year and wondered if it builds your immunity to other cold viruses.

So far, maybe one cold. Both kids in primary school.

Much less illness than usual.

Much less illness- 2 asthmatics in the house who catch everything going normally, one of whom has hospital admissions on a semi regular basis. We've had one bug since September which only affected me, dh and the non-wheezy child. The wheezy ones have been fine!

More here. DS (12) has been off four times since September, although one of those was when I had coronavirus. 2x stomach bugs and one cough/cold which wasn’t Covid.

DD was off within a week of schools reopening.

No but honestly we very rarely get ill anyway. We usually get a cold once a year in winter time but that's it. DS has only had a sickness bug once in his life, he's 7.

Far fewer here - ds2 who has chosen to wear a mask at school all day, hasn't had a single bug at all. Ds1, who only wears his mask when required in communal areas, has had a really snotty cold. Both schools have suffered multiple covid cases over the past two months, neither boy has been affected.

Yes. No illness at all in my house. Can’t remember last cold I had- probably last winter. Kids not even had colds

No! Feels like more than ever, but maybe that's because colds that would normally be 'non-events' are suddenly a big deal. We all had the same heavy cold in September which in unusual for us - normally a couple of us just get each thing. I did wonder if less mixing had reduced our immune systems somehow (Wasn't covid, that joy came later....)

Have had to self isolate 5 times since September and thats in-between colds.
Defo more for the younger child but less for the older ones.

Yes, definitely. Both dds had a mild cold in September and nothing since. Suggests that the measures at school are at least having some effect. We also had one case of covid (a teacher) that didn't appear to spread to anyone else.

All 3 of mine have been constantly ill since going back. 2 in secondary and 1 in primary. The measures in place don't work for colds, they won't work for Covid.

I don't seem to have heard about so much sickness this year so far though. Touch wood.

We had absolutely nothing during lockdown, for comparison. No bugs at all.

I was literally thinking today about this - we haven’t had one cold or stomach bug with 3 kids- that’s never ever happened before!!!

3 DC here - 2 had the back to school cold that went around. Other than that we've not had even another mild cold.

My two are normally pretty hardy (y3 & 5)
They got the back to school colds and we seemed to spend the first half-term cycling through increasingly mild colds.

It's rare for them to be ill with much else although this time last year, DS1 was hit hard for a week with some random virus that exhausted him, then took a couple of months to really get his energy back. The first day of absence I reported as "a heavy cold" then it went in to fever and swollen glands and came in two waves.

Other than their karate and swimming, they haven't been to any other non-school indoor space since October. Even then it was only McDonalds/ pubs, and that's been that since a visit to a museum in July when it reopened before Mask Day a couple of weeks later.

About the same here. Both DD’s have had one cold since September and DD1 has had a bout of tonsillitis. That’s pretty standard for us.