I am severely emetophobic and have been my whole life. My DC has just started nursery and we have had our first dreaded letter home saying that d&v is going around and all parents and families should be vigilant with hygiene and hand washing.
Because we are fine for childcare (DH and I both work from home and we also have a full time nanny,) and DC does not have to go to nursery (she’s only just 3yo so not compulsory school yet) I am tempted to keep her off for the week.
I am very torn about this because I know it is not the mentally healthy thing to do and I keep going back and forth in my head.
The last thing I want to do is bring a stomach bug into the house. We have a newborn baby (3 weeks) and an immune compromised elderly person. But I also know that it’s inevitable that DC will get one at some point. She’s had them before and I found them awful and completely draining, and I know there are more in our future and it’s just part of life.
So technically I am just delaying the inevitable and creating a situation where, whenever I hear there is d&v I just keep her off nursery which is not healthy for her or me. Ie if it’s not this week, it’ll be next week, or the week after, or Christmas. I know that it’s just part of DC growing up.
DH says that while he disagrees on principle that I should keep her off because of my fear, he’d welcome not having to take her in the morning as it’s an hour long commute all in at 7am. He also says from a logical point of view he’d prefer there was not a bug in the house.
I just don’t know what to do.
Would you, as someone who was not emetophobic, send your DC knowing that there was a stomach bug in her class and she would probably get it this week, and just brace yourself for illness?
Or is it okay to keep her off and reason that one fewer stomach bug to deal with, the better?
BTW, you don’t become immune to stomach bugs, the immunity wears off every 14 weeks, so there’s not a “building up immunity” argument here.