My child is making me ill

[ExpatKat]

Are any other mums out there constantly picking up the bugs your children bring home? I don't mean ordinary coughs and colds, which I don't mind so much, but rather those mysterious viruses accompanied by fever that end up doing you in for far longer than the little ones. Before ds was even 18 mons, I managed to go down with glandular fever immediately followed by a series of (literally!) five tummy bugs (each with fever), plus about 4-5 coughs and colds that were not so minor in my weakened state. I was so demolished from the onslaught, and often not even sure I'd ever recover, that I had to scrounge together full-time help to look after my son for six months while I tried to get strong again. Then I had about a year of being more or less O.K., but now I'm pregnant and am suffering through my second virus + fever of the pregnancy, c/o my son, who, unlike me, gets over these things in no time. Dh never gets these things. My friends only very occasionally get anything worse than coughs and colds. I've had a full blood screen that doesn't seem to reveal any particular reason for my poor immunity to things. Is there anyone else who can relate to this?

Yes !!! Between what dd brings home from playgroup and dh brings home from the surgery, I am always ill!!!

absolutely! i'm now taking echinacea every day to boost my immune system!

HEAD LICE !!!
Yeuch!

Yes, yes, yes... ds (10 months) has been constantly ill with various colds/tummy bugs and chicken pox over the last 3 months and I've caught them every time. I'm sure my boss thinks I'm skiving when I phone in sick all the time. I've just spent 10 days off work whilst hyperactive happy but spotty ds zoomed around the house followed by exhausted, feverish, desperate me. And why does dh never catch anything???

I spent most of last Spring 2001 in bed. I counted that I had had 17 days unable to move from my bed during various illnesses. I honestly thought I had ME or something v.serious. Have been OK so far this year touch wood. R

Blimey, this rings a bell. I have been feeling rubbish for about 2 weeks now. Absolutely exhausted, yet unable to get out of bed, even assuming I 've had an uninterrupted night, sore throat, swollen glands, cough, snotty nose (sorry!)Abd I had just the same thing in March. I was thinking about ME too Rhiannon, but then I am a bit of a hypochondriac! But I do feel lousy - and probably am as dd has nits! have just had some brazil nuts for their zinc and 1000mg of Vitamin C. Hope I feel better tomorrow as it is the nursery outing - more germy toddlers!

That's why I love these message boards! You always discover you're not alone.

Before I had my daugther just over a year ago, I hadn't had a sick day from work in over 2 years (and that included my entire pregnancy, not 1 sick day). Now, just since January, dd and i keep taking turns getting sick. Everything she gets I get too! Like ExpatKat I even had blood tests done too, but they showed nothing. (by the way - are you american b/c i am..?)

She has a fever and a rash, then as soon as she's better I have a fever and a rash. She gets a cold, I get a cold, then she catches it again from me. A month ago she had a chest infection, now she's just over chicken pox (didn't seem to phase her at all but of course I still had to stay home with her) and now I've got a sore throat, cough, chest thing going on.

My manager has just about had it with me, but what can you?! (Actually, what I'm doing is changing jobs to work from home but for other reasons).

Er Kat, are you by any chance an Ex-pat? As I've found that each time I changed countries, even before I had kids, I got every bug going for about a year, not so bad the next and by year three had cast-iron immunity.

Throwing kids and pregnancy into the equation has not prob helped you. If you are run down by one event, you are more prone to pick up the next one and so on. Perhaps you are more concerned about room temperature now you have children as central heating and air conditioning don't allow for free circulation of new air in the same way.

Hope you find some respite soon, it's a real bee having bugs when you are pg. Worth trying the enhinacea, fruit, veg, garlic and ginger and some gentle excercise in the fresh air. Grated root ginger and hot water makes a soothing tea in pg.

I have also (and DH to a lesser extent) had several illnesses thanks to DS's generosity. The tummy bugs tend to hit us both worse than DS. I have also had several bad coughs that have necessitated sleeping on the settee. DS is particularly prone to colds (his first was at 3 weeks despite exclusive breast feeding and no contact with other kids).