Newborn at home with toddler’s second cold in three weeks

[SilentRefluxAdvicePlease]

My three year old has her second cough and cold in three weeks. We also have a three and half week old baby at home. I am looking for solidarity mainly, as it all feels a bit relentless at the moment! Our baby spent the first five nights of his life in neonatal care due to suspected infection and I am terrified of him picking up whatever illness our eldest child now has. She already had a cough and cold at the same time as us coming home from hospital with him and we didn’t let her hold him for five more days after that, to avoid her passing on any germs. It was very sad! Things we are doing:
I am breastfeeding him
Lots of handwashing for everyone
Not allowing our daughter to touch the baby’s hands or face (she is quite good at covering her mouth and nose when she coughs/sneezes, but it doesn’t happen every time)
My husband is taking most of the care for our daughter and I am taking most of the care for our baby
Hopefully I am overreacting, but please do let me know if there is anything else I could/should be doing. Worried and stressed!

I imagine this is a stressful time for you OP. There isnt much you can do unfortunately. Young kids are constantly sick. I've had that same stress with mine. My ds who was 2 had chickenpox while I was heavily pregnant. Dd 5 then came out with it about 2 weeks later when my third was a newborn. He ended up coming out with it at 2 weeks old despite midwives & doctor saying he would be ok due to breastfeeding. He got a mild dose thankfully.it seems like they will pick things up no matter what unfortunately.

I understand. I have 3.5y old at home too and my 3.5wk newborn has a cold, since 2w old. It is improving, I have the saline drops and snuggle baby suction to help. I encouraged hand washing for everyone and toddler good at blowing nose in tissue/coughing behind hands and I’m breastfeeding. Toddler attend nursery. It is stressful, I’m on high alert however baby doing well. I guess you could keep your toddler home from nursery/relatives to reduce amount of illnesses brought back?

I don’t think there is much more you can do either sorry. The advice is usually to keep the house well ventilated but I’m sure you’re probably doing that already.

At least your LO will be getting those amazing white blood cells through your milk

Sounds a bit harsh BUT you're doing everything you can. The more exposure she gets as a baby, the better growing up, and the baby is breastfed so gets your immunity.
I think your best bet is to relax.

Also I think you need to stop with the rules on your eldest. Don't make her scared of the baby or create any other reason to not like the baby.

Thank you, all, for taking the time to reply. By this evening our daughter had picked up a bit and I have also tried to chill out about things today.

Glad things are a bit better