ds developed terrible cold after starting at nursery

[cappy1]

Hi mums

I know this is to be expected but I am p*** off that my sweet little baby boy has caught a nasty cold since starting at nursery last week. I thought I was going to take this in my stride but it is really upsetting. He has only ever had one cold and he is really suffering at night - coughing sneezing etc. There are two other todlers at the nursery that are constantly snotty and look quite miserable when I drop him off. Am I in my rights to say anything or is this something i need to just live with?

You need to live with it i'm afraid. He willl get many many more bugs from nursery and school it's all par of the course.

cappy in the long run it will do him good there was a study recently that showed children exposed to bugs at nursery were less likely to get leukaemia. Most preschoolers get 8 colds a year so on average one every six weeks

I don't know how to tell you this but... my ds has not been free of a cold for more than about three weeks at a time since starting at nursery a year ago. He had only had about two colds before that point. There is little point saying anything as there is nothing anyone can do .

Like you say, it's to be expected. On the upside, he's going to develop a very strong immune system and probably not have a day off school when he's older.

You will need to live with it unfortunately. My DS started nursery at 14 months and also only ever had 2 colds but within a couple of weeks of being at nursery, the colds came on thick and fast! This lasted for almost a year (not what you want to hear I know).

There is nothing the nursery can do about it except asking parents to keep children away while suffering from high temperatures, etc.

They all do it. Better get it over with while he's younger - you can't stop kids catching bugs once they start mixing with other kids, and after a year or so the frequency of snotty-nose decreases a lot as the immunce system kicks in properly.

Thanks mums

I know that it is just one of those things it is just another thing to deal with whilst we go through this transition of me back to work and him at nursery. I wonder if it would have been the same if he had gone to a child minder and opposed to a nursery where he is exposed to more kids...

DD was the same, and she passed the first cold she got at nursery straight onto me - the thing was, me with my 30-something tough immune system, I was flat on my back, precious little baby sailed (coughing) straight through it. Now she gets fewer colds than I do. She's full of snot at the moment actually, coughing a lot at night but she really couldn't care less apart from that.

Wait til he gets worms and/or nits.

Oh great yes nits and worms can't wait for it all to start. What else should I be brace myself for?

and rotavirus

by the time he gets to primary school he will hardly ever be ill,dont worry.

I thought conjunctivitis was particularly rubbish, with colds I thought 'that's another strain of the common cold she can't catch', and of course chicken pox was a relief to get over and done with ... but conjunctivitis can come back as many times as it likes.

I have 2DDs at nursery - they have never had worms or rotovirus and we have only had 3 occurrances of conjunctivitis in over 4 years . Colds are to be expected though. It took 3 years at nursery before DD1 got CP - DD2 still hasn't had it.

Once DD1 reached 3 she got a lot fewer colds.

They get a lot of benefit from going to a good nursery and mixing with other children so try to focus on that....that said the DCs are our nursery are snotty but cheerful looking.

Always a good idea to encourage good hand hygiene once they start nursery (if your DC is old enough to understand) - mine know why they should wash their hands before eating or after using the loo - hopfully your nursery checks the DCs there do this.

my dd had 12 colds in first 5 months at nursery. One every 10-14 days. It was a nightmare but it is so important for their immunity.

Oh, DD has only had conjunctivitis twice - but my point is that there is no silver lining to something that can recur and recur, whereas for a lot of other stuff there is the advantage to their immune system.

I'm more than happy to collect a grubby, snotty child - mud, paint, food, snot, even some bruises. As long as her pants are clean and there's some evidence that they've tried to get the food and snot off. One of the staff yesterday said she WISHED she could send them home clean - but DD is at that stage in a cold where she blows her nose, I wipe her face, turn my back, and lo, she's covered in snot again.

No nits or worms - resigned to the former coming from school, I'd really REALLY like to avoid worms though.

DD has had an almost permanently snotty nose since she started at nursery in January. However, she doesn't seem to be quite as susceptible to bugs and things any more, it just takes their immune system a little while to start fighting them.

And obviously, she can either go to nursery and get all these things now, or catch them all when she starts school anyway!

Live with it. DS had a lot of colds the first year, now hardly ever has them. And the workout for his immune system is protecting him from leukaemia, which would be a lot worse than the cold.

• I remember before having DCs that I wondered why on earth parents let their DCs walk around with runny noses all day - now I realise that if I wiped my DCs noses every time they ran a bit I would probably wear their nose away within a month!

oh, the nose wiping thing - my poor ds' nose is so sore at the moment - but he insists on getting it wiped whenever there's any snot.

The weird thing is he obviously picks up every other virus going - so why, when he's been exposed to chickenpox 5 times in the last year, hasn't he picked that up yet? I just want him to get it over with!

As others have said it is completely normal. The good news is that things do improve from those first few months where they seem to get everything going.

It's horrid though, and certainly triggered my PFB "want to keep them wrapped up in bubble wrap until they're 21" impulse.

I know what you mean about the snotty kids at nurseries but what can they realistically do? Some toddlers would be pretty much permanently excluded if they turned away every snotty nosed baby! Believe me, the first time they exclude your DS for having a loose nappy that you know is just down to teething and you have to find alternative childcare you will begin to have more sympathy for the other side.

Hope DS feels better soon.

It's horrible isn't it. DS started reception last year and has been sick numerous times - rarely have two weeks free from bugs. Am hoping Year 1 will be better.