How long does it take before he stops getting sick

[owloak]

Hiya!

My little boy has started attending nursery. It's been less than a month and already he has had RSV, conjunctivitis and now a stomach bug! My husband and I have also caught all of these! I feel like our household has been permanently sick for what feels like forever 🙈 it seems every time little one is well enough to go back, it only lasts a few days before he's off again with the next illness.

I know this is super common, everyone tells you this is how it is 😅 but I'm just wondering, anyone with experience with this have a rough estimate of when this fades away? I have no leave left from work, so I'm constantly having to take unpaid leave, and it is definitely a struggle financially! (Husband takes leave when he can too)

Just feeling down today as it's yet another weekend where the entire household is sick and feeling miserable. Most of all I just want my little boy to be healthy and happy and it's sad seeing him so upset/sick 😔

Ah it’s horrible isn’t it, I sympathise! Our 2 year old DS started nursery last October and it was about 3-4 months of feeling like he was constantly ill, but since then it’s slowed dramatically and it’s once every few months. It doesn’t help that it’s going into flu season now so you’ll probably find there’s a few months of this and then he’ll settle down and get much less frequent.

get better soon, all of you!

I just realised how relentless ‘a few months’ sounds, sorry! I promise it’ll pass, you’ll find his bugs get more spaced out as his immune system grows too, it won’t be so constant, so hopefully it won’t be that he’s ill for the next few months, just that he’s more prone for the next few months.

About 9 months for us. The first 4 months we were constantly ill. I swear I had 3 or 3 bugs overlapping some weeks. After then you maybe get a week or so off in between and gradually it improves over the next few months.

Hygiene at the nursery has a lot to do.with it though. I heard from similar mums whose nursery were strict about wiping down everything daily and they had less issues.

We had about 9 months... not what you want to hear!! I hope you fare better

Took dd years to build an immune system because of covid. She started nursery at 2 and only stopped getting really unwell just before summer there

What’s RSV?

About 10 years ...

Thanks for all the reply's. I was hoping it would be more like 3 or 4 months, but I guess I better prepare myself for a longer go of it 😂 🙈 RSV is respiratory syncytial virus, a common, but sometimes serious virus. Our little one lended up spending some time in hospital because of it.

I regret not putting him in nursery part time before returning to work. I just never thought about it! So if there's anyone out there currently on maternity leave, my advice would be put them in a little while before you return to work, if possible for you. that way you are still at home and able to deal with their illnesses without needing to take leave from work. Seems kinda obvious now, but I guess as a first time mum, the thought just never occurred to me! But I have heard from some people at work that this is what they did 🤦🏻‍♀️ 😅

Hope you all feel better soon and things improve.

It is normal yes but shouldn’t be so frequent in my experience. I am an ex Nursery manager so perhaps have a check at the nursery in terms of infection control: ask about handwashing ( do they regularly encourage and support the children in washing their hands etc) cleaning of toys ( how often) , children being excluded when unwell etc, adequate ventilation etc within the setting itself.

A few things you can do: absolute handwashing when coming out of Nursery . Children pass and pick up so many things via the hand to mouth route. As well, do you have a good probiotic? Perhaps invest in some probiotics for your child as well as you as a family.
Good luck. It will ease once your child’s immunity gets stronger.

With our DC it carried on until about 3.5. Not continuously! But winters were gruelling.

You can anticipate the kids catching chicken pox at some point - my dd was off 8 days with that, and ds was off 3 days.

Oh and hand, foot and mouth - that’s really nasty sometimes for a few days.

We only had one vomiting bug per child, I agree with pp it’s down to how the nursery manage the “don’t return within 48 hrs” rule and how honest parents are.

We had just endless colds, some were hideous - I was just permanently sick with them as I don’t recover quickly.

But WOW cast iron immune system for the kids after that! DD only had one sick day throughout primary (burned through Covid unnoticed, we only found out because we tested).

Hold onto your hat for winter...its hell!

Thanks for the replies!

Update- he is still off sick. He has had V&D for 5 days now. However, he's only vomited a handful of times, and the diarrhea has eased off a lot the past 2 days. He's generally happy in himself. And although dehydrated was a concern, I felt he was getting just about enough food/fluids in.

It seems to be at the tail end of things now, which is good. But I'm going to keep him off for the rest of the week to prevent spreading it. I've been off work all week so far, but DH will take Thursday and Friday off.

He has his 12month check up coming up so I will speak to the nurse then to see if there's anything extra we can do.

Should also mention, he's drinking a lot more fluids now so I'm not concerned about dehydration anymore. He's generally happy in himself, seems well.