Is the second winter as bad as the first with illness?

[Purple89]

My DD started nursery in November when she was 1. From starting we had 5 months of relentless illness- endlessly ear infections, tonsilitis, a vomiting bug, conjunctivitis, not to mention endless back to back colds. From April it got a little better and we've seen longer gaps between illnesses, although I've had to take a day off work today for another temperature.

I know to some degree this is normal. I checked with the doctors and they think she has a normal immune system and nothing is out of the realms of normal. I find the illness terrible for 3 reasons - 1. The impact on our work (my DH and I share the load but it's still so disruptive). 2. The anxiety it causes me when she's ill- I get so worried about serious things like sepsis and meningitis. And finally most importantly 3. It's horrid for her - she is so miserable, tearful and out of sorts when she's ill.

I'm battling through this current temperature but the thought of another November to April like 2023/24 makes me feel so anxious. Should I expect the same again, in your experience?

Thanks so much all.

Hi OP, this is how I felt with my first DC, it felt relentless and such hard work, especially as we both got ill as well on most occasions.
I did find the second winter better, yes they still have a runny nose almost constantly, but I found the illnesses less regular and less servere.

There's a video somewhere on Facebook/instagram. It's a mum pretending to drop her imaginary child off at nursery -

"Hi, here's my child"
"Hi, thanks, can we have 80% of your pay packet and here's your bi-weekly virus"
"Oh okay, here's 80% of my money"
"You need to take your child home"
"Oh can I have my money back then"
"No that's not how it works, you have to take your child home to stop the virus spreading"
"Oh, the one you gave my child?"
"Yes"
"Okay, well we'll see you Monday then"
"Nope, not Monday, bank holiday!"
"Did we pay you for that"
"Yep, bye!"

Something along those lines, but it's unfortunately how it is, and it's hard!!!

In my experience the first winter was miles worse than the second for DC, DH and I.

DC started nursery in the September and it felt like we all had one illness or another for the next 6 months, some of them quite nasty.

The following winter was far better. I’d estimate illnesses dropped by at least 75% if not more.

Others I’ve spoken to appear to have experienced similar so fingers crossed it’s the same for you too.

I think it gets better. The random fevers without any obvious cause, or maybe accompanying just a minor cold definitely seem to go away as they get older. I do think this winter was particularly bad though, my eldest is in year 2, my youngest in the school nursery and it was the worst I’ve ever known for illnesses. Three quarters of the class had scarlet fever between January and February. We had our first ever vomiting bug. Granted I don’t know that many babies now my kids are older but every baby I know ended up going to hospital with RSV. DS got whooping cough despite being vaccinated. Awful. Never known anything like it. So it surely can’t be that bad again?! I bloody hope not anyway.

Thank you so much 💓 I hope its the same for us. And you're absolutely right, I should have said it was bad for 4 reasons- the 4th being that both my DH and I caught almost everything and felt dreadfully unwell too!! It is so horrific that I contemplated taking her out, but then it started to improve. Think the fact she's ill today is making me ruminate on how bad it was and just can't handle it again!

I will search for that video, I could do with a laugh 😆 thank you! X

Yes, it does get better. DS1 started in November at 1 and managed to get two colds, tonsillitis, a stomach bug and an irritable hip in the first two months! After that, the subsequent winters have been much better. DS2 started in April last year and similarly had quite a lot of illness over the winter - the main difference seems to be I've caught all his illnesses too and am now on the edge of an HR report for my own sickness absence (flu, 3*stomach bug). But I'm very much hoping he'll be better next year like his brother was...

Thank you so much- this gives me hope! Could definitely handle 25% level, just not that level again.

Thank you so much for your reply.

That's interesting- that was the experience in my neck of the woods too. My parents said they have never known anything like it, and that neither me nor my brother was ill anything like as much as my DD and her friends have been. There were some very poorly babies and toddlers in my circle this winter. The GP also said its been a horrific one with some viruses lasting 14 to 21 days.