How often are your 18-24 month olds ill??

[sotiredfornow]

Just that really. How often have you had to deal with sickness, rashes, viruses, nasty coughs, temperatures, major childhood illness etc over the last 6 months of winter.

Thank you so much in advance for the info - my child is constantly ill but I have no idea what is 'normal' for this age range x

Constant cold (at nursery)
I would say spends c. 5 days out of every month ill to some degree.

At the moment - every blinking day. Both at nursery. 18 months and 3. Been ill last 6 weeks between them. Aaaaah

a couple of viruses which lingered but we only missed baby groups once.

not in childcare if that is relevant

Rarely. My youngest at almost 3 has had a toncilitus thing around a year old. Nothing apart from odd runny nose otherwise

DD is two and has been ill 3 times - 2 colds and 1 bout of gastro. She's not in childcare though, and is still breast fed, if that makes a difference.

Ds had chest infections up till he was about 1, he is 2 next week and apart from one bout of sickness shortly after his 1st birthday he hasn't been ill in last year at all. (I'm touching wood frantically now!)

He isn't at nursery if that makes a difference

Cosmo - we are similar but worse. Ill every 2.5-3 weeks, 5-10 days per month.

Keep the info coming ladies. Useful if you can mention if your DC is in nursery or not.

Artansco - wow, how is this true?! No fair! Do you take any particular steps to prevent illness or is it just luck?

DC2 is 21mths and has been at nursery 3 days a week since June. He missed 3 days due to c pox and a further day due to some bug for which he had a course of anti-biotics. He's been snotty all winter and currently has a cough but fairly low level. I think I've given him a dose of calpol on about two other occasions before dropping him off. He had had hand, foot & mouth before starting nursery.
DC1 has missed one day in this period due to a (different) bug for which she had anti-biotics. This is the first winter she has got through without needing anti-biotics for a chest infection.
Am now nervous that this post has doomed me to weeks of them both being ill and have probably guaranteed that one of them will wake vomiting and the other with a soaring temperature!

My chap seems to be ill a lot, biut I would class a snotty nose as poorly. Because he's normally so cheerful and running about a cold will change his behaviour a lot.

I think a lot of people don't count colds as poorly because the little mites get SO many of them.

K

DS was hardly ever ill. He didn't go to nursery though and I was still breastfeeding so possibly a combination of lack of exposure and the immune system thing.

When I stopped breastfeeding he got everything going for about 2 months!

All winter long! One cold rolls into another, I'm currently suffering too with the latest one. Some have ended up in ear infections needing antibiotics (she's got glue ear so probably more likely than most to develop them). She's also had d&v that led to a day in hospital syringing dioralyte into her and a milder vomiting bug. She's in nursery.

BUT...dd1 was exactly like this during her first year of nursery, she's in school now and never ill so it does get better I promise!

No idea how. They were breastfed until 2 1/2 if that makes any difference, I'm not bothered by germs out really ie they pick up worms etc, they eat anything, and we usually go outside at least 2 hrs a day rain or shine.

Not sure if any of above helps though

My DS started nursery at 9 months and was ill constantly through the first couple if winters, mainly D&V, plus various coughs and colds. DD also started at 9 months, two years later and got fewer illnesses.

It's stood them in good stead though, when DS started school he didn't have a day off sick for the first 2.5 years, they are 10 and 8 now and still average only about one day sick each per year. A lot of their classmates seem to be off far more often than this.

Rarely. DD2 is 27m, she's probably had two or three bad colds in her lifetime? Has never seen a doctor & never had antibiotics. She's breastfed & doesn't go to nursery but goes out a lot to playground etc & lives with a school age sibling.

Oh my school age DD has had one UTI, a handful of colds. Never been off sick except one day with UTI (she's in Y1). She was also breastfed & didn't go to nursery.

Well kids have no immunity to cold viruses etc so this is how they build an immune system up.

Bf only gets them so far.

Dd is 2 and was breastfed and has had 1 day off childcare and she goes to nursery 5 days a week and only had 1 sick day. Dd is 6 started nursery at 16 weeks she got ill a couple of times before age 1 after that never had 2 nursery/school sick days. She wasnt breastfed though so that was my fault.

My DD is at nursery. She's 2 and has had two lots of tonsillitis and a few virus's. She pretty much has a constant runny nose since she started. DD currently has a cold and conjunctivitis :( she started at 18 months and it feels like she's been ill constantly since then. Prior to nursery she had never had a cold or been ill.

I do worry that ds is going to have increased levels of illness once he goes to school because of his lack of poorlyness now, iyswim.

My paediatrician says that as soon as kids start to mix with a large number of children in a confined space, they get ill a lot and then it falls as their immune system builds. However, immunity develops with age as well, so a baby that goes to nursery at 6 mo will prob get ill more than a child who wasn't in childcare and then goes to school at 4. Some people also just have better immune systems. I am v rarely ill- my sister gets everything - but we lived parallel childhoods so some of it must be genetic.

DD1 had one cold in Jan, which became a chest infection (I had the same thing) first one since the previous March. She was 2 end of Jan, was bf til 20mths and doesn't go to nursery.
I think she's fairly lucky as others we meet up with regularly have snotty noses.

We also spend 2/3 hrs outside every day (dog walking).

Hopefully DD2 will be the same!

Very rarely. Had one cold last winter when he was several months old and that's it. I don't really know why - he's not in child care but we go to several groups a week so in a lot of contact with other children. We give him biotics and he's breastfed still. I do put a lot of stock in healthy gut = healthy immune system but apart from that, maybe it's luck.

My Ds had plenty of coughs and colds at this age once he started nursery. Hardly ever ill enough to be off though.

He is now 3 and has far fewer.

Zebrazeebra - can I ask which biotic a you use?? I want my toddler to start with some.