Baby hygeine after 1yo

[Sunrise888]

I was ruthless about hygeine around my baby until he started crawling, becoming mobile, resistant and hard work. Apart from cleaning after nappies it all fell by the wayside.

Apart from 1 bad cold he's not been ill at all. We took a flight for a family holiday with grandparents for the first time and we all got knocked down by D&V, lo was first. 😥

I'm guessing it was the plane journey - wondering if I should have scrubbed the seat down beforehand. And we will be more vigilant about hand washing before all meals (even though he always sticks his fingers in his mouth). Should I be doing much more? He starts nursery next month - I presume we'll be sick constantly from now on. Do they impose hand washing? I'd been thinking that a few germs were probably good for him, but after this week's carnage I've changed my mind...

It might not have been the plane.

Might have been delayed food poisoning, could have been a bug from before the flight which was still active etc etc.

Basically you don’t know.

Yes practice normal hygiene in terms of handwashing but babies and young children need exposure to germs. He will get ill at nursery, you can’t avoid it, you just accept.

I hate noro virus and worry about getting it. The kids have picked up vomiting bugs from school but only mild ones. I’ve had noro virus before but the kids didn’t get it thank goodness - just made sure we washed hands etc.

You sound a bit overly worried but it will hopefully fade once the memory does!

It wouldn't even cross my mind to scrub an airplane seat.

Just go with normal measures hand washing after toilets, before food and not eating off the floor (if you can help it).

My experience of nursery is that DD had a pretty much constant runny nose/cough for the first 6 months to a year with several hours of high temperature and or runny nappies.

Nursery do what they can with hand washing, hygiene but the kids hug and kiss each other, they share food and drinks, if they see food on the floor before the nursery workers then they eat it. there's only so much these things can be controlled.

After that first year DD seems pretty much been resistant, hasn't been sick for a good long while.

My DS just turned 2 and been at nursery since 8 months. In that time we’ve had two bouts of noro. I, like you, am not fanatical about washing hands etc beyond the normal after they’ve been in a public loo/grubbing in garden/around animals etc. I don’t think fanantical hygiene would have prevented the two episodes we’ve had and overall I would say general germ exposure does more good than harm.

I'm guessing it was the plane journey - wondering if I should have scrubbed the seat down beforehand.

As a pp said, may not have been the plane. And even if it turns out that it was, it's more likely to be the recycled air that did for you. No amount of scrubbing will help with that. Kids get ill. It's part of life. Take reasonable hygiene precautions, sure - but you can't get too hung up over it.

Apparently Sambucol can help boost their immune system for nursery.

DS has been at nursery 7 months and I have lost count of the number of times he’s been ill. At least once a month, sometimes twice. Mostly cold viruses which turned into bronchiolitis and/or chest infections and/or ear infections. But also roseola, and probably other things I’ve forgotten. It didn’t help that DH and I also got stomach bugs and food poisoning at various points.

I don’t think everyone gets it quite so bad, we’ve just been cursed.

I just feel so guilty - dp and I are young and can manage it, but to give it to the grandparents too... I had a colleague from Italy who, before flying home with the family, kept his son home from nursery/preschool the full week before to ensure no illness!

Thanks for the reassurances and the sambucol recommendation - I'll look into it. I know it's inevitable. I guess I've been blessed with a decent immune system and almost never get colds or illnesses, but I can see that's all going to change.

The way the illness went down, lo first night, me 2nd night, DP next day, grandparents the day after, I'm sure it was a bug. The plane was they only crowded space we were on the whole trip, so I do think it was the most likely culprit. DP suggested driving next time as well (all 700 miles) 🙄.