How often do your children get ill?

[PirateWeasel]

I appreciate that this is probably all relative, but as a new parent I'm interested to hear your experiences. One of my friends has a 2yo and a 7yo and they seem to have constant bugs all the time with hardly a break in between. But another friend with similar aged kids never seems to get anything. I'm pretty sure Friend 2 just doesn't broadcast it, and they get their share of bugs like every other family. But these seem to be two opposite extremes. What's normal? What am I in for as my LO gets older?

My DS seems to be ill all the time lately, but this is only started since he's been going to Nursery to be honest.

Since September he's had conjunctivitis, hand foot and mouth, 2 lots of sickness and diarrhoea and a cold/cough every other week. I've taken so much time off work due to this I think work are starting to think I'm taking the piss but what am I meant to do what he can't go in and I've got no one else 🤷‍♀️

(Off today with DS who has horrendous diarrhoea AGAIN...woke up to shit all over the bed, was lovely cleaning that up at 6am this morning 🤢)

Bit reluctant to jinx it but DD hasn't had more than a sniffle and patchy sore throat all term. She started reception in September.

She caught consecutive colds when she first started nursery when she was 10 months and just seems to have navigated her way through fairly unscathed since. She's had chicken pox but mildly, she had a horrid UTI and antibiotics which is the only time she's had out of hours care and she had an awful scarlet fever bout earlier this year which made her very miserable. But relatively speaking I keep waiting for this luck to change. She seems pretty robust.

No siblings to infect her though.

My two are 3 and 6

My 6 yr old has had two tummy bugs, one virus and one course of antibiotics in her life so far.

My 3 yr old has had one tummy bug, one virus and a week in hospital (with undiagnosed illness, worst week of my life 😭) but that is it!

When they were toddlers my youngest especially got every bug under the sun. They are 8 and 5 now and my eldest hasn't been ill since August 2017 and my youngest was sick once December last year, they've not had a single sick day this year! 100% attendance for autumn term which I was very shocked by as I assumed my youngest starting school would get something. They seem to be taking after their dad which is a huge relief, he's never been sick (physically) apart from the odd drunken night (!) in the 15 years we've been together. Me however, not so lucky!

Mine are 11, 9 and 6 and I can count the number of times they've been ill on one hand each. I don't count sniffles and illnesses that have no ill effect on them. Two had hand, foot and mouth and other than a couple of spots on their feet and one or two on a palm, that was the only symptom. I only knew what it was because a fellow school mum was talking about the "outbreak".
They've had chicken pox and a tummy bug once each. I was called to school to pick DS up because he was queasy (and looked rather green) but the second he hit outside in the fresh air he was back to normal and wanted to go back in.

Before my DC were 2 they had coughs and colds and sick bugs quite often.
DD is 6 now and quite seriously hasn't had more than a sniffle since she was 3 and a half. DS is 3 and a half now and has been off nursery once this term for a virus that gave him a temp.
It has got drastically better since leaving the toddler years!

They had a coughs, cold and s and v bugs when they were small. Also chicken pox. Then nothing much for years.

Dc are 13,11,10+4 and all had full attendance at school since nursery!
Never had a bug /cough /cold.

My 5 yr old gets more sick than his siblings. Middle one rarely gets sick, youngest gets a lot of sniffles but not "ill". Oldest gets more ill than the other two. No idea why.

My 7yo gets sick about twice a year, as in off school sick, but she's quite regularly "peaky" for a day or so. As a toddler she cracked a temperature at the slightest thing, to the point that she still thinks my hand on her forehead is a sign of affection She has a lot of colds though, but surely all kids do.

The toddler is an odd one. He has eczema, possible asthma and several allergies but despite obviously having a rubbish immune system because of this, he is hardly ever ill. He's regularly snotty and quite often chesty but he's had a temperature about twice in his whole life and threw off chicken pox (complete with conjunctivitis and an ear infection at the same time) with barely a complaint. Strange stamina of an ox that one.

Mine are 3 and 5, and we don't seem to get much. Odd coughs and colds, a couple of episodes of D&V, a few ear infections but not much.

My nephew on the other hand is 3 and is constantly limping from one thing to the next.

I used to think maybe it was because my kids were at home, while he was at nursery full time, but my eldest is in school now so I don't think it's the case.

My kids are quite outdoorsy, whereas my nephew is more indoorsy so perhaps there's something in that 🤷🏼‍♀️

Mostly luck I think though!

Since September my 5 dc have had 2 tummy bugs that they all had. 4 and 5 year olds seem to have had a permanent cold and the others have probably had 3 or 4 colds each. 7 year old had an operation for grommets and had 1.5 days off school for that although not sure if that counts as an illness. Loads of medical appointments between them too, once or twice a week on average.

Of my 4, 2 are rarely unwell (the 13 & 4 year old). 5 year old has had a bad run this term. 11 year old is constantly unwell, has been the case since he was a baby.

Definitely depends on the child

My 5YO has asthma and gets everything worse than my 3YO. When they had chicken pox, my youngest had a few spots and wasn't really bothered by it. My eldest then got it and was really unwell with it, along with being completely covered head to toe in spots!

I think he takes after his dad, while youngest takes after me. I'm rarely very ill with anything and can usually shrug off a cold. DH on the other hand gets it really badly. I always thought it was just him playing up for sympathy (man flu and all that!). But since having DC I think he's just got a rubbish immune system he's passed onto our son!