Poorly 16month old exhausted parents

[AngelaB83]

I am a first time mum and my husband has 2 older children. Our DS was born in the middle of lockdown last year and is now 16months old. I went back to work early from maternity in April as I needed company and was desperately lonely being on maternity in lockdown.
Since mid April our DS has been poorly at least once a month. Which we were dealing with and everything was fine. He started nursery at the beginning of September and goes 2 days a week. However, he hasn’t yet done 2 weeks in a row. He goes for one week and is then poorly for 7-10 days afterwards. And this has been constant since September.
He’s such a happy gorgeous boy when he’s not poorly, but he always seems to be getting viral infections, colds, hand foot and mouth twice in 5 weeks. He’s just got over a viral infection, which included 3 trips to the docs, one hospital referral, we e had 3 good days, he went back to nursery for one day and now he’s poorly with a fever, runny nose/sneezing again.
Iv asked the doctors if this is normal as I see all my friends and their little ones enjoying life and having family day trips out and it makes me so sad that im not having that with him. The doctors have all said the same, it is completely normal when starting nursery and because of covid no one has built up immunity to things due to face masks etc but I just feel so sad and worried.
My husband and I are both emergency workers and work shifts and are so exhausted. DS doesn’t eat or take milk when poorly he only eats veggie stick crisps things. He’s normally a good eater when well, eats lots of fruit and veg.
Can anyone please offer me any advice on if this really is normal and if so, how long until things get better please x

OP I started a support thread for this in case you’re interested

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4393625-Anyone-else-at-the-end-of-their-tether-with-toddler-illness?msgid=112293818#112293818

We are going through the exact same thing and have been for over a year now. It is beyond awful and I would do the newborn days again in a heartbeat if it meant no more bugs.

It’s so frustrating because my manager doesn’t have kids and simply cannot believe a child can be sick so much but ‘healthy’. And I dont blame him, I wouldn’t have believed it either. But it means I’m constantly worried about her, worried about work, not sleeping, not eating properly…

No advice im afraid but im very much with you at the moment.

It is completely normal and is a phase that you will come through. It must be really difficult juggling with work at the moment though as every work place I am aware of is really struggling with personnel levels .I would try to stop comparing on social media if you can, it's a very distorted view of life.

I remember these days. Awful, feels like you are rolling a few days between illnesses. We foud out that sleep, relax time and lots of good food and multivits helped. Particularly green olive leaf and elderberry extraxt were good anti virals. It is a phase tho and I wish you well, sleep as much as you can and dont compare kids!

Feel in the exact same boat. Constant colds, coughs, covid tests and sickness bugs since my DD started nursery in september and I went back to work. So worn down by it all.

I agree and do think it's normal for when they start nursery buy we're being particularly battered at the moment as we've all been so isolated for 18 months and then straight back in the eye of the storm.

Yup this is normal. Except this year its worse, so sorry! Ie more and nastier colds. I am hoping it settles down thus half term!!!

Exactly the same with a 15 month old been in nursery since July and this is probably the most well he has been and has not missed a session for the last 4 weeks.

Thank you all for your replies. Makes me feel reassured that I’m not the only one. I just that it starts to get better soon. For us all