Little ones constantly sick

[helloandthankyou]

Hi all,

I come here at my absolute wits end after my sixth night of no sleep. I just need to chat with some Mums and Dads who going through the same thing just so I feel less alone.

My son, who turned 3 in September, has been ill with a cough, a cold, a fever or some other vile thing since the end of Summer when playgroup started up again. Every time he gets sick, he then passes it onto the baby who is 11 months.

Currently, they are both coughing until they vomit, night and day. This is perhaps the sixth illness that we have had to get through and it involves a lot of emotional resilience, which doesn't come easily to me on a couple of hours of disturbed sleep..changing sheets at 3am.

The most recent illness (which is absolutely VILE) came from my eldest being back at playgroup for SIX HOURS after a two week break because of closures due to COVID. So six hours at playgroup equates to three weeks of absolute hell and chaos and I am constantly on the brink of tears. Both boys are now too ill to be in their childcare settings, probably at least for another week.

I hate seeing them this way, it breaks my heart. I am also self employed so I have lost at least three weeks worth of work (that's a loss of thousands of pounds and also the loss of my clients who don't care about the state of my home life)

I took on a new client a week before the sickness hit and of course, for obvious reasons, I had to bow out of the work. My client was absolutely livid and told me I was dreadful at my job anyway... this is after I had been staying up late to get the work done in between coughing fits...

All this on top of the possibility that my eldest may be on the spectrum and we are currently going to go down the path of assessments and labelling.

Sorry for the tangents and ranting..I'm just at an all time low and feel like we will never come out of this as they get better and then they get ill again and it never ends. I feel as though I am failing on all fronts as I can't do anything at the moment.. I can't clean my house, I can't get any laundry done, I can't do any work, I just have a few minutes to take a deep breath and then get on with it.

Thank you for letting me VENT. This forum is such an outlet for me.

Does life ever get...easier? Or are my easy days behind me?? I am losing hope!

Hand hold, OP. My 13 months old is constantly getting over something. He started nursery about a month ago, and he always brings home something viral (and inevitably passes it onto us...). Right now we are getting through our second vomiting bug in a month. I went back to work full time, and it is very difficult to balance the two. It will get easier. Focus on putting one foot in front of another for the time being.

I just wanted to say I'm sorry you're going through this. We went through it with our two, when they were both a bit smaller - one would be ill for a week or two, then the other one. Sometimes they were both throwing up at once all over their rooms. It was hell. But it doesn't last - eventually they learn (and get big enough) to make it to the loo and their immune systems develop and ward off more things. I know it's tough though so I just wanted to offer support. Hoping you get a bit more sleep now.

Oh I feel for you @helloandthankyou. My 2 are very similar age to yours and I think the longest stretch we've had between illnesses since August is 5 days. I can't see any light at the end of the tunnel at the moment and I've never felt so low.

Since August we've had covid, hand foot and mouth, flu, scarlet fever, bronchiolitis, countless stomach bugs, chest infections, and I've lost count of how many colds they've both had. Currently both have a stomach bug, so it's back to changing clothes and bedding throughout the night again, and at some point I might be able to squeeze a couple of hours sleep in before morning.

I'm sorry to hear you've been having trouble with your job because of it. I feel like I'm skating on very thin ice at my workplace because of the amount of time I've had to take off to look after the kids. Not sure how much longer they'll put up with it.

And if I have to put my poor bloody kids through one more horrible pcr test I think I'll have a breakdown.

I think this is going to be a very long winter, but I have hope that as soon as spring starts to make an appearance then all these bugs will piss off, and we can start enjoying life again. Just picture it. No snot, no sick, no doctor's appointments, no exploding nappies, just light nights and smiling faces. It will happen.

Thank you for your support everyone. I got the vomiting bug yesterday and it was vile. My three year old now has it again and has just vomited twice all over our bed and all over his beanbag. Baby is now finally over it but in total he was being sick for 20 days consecutively.

If they try to lock my children down again I’ll be absolutely distraught. Nobody told us that this would be something we would have to face after the pandemic and we’ve had no preparation or support for it as parents.

I read someone’s post yesterday; she was saying she had a cold and she was going to lean into it, take a day off of work.. snuggle up.. watch some tv in front of the fire with some soup.. have a lovely hot bath. I can’t even imagine that life. It sounds like an alien describing life on a different planet.

Meanwhile I’m scrubbing sick off of a beanbag, stuffing another round of bedding into the machine while downing a cold lemsip

Xx

That sounds really rough OP. My baby and I have been ill for over 3 weeks now. It's crap. Do you have a partner or family who can help out?

I think it's extra hard right now because kids are picking up the immunity they would have thanks to covid and lockdown. We went through this stage with the DC when they were babies in the childminders, but they outgrew it by 12-24 months.

Sorry hit send too soon. Kids aren't picking up natural immunity! We've been seeing typically winter bugs in the summer etc.

Just something to make sure is that if DC keep getting recurrent coughs and chest infections every winter, make sure it's not asthma.

Sorry to hear you're all suffering so much, it's awful when they're little.

Have you got a humidifier? We bought one when DD7 was a baby and use it every time she or DS3 have a cough. It provides a bit of relief overnight so they can sleep! They still cough a bit but it's so much better, especially if you add a bit of vapour rub to the machine. Currently at DM's house and didn't bring it, and we're suffering for it.

I went through this with my DD when she was about 18 months. It was constant, and awful! I also had a 4 month old who caught everything from her. She's 12 now and I still foa little shudder when I think of that time. And now I'm going through it again. 3 (now older) DC have been COBSTANTLY ill for the last 3 months. To the point of absurdity. All of them, ill, on a neverending loop. We eat healthily, get fresh air, exercise, take vitamins...I don't know what else I can do. I don't know why I'm posting, except to offer solidarity!

Mine were constantly ill at that age. Like call said, healthy active kids who ate well, took vitamins etc.
If it's any consolation you might find they don't get ill when they start school as their immune system has been well and truly primed.

Poor Op, that sounds really tough!

I seem to be heading everywhere that it's a particularly bad winter for bugs this year. I assume that's partly because nobody got any immunity last year. It also seems to be very common for siblings to be an absolute nightmare when the littlest one is about a year as they get all the bugs from the eldest. Certainly my 3 have been ill more I less constantly since September, and it's pretty miserable. Bring on spring! These things always pass when there is plenty of virus-killing sunshine and the air is drier.

working with 2 little ones is a right bugger, isn't it? With my first, i didn't find it too tough going back to work. I could work when she was sleeping. Now I'm finding it incredibly hard - at weekends and during school holidays I use the time my littlies are sleeping to spend time with my eldest. I put her to bed after them. But they still wake a lot during the night. So I'm tired and behind on work and housework.

It won't last forever. At some point, your children will have lovely strong immune systems. They'll only be occasionally i'll and when they are you won't necessarily have a broken night as a result. They'll They'll happy to entertain themselves more when awake as well, so you'll be able to get more done. You'll get there, OP, it's just really tough to get through where you are now.