Nursery illnesses

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Just lying here listening to my 13 month old cough away in his cot. He started nursery 7 weeks ago and since then I can count on one hand the number of days he’s been ‘well’ for. He’s not managed a full week in nursery yet without being off sick or sent home!

Please tell me this will pass? Before nursery I think he’d only been unwell once since birth!

It will pass, but not going to lie, it will take a WHILE! He is contending with a lot of new bugs he’s not been exposed to before in a confined environment, add into that the fact that there are SO MANY bugs going around this winter, he will likely catch a few more.

my daughter was the same when she first started nursery (as was I when I started my job in a nursery) but it does pass :)

It will last for a while I’m afraid. Anything from a few months to over a year. It’s a really hideous time so brace yourself. A few things I found helped:

1. Nurofen rather than Calpol for temperatures
2. Sterimar baby nose spray
3. Having an A&E grab bag - sounds massively OTT but most parents end up there at least once for some kind of bug (usually nothing of course). But the first time it happened and I had nothing packed I was in a total panic. Just needs to be a few nappies, wipes, change of clothes, beaker, a few cartons of juice, phone charger and maybe a chocolate bar or something for you.

Sorry I must sound a total doom merchant but it seems to be a bit worse since covid and I found preparation and having everything in the house helped. Hope your little one feels better soon.

That’s the immune statement being trained up. Both of ours started nursery in janissaries and they were like this until spring. It’s not the nurseries fault, it will pass, next winter will be much better.

I once heard someone call the first year of nursery their most-expensive-ever use of annual leave. I thought it was apt. It does get better. At least it did for us.

You are in for a rough couple of years at least.

DD has been at nursery for over 2 years- she is 3. She rarely completes a full month in nursery and my GP says 12 illnesses a year is average for babies and toddlers in childcare. Buckle up (and buy shares in Calpol plugins and all the other things). It sucks

It will pass. DD's first five months were a joke. She had almost back-to-back illnesses from sickness bugs to colds, mystery viral rashes, conjunctivitis, RSV, bronchiolitis, HF&M. I was close to taking her out of nursery as it seemed pointless when things just started to improve. She seems to have a good immune system now at 5y (trying not to jinx things as we're well overdue a nasty lurgy for this winter...)

Have a chat with nursery to see if there is anything extra they can do to reduce spread of infections. Eg have they got the windows open a little for ventilation? Could they install HEPA filters? Could they ask staff who have any cold symptoms to wear a face mask? Etc you might be able to think of others.
Also be careful not to pick up any bugs yourself that you might pass to your little one. Wear a mask if you're going into any health settings, in shops or on public transport. Get the flu jab, it's about £10 privately in a pharmacy. Maybe use an antiviral nasal spray?
I hope your little one is better soon.

I feel your pain. My baby is 10 months and started nursery at 6. I have had to take so much time off work due to illness, I’m genuinely worried about losing my job!
echo what pp said about bag for a&e, my lo got gastroenteritis that required an overnight stay as well as catching rsv at the end of November that led to bronchiolitis and being taken to hospital in an ambulance after taking him to the walk-in.
We were both off all of December with cold after cold because of course whatever he caught I then caught. I’ve never been so ill!
our nursery are fantastic but I do sometimes wonder why we’re bothering when he’s barely there.
Finally recovered over Christmas only to be back literally two days and he’s caught another cold and had a fever of 39+. Which of course I’ve now also caught again after being so careful with my hygiene etc
I hope it gets better soon. I’d like to at least make one full week! For both of us!

It's a nightmare, and yes this is essentially your life for the next 6 months at least. It got a bit better for us after 3 months or so but the bugs have still been pretty frequent, just not quite constant. Hoping 2023 will be better for us! Agree with pp - neurofen much better for temperatures, calpol plug-ins are good. Make sure you and your partner are alternating whose taking time off from the beginning - no excuses. We also got much more neurotic about not seeing people who were unwell out of nursery to minimise risk of picking anything up via any other route. Probably annoyed some people but I just can't take any more illness!

They’ll laugh you out of the place. There’s absolutely nothing that will make a bunch of toddlers wear masks, and they’ll sneeze all over each other no matter what you do. As for the ventilation etc I would feel really cheeky asking them to do that.

Yeah it's awful but unavoidable IMO. For us the first winter was bad for each of them (and the first post covid winter for dc1) and then the second not too bad at all.

DC1 has just started school and only missed one day all term so it does seem that we've gotten some doses out of the way at nursery.

this is perfectly normal. every community has an endemic set of germs and all the members of the community have antibodies to those germs. when a new individual joins who doesn't have those antibodies they will get poorly for a bit, sequentially as each bug makes the rounds, and then their immune system normalises and they are fine. you'll see the same phenomenon when they start primary school, secondary school and university (called "freshers flu" there.

As a nursery worker I completely agree with @Cuppasoupmonster

There is only so much we can do. There will still be measures/policies in place from covid anyway, hand washing practices and opening windows are habits now unlikely to be broken. Toddlers do not respond well to adults in masks.

Kids are exposed to new germs when they start nursery. That's just what happens.

Fun fact: Different nurseries/schools seem to carry different bugs! I worked in a school and was ill for months at the start then was never ill from there again. When I then moved to the nursery, the same thing happened. It was like I needed to gain a whole new immunity 😂

Thanks all. No expectation of nursery doing anything (am well aware they can’t!) - just wondered whether the sheer extent of DS’s illnesses was normal or not. Sounds like it is!