How often has your toddler caught germs after starting nursery?

[Listen2YourMother]

My sons starting nursery in a couple of weeks and I’ve got a baby at home.

heard horror stories about kids being constantly sick after starting. Pls just be honest and tell me… is it really as bad as everyone says?

Zero times so far, she's still breastfeeding though so I do wonder if that's helped

I always tell every who works for me when they or their partner is coming back from maternity leave that I have been through this myself, and I KNOW that their child will get ill and be unable to attend and need a parent to stay home, they sometimes will have to leave work part way through the day to pick a sick child up from nursery. They shouldn't feel bad when this happens, they should take the time off they need, WFH, whatever, and not to feel bad about it because it's absolutely part of the cycle of things and will settle down after the first winter.

I particularly tell the men this will happen and that I get how disruptive it will be for their wife when she's just trying to settle back into work and that they (the dads) should feel free to pick up this load since going back to work after may leave is hard enough as it is without being in and out all the time.

I am an awesome boss if I do say so myself.

But they are always still appalled when they get a call from the nursery on Tuesday of the second week saying the baby has a fever / has thrown up / is covered in spots and they need to come and collect.

Seriously consider getting private vaccinations against chicken pox. Expensive, yes, but much cheaper than ten days off work.

My 2YO DS started in February, 2 days a week and has never missed a day. Lots of sniffles but they’re fine to go in with those. My eldest had a few mystery fevers early on but she started at 15 months and was a first child, still wasn’t awful though, and she’s only been properly ill once and that was strep throat. Neither have ever had a stomach bug. Both are vaccinated for chickenpox.

They seem to always have runny noses apart from the height of summer. But DD was genuinely poorly and needed to be off for at least a day probably every other week her first winter. She was a lockdown baby though and hadn't been exposed to anything, hadn't even had a cold. So germs hit her hard, with fevers spiking 40 degrees at times one after the other.

My son turned into a germ

He got sick on day one and that was him for two years

Dd caught everything.

I used Sambucol syrup and no idea if it was the placebo affect but she seemed to stop catching everything going after that!

Between every two weeks to every month.

Well... yes. Sorry. Every 2-3 weeks, better in summer, worse in winter. Not too much sickness but definitely 2-3 episodes per year. Mostly colds and coughs, plus mine is asthmatic so until that was diagnosed and treated we had a few hospitalisations for breathing issues. Tonsillitis and ear infections a few times, they come with a super high scary fever.

Definitely get the chicken pox vaccine. Stock up on Calpol and infant Neurofen. The Calpol plugin for breathing easier at night is great.

But my son's 4.5 now, about to leave nursery (been going four days a week since 1) and he's only had four days sick this year. A miracle!

Mine is 5 now but wasn’t off nursery sick much at all.

In her first year at school (Reception) she got sent home once with diarrhoea (thankfully it was a Friday & she was fine to go back in on Monday)

So it’s not been bad at all

It was awful with my second. Constant running nose and so many sickness bugs. However, he was a pandemic baby so I think that was at least partly why. With my first I didn't notice any increase in bugs although he did seem to have a constant runny nose for a while.

I should add that we do all get a lot of random colds, but not bad enough to keep us off school or work

My son went for 2 years and only got conjunctivitis and a couple of mild colds. Depends on the child I guess.

Weekly for the first 5/6 he got something;
Chest infection
Tonsillitis (diagnosed at A&E on a Sunday due to a worrying rash appearing with his high temps
D&V
Covid
After about 6
Months he then got hand foot and mouth before holiday followed by chicken pox a few months after.

He is now 2 and 1/6 and much better. The first few months are really tough

I have an 8 and 5 year old now. and they had bugs in some form almost weekly for the first six months. But they are very very rarely sick now at school.

In the first 6-8 months of nursery, he was poorly (coughs, colds, tonsillitis, sickness bugs, rashes, HF&M) about every 2 weeks. Had a permanent runny nose (and I mean properly running all day every day) for the first whole year! It was frankly awful!

My oldest was slightly better but was still poorly at least once a month for the first year!

At least 6 months for us, the illness was continuous at the beginning.
Our baby caught everything too!

People warned me it'd be bad but tbh I underestimated how ill we would all be!
Good luck 🫣

DD started nursery when she was 6 months old in January. She has been ill (not going to nursery level) one week in February and one week in mid July. She has been very snotty during the winter months though.

My ds started nursery at 6 months and in the 4 years he was there he had chicken pox once (was spotty but not unwell with it) a cold virus and pneumonia caused by strep a which did result in a hospital admission. Ds is about to go in to year 6 and has not had a day off school yet unwell. Not all children get unwell all the time.

It doesn't have to be constant. Please talk to your nurseries about ventilation, it is proven to make a difference to infection levels for airborne viruses (COVID, flu, chickenpox, measles, RSV and more). It won't eliminate transmission completely (kids get their faces close to each other, touch each other for non-airborne transmission) but it will make a difference.

Ideally they should have a CO2 monitor and keep levels below 800ppm. In France this is mandated for schools and nurseries, they have to take action to improve ventilation if levels exceed this. The UK is lagging it's our children who suffer the consequences.

Even better they should have HEPA filters running. These can be be DIY-ed for cheap, look up Corsi Rosenthal boxes.

Before you mention cost, nurseries will also benefit through less staff sickness, and kids benefit from better learning outcomes.

If you have school age kids, the same applies. Please encourage your school to sign up to the SAMHE project to monitor indoor air quality. www.samhe.org.uk

PS lockdowns were not bad for immunity. It is not encouraged to go around catching viruses, best to get your immunity through vaccination. Exposure to dirt however is a different matter.

Every week for a year. Sorry

All of mine had pretty much constant colds, bugs and high temps from starting nursery to about 3. But after that they’ve all been pretty good. None of them has had much time off school poorly.
the first few years were a nightmare, but all part of the process I guess and passed pretty quick in the big scheme of things. Having a supportive employer helps. Good luck @Listen2YourMother

Id say DS has a snotty nose or a cough more often than he doesn’t, and he’s been going for
over 2 years…but being properly ill now only happens rarely. We haven’t had a D+V bug in over a year and no temperature for over 6 months off the top of my head. The first 6 months were tough but it eased off quickly.

My DD, nearly 4, has hardly caught anything. I'm not even sure she's human.
She had a weird flu type thing shortly after her third birthday, and a bit of a diarrhoea bug a few months ago, but that's it.

Probably got my steel immune system.
Unlike her dad. He catches everything.

Didn't go to nursery but almost every week at a toddler group and now every single time either child goes near a soft play.

At least of us (me, DD or DH) was ill for the first 9 months. Similar when she started school, although not quite as bad.