Protecting newborn from toddler viruses

[Flora1985]

DD2 is 7 weeks old and DD1 is 26 months. We've just received the dreaded 'stomach bug on the loose' email from DD1's nursery 😱. Trying to decide whether to keep DD1 at home this week (she usually goes to nursery Tuesday to Friday) to protect DD2, since I've heard that stomach bugs can hit newborns particularly hard in terms of dehydration etc - I'm really worried about that.

However, I'm not sure how rational my response is, since I have health anxiety, which means I worry more than the average parent about my kids' health and assume the worst case scenario (in this case that DD2 would catch the bug and her so dehydrated she would need hospital treatment). I'm also emetophobic (severe phobia of vomit) so this is a double whammy in terms of anxiety for me!).

What would others do in this situation if you had a 7 week old at home and there was a significant chance your toddler might bring back a stomach bug (it's a very small nursery and already 4 of the kids have this bug so there's a decent chance DD1 would catch it this week if I send her in as usual tomorrow)?

Keen to hear what others would do and others' experiences of similar situations but please no judgment about my health anxiety and emetophobia - I'm currently working on both in therapy and doing my best, and my girls always come first.

Thanks everyone

I’d send her in. Your little one is just as likely to catch something when you’re not warned about it.

Oh bless you. No judgement here. Post natal anxiety isn't strange nor did it come with any moral significance.

I worried about this too. I think everyone does except the totally super cool people who only sem to inhabit mumsnet. It's good to worry about your tiny baby a bit.

Are you breastfeeding? I think that imparts quite a lot of protection against the run of the mill stiff that goes around at nursery, so we always seemed to get away with it. But you do you. There won't be a wrong answer. There's a decent case to made for both.

It would depend on if I was breastfeeding or not to an extent, bf babies definitely seem to benefit from the passed on immunity. But for a stomach bug I probably would still send my older one to nursery regardless - what age do they get the rotavirus vaccine? That made a big difference to my youngest - the older one didn’t have it and definitely got more bugs.

Thanks so much for the replies.

Yes, I'm exclusively breastfeeding so hopefully that makes some difference 🤞 but I guess it won't prevent every bug entirely.

Thanks for the kindness and lack of judgement @Legoroses @Hollyhead @DustyLee123 .

Interesting to hear your experiences too. @Hollyhead i think the rotavirus vaccinations happen fairly early in the first year? Can't remember exactly but DD1 had it. She's had two or three tummy bugs so far so not sure how much difference it made but I suppose those were viruses other than rotavirus!

Still undecided about what we'll do about nursery tomorrow but thank you for your thoughts

My experience of ebf was that I caught a horrendous bug when ds1 was only 8 weeks old, DH was holding the bowl for me and I was being sick while I was actually feeding him, there was no sign he ever caught it! And it was contagious as DH did catch it about 2 days later!

I breastfed but my DC caught every bug going. The breastfeeding immunity thing didn't seem to work for us!

Personally I'd keep your child home. If the nursery have contacted parents to let you all know then it must be pretty bad. My DC1 got very dehydrated with her first stomach bug as a baby and it was quite a scary thing to go through.

It would never have occurred to us not to send DC1 in. We sent her to nursery to benefit from early years education (didnt need it for childcare) so we wouldn't have wanted to deprive her of that opportunity, illnesses happen all the time so she would have missed a lot if we took that approach. Plus it was easier to focus on DC2 properly when DC1 was in nursery, and give her all the attention and have the bonding time. She had loads of sniffles and bugs as a baby and seems more resilient for it.

Hmm I wouldn't be worried about the bug being serious necessarily. But I'd have been tempted to keep DD1 off but mainly because when DD2 was that age her sleep was absolutely appalling and the last thing I would have needed was a vomiting toddler as well.

But I am also emetophobic so my reaction is not necessarily rational.

At those ages, I'd do whatever makes life easier for you. It's not like you're considering taking her out of school. But obviously you're adding a few days with both children at home, when normally you'd get some time with just the baby. Plus there's no guarantee it won't still be going round the nursery next week as well.

It wouldn't have crossed my mind to change anything our routine because of a potential bug.

I would keep them home

Also suffer from severe health anxiety around my son, in your position I’d keep your daughter home!