Why doesn't every parent catch their child's sick bug?

[Flopsy145]

My 3.5 year old DD is currently down with the dreaded sickness bug, the last two times she's had one I've also come down with it a day or 2 later. But I know a good few parents who never catch it, their kid has 24 hours of sickness and then they just stay healthy. Even my mum never caught mine as a kid and I once threw up on her face.

I'm always diligent with hand washing and Dettol spraying, this time even more so as I'm 35 weeks pregnant and feeling drained enough as it is! We've also been so far pretty lucky and always contained it in a bowl so I'm not (touch wood) so far scrubbing floors or dealing with multiple sicky sheets and towels in the wash.

How do some parents avoid it?!

There'll be some luck involved.

I always had my own hand towel in the bathroom, hung up over the shower rail, that my kids couldn't reach.

Interesting isn’t it.

DS v rarely gets stomach bugs, but when he does, it’s over very quickly. Inevitably though I catch them from him, and they absolutely floor me for days. Have always been the same- and I am obsessive about hand hygiene. DS was breastfed to 2 and I wonder if that helped him develop a gut biome that deals with stomach bugs better?

We both are prone to tonsillitis, but when I had chicken pox as a kid, I had about 6 spots, so super mildly and clearly fought it off easily. DS has been exposed at school multiple times and never had it. 🤷‍♀️

Am sure there’s a doctor kicking around that can shed some light?!

Yes - I've always noticed that DH is far more likely to go down with a stomach bug that's going round than I am - or I'll feel a little bit odd/ nauseous for an hour or so and that's it when he's fully laid out with it.

We have 3 DC and I would say only had one stomach bug over the last 15 years that has ripped through the whole family (the sort where the washing machine doesn't stop running for a week).

I have never caught my daughter´s bugs, none except one: norovirus, I was SO sick for two days, it was awful. My take? I had never had this one, so I fell for it.

Some people naturally have more natural immunity or just avoid coming in contact.

I had COVID a few weeks ago. No one else in the house has had COVID for well over a year. I’m the only one who’s had a jab this year. No one else got COVID despite lots of close contact. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I meant that I'm always dilligent when she has a sick bug, not day to day spraying us all down Dettol!

Some people are more prone. I've been sick once on my life from a suspected bug but it was just one time. Same with my dc and one you could argue may have not been a bug as it was just curdled milk. However those on their 2nd or more dc or those that work with the general public or in a school (education/hospitality etc) will have solid immune systems also x

As an emetophobe, this is intriguing to me. I have not vomited for over 40 years (now 46) and had presumed it was because I had trained/willed my body not to due to extreme fear, but I never do seem to catch stomach bugs anyway (blood type O). Sorry to derail the thread slightly, but might I ask those who don't catch stomach bugs: - do you vomit much from other causes eg alcohol/food poisoning/morning sickness? I am aware that people with emetophobia are often sick much less than others, but still I have often wondered whether I am particularly abnormal or whether there are others who for whatever reason just don't vomit.

I’m another one who has never had a sick bug. I do think I once caught one off a friends child but I just felt really sick for 24 hours, I was never actually sick. I think each of the dc might have had 1 each when they were younger but they were only sick once - none of this vomitting all night luckily. We are all A blood type

I'm sure I remember getting sickness bugs as a child occasionally. But not as an adult.

DS and DD have had quite a few, and I've happily cuddled them or got into bed with them but never caught it. Once they had a really, really awful one (D&V all over the place) and I felt a bit less hungry than usual.

I think I'm just very lucky in that department. There are other health issues that I'm very prone to, but just not that one.

The only times I have been sick in the past 55 years are through alcohol and food poisoning! Probably 5 times in total.

I do absolutely hate seeing other people being sick so I have a very good radar for spotting when someone is going to vomit. And avoid them!

I really thought sick bugs were an inevitable part of having children but in my experience it wasn’t, if that helps any emetophobes

I wash my hands after my children have been sick and don't share their bathroom but don't do anything else differently when they're ill (we'll probably spend more time with them as they like to cuddle when unwell)- I had the odd one as a child and have maybe had three in 10 year of parenting but they've had a lot more than none of the rest of the family have caught. Just think we must just be lucky!

I don't catch D&V bugs from my child but I catch all her colds.

I wash my hands a lot with soap but don't spray everything with dettol.

I also make my DD wash her hands when she comes in from outside as well.

I think different people are susceptible to different types of illness/ injury. I rarely get sickness bugs, but am very susceptible to picking up athletes foot at the pool. My DH is the opposite.

Likewise I think different people tend to experience particular types of symptoms and not others. If a cold type virus is going around our family, I will usually just get achey and a bit sniffly. DH will get headaches and blocked sinuses. DS will almost immediately get a cough and loads of sneezing.

There's never a 100% transmission chance so it's partially luck, partially hygeine measures and exposure.

Luck, mainly, I think. I catch every sniffle and half of them turn to chest infections (asthmatic) but the stomach bugs I seem to do better at avoiding, or getting more mildly than the kids.

Also, once they were old enough to use a basin rather than towels etc we caught far fewer. When they're young at at the stage where they're just vomiting everywhere (including on you) and you have to clean it all up it's so much harder to avoid catching it.

lol, I knew what you meant.

Norovirus is a relatively new virus, which might be why some of us didn’t have it as children.

Norovirus - daughter sick once otherwise fine. I had a week off sick and my partner had 2 days off but also ill over the weekend probably ill for 4-5 days
Sickness bug - daughter sick twice 4 days apart. I was ill for 24h but also went into medication withdrawal so the bug was probably less than 24h. Partner was ill for 2 weeks!
On holiday mil came down with a highly contagious sickness bug query food poisoning (had stools tests due to severity of symptoms). She was ill for 10 days no one else had any symptoms at all.
It's dumb luck!
I usually get more of my daughter's coughs and colds but mummy cuddles apparently are superior to daddy cuddles when poorly and I often end up in her bed. I'm also more vulnerable to infections due to a condition. I had suspected it for a long time but during covid my condition was found to be in the list that made you more suspectible to worse illness. Not entirely sure how it works as it's a mental health condition but I have always had a harder time with general illness and also general illness can trigger me to have a mental health episode

You are 35 weeks pregnant so will be much more susceptible to sickness bugs than usual due to lower immunity. I have a strong constitution for sick bugs, I think I had 1 minor one in 10 years but when I caught one when pregnant I ended up in triage on a fluid drip as I was so unwell!

DC5 has had 2 sickness bugs in the last 4 months, DC2 didn’t catch either of them. Yet DC2 seems to get more colds and snotty noses than DC5.

Luck.
I've had one of my DDs vomit all over me and be fine, and other times I'm more ill than they were. DH the same.

Sometimes DDs both get something, sometimes just one. DD1 did get impetigo for example... but DD2 got Scarlet Fever a few days after her sister.

As another emetophobe on the thread, I’ve done my fair share of googling on this over the years! And I was slightly disappointed to find out my blood type after my booking appointment bloods haha. I’m blood type A, which means less likely to catch norovirus than someone with blood type O. B’s are thought to be naturally immune.

DH is a teacher and he has caught a sick bug once in 10 years of primary teaching. He got norovirus a few weeks after catching covid (which always affects him far worse than me in the 3 times we’ve had it in our household). I didn’t seem to catch it off him, despite using the toilet after him and drying my hands with the same hand towel when I didn’t realise he had it. 48 hours after he first came down with it, I did feel very sick. Not sure if that was psychosomatic though! But I didn’t get any D&V and felt fine the next day.

We rarely had sick bugs in our home growing up. I hope that is the same for us when our baby starts nursery and school! This thread has certainly made me feel a lot better about the upcoming nursery years.

Some people just seem to be more immune than others!!

My son is nearly 7 and only had a handful of sick bugs in his life. I have only caught it once (noro). Maybe it's luck but I think mh immune system strong due to good diet and exercise as well and also not being OTT about germs and anti bac cleaning etc.