How often do your children get ill?

[georgie26493]

I have two children, one is 4 and the other is 9 months. The 4 year old is always ill, infections, bugs, pneumonia, and temperatures. It's quite rare for us to get through 1-2 weeks without something. My youngest is exposed to it all, but seems much more hardy. We've been told to have an immunological assessment. I know getting ill, especially in young children is common, but I'm interested if it's like this for everyone? Or if it was, what age do they grow out of it? Thank you!

No, forever grateful that i think i can count on one hand the total amount of times that both my children were ill. And same now in secondary

Oh my goodness really! So lucky 😅

Same with my two closest friends and their children tbh

but 🤷 clearly many do suffer

I’ve 4, eldest 12. Can’t think of any days off school sick for any of them ever really. Maybe the odd one to get them clear of the vomiting rule. Have the odd temp or vomit but they are rare and the recover immediately.

I don’t understand why but kids seem to have wildly different immune systems in different houses. Only anecdotal but I avoid anti bacterial products and wipe down with just a wet cloth mostly. We don’t wash hands after being outside, or petting the animals or before eating. All considered totally gross on mumsnet.

I think it's just one of those things OP.

DS 2 is rarely unwell. Old cold maybe once in his life. I don't think he's ever had a temp bar his vaccines!

On the other hand ... I was always sick as a child. ALWAYS. Rarely sick as an adult. My partner was never sick as a kid but catches everything. He's 38 and I swear every other week has something!

I grew up in the same house with my 3 siblings and we were all varying. As I say I was a very sickly kid, my 2 brothers were never sick and my sister probably unwell an average amount!

@JoanCollected thank you for your reply. Yes it seems like this is the case as my youngest seems extremely robust having been exposed to literally everything out there..! Re germs, I do use antibac, but not everyday and we have dogs and my eldest (the poorly one) has grown up drinking from puddles when we go out 😬😅, so perhaps it's just bad luck. Who knows! X

Did your 4 year old go to nursery? My DD went from 1 year old and was often sick in her first year or two. She's now in Y3 and rarely misses school.

Thank you so much for this!! Really hoping this is the case 🤞🏼😊

I'd say DS5 gets one cold and one sick bug a year.

Yes he's been in nursery since he was one...hoping things get better by the time he's at school..! X

Sounds like mine. My youngest is tough as old boots, and when she does get a cold or a d&v bug, it doesnt really phase her. Hand foot and mouth this year was tough on her though actually, she had blisters the size of a £2 coin on her feet and stopped breastfeeding!

Ds5 though has horrific luck (orbital cellulitis amongst other hospital stays, awaiting hand surgery for trigger thumb, etc.), and since catching strep a for the first time 3 years ago, now gets tonsillitis 20 times each winter and strep a few times. He stops eating and then drinking, and raging fevers. The antibiotics give him loose poops (only once a day, and he makes it to the toilet fine) so school sends him home for 48 hours if he happens to go there 🙄 He's waiting for a tonsillectomy but that could be yonks, he's been on the list a year... When he catches d&v, he gets stuck in cyclical vomiting so needs anti emetics to stop the vomiting after a few days, and IV fluids. Clearly an immune issue as he had cmpa and severe reflux as a baby too.

I've cancelled all of his after school clubs and lessons now until spring as tonsillitis season is imminent 😅

Edit - both of mine started full time nursery at less than 1 year old.

5 year old and 1 year old. All. The. Fucking. Time.

And I am immunosuppressed. It's joyous.

My 15 month old seems to get a minor cold every couple of months but has had nothing worse for ages. He doesn’t go to nursery but I take him to a lot of classes so he’s around other children a lot. When he was younger he got ill a bit more often but his immune system seems to have picked up since then. I do breastfeed him which may be helping.

Practically never. But I do have a very high "threshold" for illness-they had to be properly ill or a risk to other people to stay off school. To add, though, I did always let them have the very occasional day off because they really, really wanted to stay home- I would rather do that than have them pretending to be ill.

DS is ill a lot over winter, he has asthma though so regular colds that most children wouldn't notice much go to his chest. It's good they want to double check there's nothing else going on with your little one immunity wise, but doesn't sound that wild?

Honestly my DDs aren't ill very often, maybe once or twice a year.
They've each had antibiotics twice ever (they're 13 & 9)

Just to add DH and I also rarely ill and both DDs went to nursery.
My mother was a children's nurse and is convinced we have a great immune system because of all the germs she carried home!

My 4 year old is barely ever ill. He’s missed maybe 2 days of childcare since being 12 months old. I think he’s vomited once in his life. I don’t think we’ve ever captured a temperature. His personal hygiene isn’t great either so it’s an absolute miracle really.

My 1.5 year old seems to be low level ill every other week, and comes down with something more ‘major’ (eg norovirus, or hand foot and mouth) every month or so. Doesn’t take much for him to throw off a stonking temperature or vomit.

Both breastfed, both raised on a similar diet in the same house. I think it must be largely genetic.

Hey OP
This is absolutely not supposed to be a scare story but just to say, if you think your kid is ill much more than other kids, push push push for tests. I can't tell you how many calls I had with the GP who told me toddlers are "always ill" and it's "normal" for them to be on antibiotics up to 10 times a year. It's just not the case and you know it because you can see your kid is ill more often than the other kids you know right ?!
I ended up having to go private and after YEARS we found the problem (which is totally random so I may as well not scare you with it) but I just knew something was wrong and followed my instinct.

I have a 2yo and a 6yo and they are rarely ill. Eldest has been in school or nursery for 4.5 years and had 5 sick days in total. Plenty of runny noses but I never keep them off for that. Youngest has never missed nursery or groups/classes for illness. Neither have had antibiotics and I've never taken them to GP or hospital for illness, just treated at home. Lots of exposure to different groups kids as they do various activities and we go to indoor play areas and attractions often. DD1 breastfed until 3.5 years and DD2 still breastfeeding aged 2.5.

It can be as simple as a child putting their hands in their mouth alot or not being great as washing their hands.

Every week at the minute! Chest infection, then a rash, now a cold and vomiting. I don't know if we're just really unlucky or ds has a weak immune system. Interestingly over the 6 week summer holidays no one got ill because none of us were at school/nursery

This. My eldest gets ill ALL the time because she walks around with her hands permanently in her mouth. It drives me insane. She’s constantly sucking on her fingers, chewing her nails, sometimes even literally putting her whole hand in her mouth when she’s watching tv or reading. I’m actually surprised she’s not I’ll more often 🤢

@magicstar2020 can I ask what it was that your child ended up getting diagnosed with as I am certain there is sometting else causing my daughters constant illnesses. She has recurring ear infections, colds, asthma during winter....just doesn't seem right

They do grow out of it

Nursery is the worst for picking up bugs