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!

My younger DD (3) seems to get more ill than my eldest, but she was born in the second lockdown and didn't get exposed to anything for the first four/five months of her life! I do wonder if that had an impact.
That said, she gets over things quickly. She was sick this week, and recovered in less than a day! DD1 (6) only had one day off school the whole of last year when she caught a vomiting bug at the end of the week. Luckily she gets over things quickly too. I'm very lucky neither of them have spent any nights in hospital since they were born. Touch wood!

Of course, but it's quite rare.
He was struggling mainly with recurrent croup and chest infections/pneumonia. Every little virus he'd get would turn into a major infection.
It turned out he was aspirating while he was drinking/eating which means liquid was going into his lungs. Over time, with it not being diagnosed, this caused aspiration lung disease.
Now he doesn't have liquids - we thicken everything he drinks into a paste, even water, and food we just have to completely avoid anything wet or juicy (main issue is no fruit, ice cream and lollies). He's also on permanent antibiotics.
Usually kids with this will have a more obvious issue (I think it's quite common in cerebral palsy). We haven't been able to find any underlying reason yet, just that the process of swallowing isn't happening safely.
It took about 6 months of being on treatment for him to get back to "normal" and last week he got a cold and got over it in a week or so like you might expect, so I'm hoping this is the beginning of better times.

@Everestisthebest
Just to add, we ended up having to see at least 3 private specialists to reach this conclusion. The diagnostic test for this is a video fluroscopy (like a moving xray) x

My 6yo, who previously didn't get ill very often, has starred some lovely habits of picking her lips, sticking her fingers in her mouth to wobble teeth and so on alllll the time, and consequently we have seen a huge increase in the amount of illnesses she's been getting. She's been ill every month so far since July and already missed two days of school this term (separate occasions/illnesses). She is now ill more often than our toddler!

I’ve been lucky.

No1 was born towards the end of 2020, so lockdowns meant he probably wasn’t exposed to much. He did have a few viral infections after starting nursery but I can’t think of the last time he was too unwell to go, probably 2022.

No2 has been exposed to more and she’s never been unwell really - bit grumpy and out of sorts after immunisations but that’s all.

Rarely

She picks up most colds but she's been going to preschool for 10 months now and has never brought anything but a cold home

Even when my DP caught Covid she didn't catch it and we all slept in the same room.

I think some of it is luck, some is genetics, some is she eats really well, I breastfed her for 3 years and she didn't start preschool until she was 3

Honestly I think it’s luck… four kids, three tough as old boots and one who has allergies/asthma and has at least one hospital visit each winter due to breathing issues. Same home life, same diet, same parents but he is much more vulnerable for some reason. He is very pale too and I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve whipped him to the doctors to be checked out or have a blood test as he looks so poorly. I constantly worry about him but he genuinely is a fairly happy little chap.

Mine has been poorly once. He's 13. I mean to be fair he did it really go for it that one time and ended up in hospital for a week with pneumonia when he was 5. But nothing before that or afterwards. I am aware how incredibly lucky we are. I suppose you could count chickenpox but he wasn't unwell with them just itchy!

She is 1, rarely ill (massive touch wood) but I BF. Curious to see if that changes when I stop.

Rarely. One was always a bit snotty and rashy as a toddler but neither has been to the doctors in over 10 years. I do think it’s luck or genetics rather than anything we’ve done though!

(probably jinxed it now)

Almost constantly. 5yrs and almost 3yrs

Er yeh. I breastfed both mine for 2+ yrs. Makes no difference. They pick up everything at nursery.

I have a 3 yr old and all last year bar the summer he was ill every month..literally every 4 weeks he would get a bug or cold. The doctor told me to see it as a good thing as its helping to build up his immune system but that's not really helpful when I have high risk vulnerable family members. It started as soon as he started nursery and that's what they attributed it to. Started nursery after an illness free summer holidays and he's just had hand foot and mouth disease so my sons is definitely nursery related.

Out of interest, did he have delayed cord clamping?

I didn't realise but if you have the injection to expel the placenta they have to cut the cord first which means they don't get long to get the rest of their cord blood

Two rarely, the other more often. My dad and I are very rarely ill whereas my mum and brother are often ill. I think it's luck/genetics

@Hungrycaterpillarsmummy

It doesn't make "no difference" your breastmilk will have supported their immune system

It's true though that it doesn't stop them catching illnesses, but it definitely does make a difference 1000%

All had delayed cord clamping but my ‘sickly’ one was the only one induced and the only one who I was injected to dispel them placenta - which I am still cross about because I had said I did not want that and she did it before I could stop her - my only birth where I genuinely was not listened to throughout. All were breastfed and weaned in the same way and all scored very highly on the initial AGPAR tests.

All the others even

All such interesting replies, thank you! A real mixture. Funnily enough I breastfed my eldest longer than my second (about 9 months vs 5 months) and he eats well, is very active etc. However he was also born during covid so perhaps that had something to do with it. I actually saw a private paediatrician (covered on work insurance thankfully) who has done a lot of blood tests and put him on prophylactic antibiotics thee times a week for the next 12 weeks to keep infections at bay. Hoping nothing too sinister will come back from the results, but do feel better as it's been so relentless