Is second winter at nursery better with illnesses?

[ZaHaK]

My DD who is now 14 months started in October and every two weeks she has been catching something.
She has become a great eater just the last few weeks and the last few days she’s hardly eaten anything because it looks like she’s got a sore throat.
Its relentless! I’m so tired.
When does it get better?
I find the non communication so hard to deal with and always trying to guess what’s wrong.

Yes the second winter will be much better! Our nursery logs absences on an app... in my dd's second full year at nursery I think she was absent for three days in total. Her first year she was absent that much at least every month!

Yes absolutely!!

oh thank you! I hope that’s the same for us.

When am I expecting to see a light at the end of the tunnel in my current situations?

It gets better with each progressive winter.

I think once they hit school age they've (mostly) run out of bugs to catch off each other.

As for this season? Same as ever. It ends once the weather starts warming up and days gets longer. For the first couple of years September - March was a perpetual succession of runny noses and coughs with the occasional fever thrown in for good measure. Next year will be even better.

That’s good to know. It’s just so relentless

Also with my second child, I didn't have a nightmare first winter at nursery because he caught everything off my dd in his first 6 months of life, chickenpox and all! He's now indestructible as a 2yo and (touch wood) I can't remember the last time he was ill beyond a mild cough

This is my second child and it doesn’t seem to be be the case for me unfortunately. My elder is 7 now so that’s probably why, his immune is great.

Yes, it will get better. My child used to get ill every two weeks too, in fact I didn't bother arranging anything every other weekend as I knew he'd most likely be ill.

It will pass!

Yes! A combination of her being through it and being older will see her get ill less. It's hard at first though! If you have another child they will fair better due to exposure from the sibling!

Sorry, just read this wasn't the case for you! Too bad!

When did it get better for you?

Yes it does get better. DC started just two days a week at nursery last October around the same age as yours and I don’t think we managed a week without an absence until the spring due to the conveyor belt of germs. This year, so far we’ve just had the one nasty virus and it’s hard to believe last winter was so horrific!

So April onwards they just stopped?
that’s good to hear.

It is likely to, but does depend on the child. One of mine is practically indestructible and has rarely caught anything. The other was 6 before we got winter respite and caught absolutely everything going. But that is at the more extreme end of the scale!

Mine was at nursery in Covid, so it was extended because there was a big increase in illness when everyone stopped wearing masks and social distancing 🤦 But the first two winters were shit and then it was much better. And I know his first year of school he was only ill twice all year.

I don’t think it was that bad in reality it probably just felt like it. I’d say we were over the worst by the end of January and it felt far less intense through February and normal ish around March. This winter has been completely different and we didn’t get the first illness until December and haven’t (touch wood) had anything since.

It’s been much better for us! Last year DS was sent home almost every week with a bug, this year he’s had no sick days and once I’ve had to collect him an hour early due to having a slight fever, which was just a cold. Last year he caught all sorts of illnesses!

First winter she was sick non stop from when she started in Jan til it finally clearing up in May. All my surplus annual leave from maternity got used up in her sickness days.Worst - I caught most of it too. Even Hand Foot and Mouth, whixh a godawful illness.

I once took her to the doctor because I was worried about her breathing, with laryngitis myself. Doctor told me she was fine, but enquired if I'd taken any time off work to get better. "Erm, nope?!" (I was baffled, even with HFM I worked from home once the fever was gone) She insisted on signing me off for 2 weeks, with the instruction I was to send my daughter to nursery and rest! So ... Good GPs do exist! :D

Next winter it started in September but a trip to the Canaries in March seemed to shake off the worst if it.

This year we've had maybe just a few random fever days, but a whole week at home with a bad ear infection. Not enough for antibiotics to clear it, but she had a lot of pain.

Not for us. It didn’t improve until school! We had 4 hard nursery years. But it did end!

Usually yes

It gets better as they get older

It gets better in the warmer months but also just as they get older as they stop putting everything in their mouths!

First winter was horrendous. Constant fevers and no sleep.

Second winter was a bit better but still quite bad. Some nasty bugs but didn’t feel as relentless.

Third winter has just been colds so far and very little time off. Still getting a new virus every 2 weeks but they are just not as bad.

Thank you all for the replies.
I am so tired and it makes me wonder whether I should have gone back to work.

It's completely normal - I think most women have that thought, tbh.

My mum still frets about me being ill too much whenever I get a cold (like... twice a year) because me getting ill a LOT when my DS was little worried her so much. Obviously I got ill all the time, there was a small person coughing and sneezing into my face every day 🙄

It is completely exhausting, and there's not much you can do. Try to look after yourself - it feels impossible and I can't claim I did well at this, but try to eat some fruit and veg and take a multivitamin, at least. Get some fresh air in your lunchbreak. If you're using a day nursery make the most of still having annual leave, before you have to manage school holidays, and take a day off to sleep or rot in bed.

Don't be afraid to take some time off work to recover properly if you do get ill yourself. I know the guilt of always being off mounts off, but a good employer realises that this is a short time of life in the scheme of you working.

Obviously it depends on your employer, and role, but my husband and I now often do half days with both of us working from when our daughter is ill. It means we can stagger things about do we can both make it to any really important meetings, keep on top of emails and important work etc. If we're lucky she'll nap (being ill) and we can both crack on for a bit. It has really lessened the overall impact of it.

Oh and don't feel bad about a diet of yoghurt and those veg and fruit purree sachets, with extra milk portions. It won't do them any harm for a bit.