It's not the GOING back to work that's the problem...

[MissMitford]

Have been back at work 4 days since DS was 4.5months - needs must etc. He's in a lovely nursery and gets all squeaky happy when we go there, so am happy with the principle of him being there!

However, he's inevitably caught the nursery lurgies that go around and has been off sick more than he's there. In two months, he's had conjunctivtitis, random coughs/snotty nose-itis and misc sniffles. The nursery are fairly strict about kids staying away till they're well again, which is fair enough - despite the fact that of course they picked up the bugs there in the first place!

Anyone else in this situation? I am wondering how long I can get away with being out of the office....

Yes, it is a bit of a mare to start I am afraid.

My son started at nursery when he was about 14 mths (MIL looked after him before that as I only worked for short periods of time (2-3 hrs every other day) and nursery wouldn't take EBM) and he almost immediately had his first cold. Probably a combination of stopping BFing and nursery.

Anyway, he was ill quite a few times over the next year, much less so the year after that and now I simply cannot remember the last time he was ill (certainly more than a year ago!).

Surely they don't keep them off for mild colds etc?

We were lucky as MIL/FIL live close-by and would step in when he was ill otherwise it would have been pretty stressful. I know a lot of co-workers had quite a lot of time off the first six mths - year that their child started nursery. Have you spoken to your office about it?

My DD started nursery last Sept and I had an absolute shocker with time off for her sickness and then mine when she inevitably passed it on!

I felt like it was never going to end, had various threads about it over the first few months and thought that I was the only one like this. Everyone assured me it would pass and I was wrong, they were all right.

Now 15months DD is so much better but it has taken 9months to get to the point where she is more robust. I remember all too well how frustrating it was, fingers crossed it won't take your little one too long to build up a bit of resistance.

Yes this is one thing they don't tell you. My first DD started Nursery at 8mths and was ill continuously for 4 mths with flu bug after sick bug after flu bug, she lost half a kilo in weight and it was hellish.

She's now 6 and hasn't been ill for more than 2 days at a time since. If you take a break and go on holiday to give DS a chance for his immune system to get back up to strength it can help, my DD only got better finally when she was off for 2 wks over Xmas and New Year.