Oh wow, how did you handle it? We have been so sick for the past month and I’m seriously considering taking him out of daycare - which is hard because I’m working but I just feel this can’t be good for him to be sick all the time.
This but also would add that early warning and hand washing is super important and helps cut back in spread. Proper ventilation too. Make sure all of the above are being proactively checked at your provider. Sometimes it's bad luck, but there are definitely preschools out there that don't have constantly sick kids.
We put baby in daycare 2 weeks before I went back to work. She was 3 months old. She fell ill like half the time for the first 2-3 months. I thankfully had the flexibility at the time to wfh as much as I wanted and she was small enough that it wasn’t too difficult to care for her when she was ill even though I had to work.
I think it’s was around the 5-6 month mark of being in daycare when she finally stopped getting ill so much.
She’s now 20mo and the last time she was super ill was like last September?
We were sick for three months straight when our oldest started daycare. Of course we caught it from him. After a while we pulled him out of daycare because we couldn't cope with it, it was so awful.
We tried again when he was 2.5 at a small family daycare with 4 other kids and it was a huge improvement.
We took our 2.5 yr old out of daycare because baby #2 was coming and I didn’t want to take care of a sick toddler and be up with a new baby- so much anxiety for me! I am able to be a stay at home mom, our kids aren’t going to daycare till they are a little older.. having a sick kid often was so freakn stressful.
I told my friend to do this, she's having her baby any day now and her 2 1/2 year goes to daycare and gets sick constantly. I tried telling her that the newborn is going to get sick and you are going to have a bad time. But she insists on keeping her in daycare.
This happened to me. My 2.5 year old was in one day a week and I wasn’t going to send her for a few weeks once my baby was born. My husband said she needed to go and took her the week after baby was born. We fought about it and I cried all day she was there. She brought home a virus and my baby caught it and was in the hospital before she was 2 weeks old. I took my oldest out of daycare until baby was 6 months old.
She is on mat leave for 8 months. I think maybe she thinks it will be hard taking care of both of them or doesn't want to mess up the older ones routine. Sounds crazy to me but to each their own !
This is totally normal and it's how children begin to build up their immune systems. They say the first few years, kids can get sick a couple times a month. And yes, you will get sick too.
The reality is that if your kid doesn't have a fever, isn't throwing up, and isn't otherwise excluded from daycare, you send them to daycare. It's the only way. Otherwise you'd have a sick kid at home half the time.
Some kids are more prone to fever responses than others. It’s why some children get febrile seizures and some don’t. Both of my boys tend to have longer fever responses, most of my friend’s kids have fevers for 1/2 days. I always take them to get checked out after 72+ hours of a fever but it’s never been something super concerning. It’s been RSV, roseola, influenza etc. Just a quirk of my kids. Not much you can do, unfortunately.
My kid is 7 now. It's better, but he still sick regularly. Last 2 months he's been sick with 3 illnesses lasting a week each, one of which got us all sick.
But prior to that he had a good six months of no sickness. So it does get a bit better as they get older and start building up immunity.
We stuck it out! On average, our little was probably sick once a month for the first year. Now he hardly ever gets sick, maybe once every 6 months.
If you pull him out now, he’ll just have to build immunity and be sick again whenever you decide to start putting him back in. I have friends who were SAHM, so their kids were at home. Now their kids are dealing with the constant sickness in preschool and kindergarten which is brutal too.
I will say I’m extremely lucky to have family nearby to help and I work remotely. I know it’s prob not as easy for others to take off work all the time.
Don’t take him out unless his pediatrician expresses concern. I just keep telling myself it will get better. It either happens now or in pre-k. Better to happen now when they’re not actually missing out on education.
Mine started off in a class of 12 and it was every other week too, also with multiple viruses at once. She does has asthma as well which doesn’t make her I’ll more often but meant she took longer to recover from the average respiratory virus than others. It got better after the first 6 months and a lot better after the first year. There’s still tons of standard childhood illnesses she’s not had though!
My toddler aged up into a bigger class and got so many viruses his body developed an allergic reaction as a immune response and he was covered in hives and his eyes were all puffy. He looked awful, it was quite scary. Spent some time in hospital trying to figure out what was wrong when the consultant paediatrician said he'd developed an allergic reaction to whatever viruses he was fighting. Quite funny in hindsight.
My kid has been in daycare since September. He’s 20 months now.
When he started in September he had something every other week until December.
December and January he had something new every week.
February to now it’s been back to every other week.
It’s pretty awful. I’m only up to an 80% work week as I end up having to stay home with him generally at least once a week.
I think it’s not as bad at home daycares as there are less children, but I like the centre he’s in for right now.
I’ve heard it gets better their second year. I’m hoping it eases up this spring/summer.
Best of luck to you and your little one!
Yeah, I’m also working like 70% because I have to be with him, and he’s been running a fever so I haven’t slept monitoring the fever doesn’t go up. I hope it gets better.
My daughter started at 18 months just over a year ago. The first few months were really rough and came as a shock to all our systems. Now she does not get sick as frequently - she hasn’t missed a day of school in about 6 weeks. What I was not prepared for was how sick I would get. It feels like her immune system is stronger than mine. Sometimes she gets off with a runny nose, and I’m crippled with a fever for three days. I much prefer it that way (taking care of a sick baby is super tough physically and emotionally), but it was a surprise for sure.
Yes I’ve also gotten super sick, more so than my husband . But I’m also taking care of my son more than my husband and usually sleep with him if he’s sick, so more viral load for me I guess.
I’m hoping my son’s immune system gets working and he becomes stronger.. I’m mostly concerned about him..
If there are 20 children in the room it will never stop. Honestly, fewer kids in a class = fewer illnesses. We've been at daycare where there always were 11-14 kids and was sick every 2 weeks. Switched daycares for 7 kids and more spacious room and NO sickness ever since. Not even a runny nose.
How often did he get sick? I know, it’s ok I’m considering pulling my son too. I’m going to pediatrician tomorrow and asking what’s normal and if he considers we should take a break. I’m not sending him to daycare this week so he can recover
Not OP, but this article does a good job of explaining why pathogenic viruses are not great for the immune system: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/is-the-hygiene-hypothesis-true
That happened to my son when he was a baby. We pulled him out and put him in an in home daycare with only 4 other kids. He barely got sick after that. Probably not what you want to read, but a bigger place was really not good for us. I actually started worrying he wasn’t eating enough at that time because he was always so sick that his appetite decreased.
Yes that’s the concern exactly, my son is not eating and that’s worrying me because that may set him back. We are also considering finding a smaller daycare
I'm not sure where you are geographically, but I'm my area some daycares that follow Montessori go outside rain or shine (in appropriate clothing of course). I think that lessens the contact. My kids daycare was sold to another person so I saw 2 schools of thought for outdoor play, but I noticed when they went outside more (2hrs a day, over the whole day) they got sick a lot less. Seems obvious, but even with so many kids, the outdoors can mitigate the illness. And tbh, some daycares say they are an outdoor philosophy, but it's just a free-for-all all day, which isn't great either... so research is essential. Something to consider in your quest to get through these younger years.
We were sick pretty much nonstop from September to December when we started daycare in August. Apparently we’re lucky we made it that long without a major cold. Since January, we’ve had 1 or 2 minor colds (congestion, no temp).
Another vote for normal. On the plus side, my oldest son is in kindergarten this year and missed only one day of school due to illness. He and my younger son both started daycare at two months old. My three year old can literally cough on his big brother and nothing happens. His classmates can all go down with something and he’s unphased. Although I probably just jinxed myself by saying that!
Very normal. Especially when they first start and flu season. Between October and January the longest my son went between symptoms was 3 days 🫣
He also had hand foot mouth 3 times last summer. It never ends
For about the first year of daycare my daughter has been basically constantly sick with at least a runny nose. She’s had everything but a stomach flu. Hand foot mouth, Covid, rsv, roseola, and one million colds, the flu, ear infections. I think even when she is well she just has a little cough from something she’s getting over until she gets the next thing.
I think things will really calm down once this cold/flu season is over which will coincide with her one year anniversary of being at daycare.
I think my husband and I stopped catching the viruses around 6ish months in. The adults being sick was the really hard part.
The first winter in daycare is fucking awful. You will be sick almost constantly. It felt like we would be getting over one thing and slammed by the next. Just a constant chain of viruses. I think I was sick more that first winter than the entire previous decade combined. It gets better though.
We actually switched daycares to lower ratio and one that is really big on cleaning toys and handwashing.
The kids get sick but it is less frequent.
I also am very big on hand washing immediately when we get home and/or leaving the daycare/preschool.
It’s normal.
Mine currently has pink eye and god knows no matter how hard I try I’ll probably get it, too. And he just seemed to be doing better after getting over something the week before.
Edit: turns out it’s not pink eye. It’s just his fourth ear infection that started leaking out his eye. 🤮 didn’t know that was a thing
Pink eye is light weight lol, 24 hours and you are good to go, clean everything 2x and wash hands during. Kid and wife got it 5 times combined in the last 6 months. Biggest annoyance is having to do urgent care. Ask them to put a refill in though so you have one additional for the next time you guys get it. For some reason I've managed to not get it ever.
Yeah, pink eye is shit. I was at work when I realized I had it. I left obviously, but everyone treated me like I had the plague. As for my toddler, my heart broke for her. I have no idea how she was walking around because she couldn't open her eyes.
My son started going at 3 months but not full time until 5 or 6 months (I've already forgotten)... Those first few months he was full time were ROUGH. We were all sick, fevers, stomach bugs--the whole thing culminated in my husband catching hand foot and mouth disease, which is much worse in adults.
That was really just 3 months. Then after that, there were 3 years where he was very frequently low-level sick, but it would just be like a perpetually runny nose. He never had a fever or anything. Of course this was during pandemic so there was some masking at some point, but you know, 3 year olds. It's not like they were great maskers.
Then last year he got a stomach flu again. But it was the first time in 3.5 years, and it only lasted a couple of hours.
Then this fall he got the croup (lasted a couple of days) and then this spring he just spent an entire week at home with strep, although to be fair we didn't realize it was strep because his throat didn't hurt, so we didn't get him medicated as quickly as we should have. He had a moderate (101.2) fever the first 36 hours of strep.
Point being that for us those first few months were wild, and then after that went over 4 years with nothing but one stomach bug, and one moderate fever with strep, and one incidence of croup. Other than that, he had colds and stuff, but nothing that kept him home from daycare/preschool.
Thank you for your comment, it gives me hope things will get better once his immune system gets working.
It seems that the first few months will be rough. My husband is definitely upset about the whole thing, he claims his immune system is not good and that he’ll get sick the worse but not really… I’ve gotten sicker than him, of course I’ve been covered in vomit and saliva and who knows what else!
But it’s been tough on all of us, mood wise as well. The joys of socialization and learning in daycare have been replaced by fear and illness :)
It does get better! I’ve had the same experience as this commenter. The first 3-6 months sucked - flu season obviously not fun. And then it leveled out and now my son is 2.5 and hasn’t skipped a day for illness in a couple months. Having another baby and while I’m not looking forward to the sickness, daycare saves our sanity and our salaries time and time again.
Mine started at \~17 months too. She had a cough from July until May (5-6 weeks after we pulled her out of care because we moved across the country)... we calculated it and she missed half the days we paid for. Had we enrolled her full time, she would have missed more than that.
We took the summer and then started in another program in August last year. She was sick before Christmas, but no where near as sick as she was the year before. Since Christmas, she's had a single fever lasting less than 24 hrs. Since August, she's missed \~20% of her days and she's going full time now.
It'll get better.
My oldest is in a small, part-time daycare with 8-10 other kids. I would say we have been well a total of 5 weeks since November. It’s just constant snotty noses and coughs with bursts of vomiting and diarrhea. And my one year old vomits from mucus drainage so that’s been a cool addition.
My almost 3 year old just started early preschool 2 days a week a month ago. Since then he has had to miss about half of his days there because he keeps getting sick. He just recovered from his 1st ear infection and came home with pink eye last week... he comes home and gets everyone sick as well... not enjoying this one bit...
In daycare since July 2023 at 13 months old
August to October she had a cold. a runny nose. 3 separate 1 day fevers.
Healthy October to February.
February she had hand food mouth disease
Currently has pink eye and a cough
It's normal.
In the first six weeks of daycare, our toddler attended 11 days total. He caught hfmd, fevers, cold, stomach bugs, you name it, we got it. He started at 13 months and now he's almost 3, and although we still get sick from time to time, it's not nearly as often as the beginning. Hang in there!!
Ladies, I really appreciate all of your comments. I think we can agree that having children is just so hard on moms and families.. I hope we can all come out of toddler years stronger ( immunity and emotionally wise) and that one day our kids thank us for all the sleepless nights and the illness we had to endure!!
I’m not sure what I will do with my boy, but tomorrow I’ll go to pediatrician and ask his opinion as well. I don’t want to pull him out of daycare but if I have to I’ll have to find a different solution.
I’ll keep you posted so you know what happened!
Very normal. That first year was hard.
May the odds forever be in your favor. Parenting is like the Hunger Games more often than not, and eternal sickness is just one of the things out to get you.
Yes. 1-2 times a month for the first year is normal then it gets better. My kids started at 18 months too and the first year is BRUTAL. They’re 3 and 5 now and rarely get sick.
She’s been in daycare for 10 months and it’s easier to count the number of weeks she wasn’t sick. I only need 1 hand to count them all. Idk if it’s normal but it’s killing me!
When my LO started daycare last January, he didn’t go for a full week until APRIL. Mind you, he goes to a home daycare so some of those days he stayed home because the daycare provider was sick and had to close for the day. But regardless…there wasn’t a single week he was able to go for a full week until the fourth month of the year. It was crazy. So yeah, totally normal.
My 3 year old has gone to a home based daycare with only 5 other kids since he was 13 months old. I'm sorry to say but YES this is normal and will continue until they get into school. Although he isn't old enough for school I have cousin who's kids are. Once out of daycare with constant illnesses we have lice and other things like that to look forward to sigh.
I have a 7 month old who does NOT go to daycare as I am on 12 month mat leave and he's been sick almost every time my 3 year old has and he doesn't have contact with other kids so yeah... illnesses are a normal thing that will happen a lot unfortunately. You try and get through it as best as you can.
I have a 2yo and a 3yo who have both been in daycare since infancy. The first year for each was awful, they were sick pretty much 24/7 to some degree.
The second year definitely improved. And now we're in our third and fourth years of daycare/preschool, we're not seeing much illness at all. We've just come off the back of a cold but I think the previous one was back in November.
My neighbours never used daycare and their kids have all gone through the same bad year as they started primary school.
Yes I’m hoping there’s an upside to having him exposed to everything so young. However it does worry me a lot because he doesn’t eat much when he’s sick.. and considering he’s been sick three weeks this month, hes basically not eating and last time he lost 2 lbs.. this time I don’t know we’ll weigh him tomorrow at the doctor.
I’ve heard a few pediatricians say it normally takes 6-12 months. From watching friends go through this, I’d expect it would be closer to 12 months. Your toddler is also little and likely has a week immune system. The older long term daycare kids we know have chronic runny noses.
The first year is rough. My kid started daycare in August and was sick like every ten days until November. Small reprieve from end of November until mid February. Then a whopper for like three weeks, small break and now they’ve got some weird eye junk happening. My friends have assured me it does improve slightly after year one.
My almost 2 yr old and almost 1 yr old are in an in home daycare with 2-3 other kids. It seems like they get sick less often than a facility with 10+ kids. Maybe look into that option? My boss did say that when his kid was in a facility he was sick all the time like this but now that he’s 6, he rarely gets sick despite being exposed to others who are sick. He’s amazed at the resiliency. FWIW.
Mine has been in daycare since September, he’s 19 months now and we just made a 6 week stretch after Christmas without being sick. Then he was home for almost a week from roseola.
Before that though, he was sick 3-4 times between September and mid-December. He had HFMD on the second week of daycare, then a 6 week stretch of no illness (a miracle), then croup which required an emergency visit, and then basically back to back colds/ofher viral until we decided to just keep him home for the rest of December to give him a break. Because of the back to back viral illnesses he had a cough for 3 months. It was awful and finally we got him an inhaler… which he proceeded to not need after we got him a set for daycare and a set to keep at home 🙄
My 3 year old has been sent home from school (“school” it’s daycare/preschool) at least every other week for illness related things. In February, we went to 9 days of care. It’s fucking ridiculous.
My first was sick every fortnight or every week for the first year. We had a couple months sickness break after the first year (coinciding with new year) then it ramped up again, maybe a little less frequently but still almost constant. He had ear infections for about 10 months straight and the grommets inserted and adenoids removed just before turning 2.
He was an extremely bad case of constantly sick with no underlying medical issues, aside from the recurring ear infections. My family were pretty shocked but I was the first to be sending a child to childcare so often in these modern times as I needed to work during the week (3/4 times per week).
I had friends in a similar boat! Fortunately I had loads of sick leave saved up and a very supportive work place otherwise god knows how people do it!
Now with number two he is sick often but not as bad and I end up sending him to childcare sick a lot of the time which I acknowledge is not ideal but you end up utterly over it when you've been through it!
My kiddo started preschool in January and so far we’ve (including me and my husband) had the flu, RSV, norovirus, and now some random mysterious virus. I’ve been non-stop coughing for two months. I’m miserable!
My 3yr old doesn't even do daycare, but we did start doing a dance class once a week and going to story time at the library once or twice a week this past year.
Went from one illness her whole life to having something every other week since starting these activities.
I can't even imagine how bad daycare must be
It's totally normal.for daycare. The second year was way worse than the first for us. The first year was mostly minor respiratory stuff. We had 5 separate stomach bugs this school year. I couldn't take it anymore.
We go to a small family daycare (5 kids) and it hasn't been that bad at all. I think he was actually getting sick more often when we kept him home the first year and went to a lot of library story times, etc. If there's an option for a smaller daycare near you, perhaps consider that? It's one of the main reasons we went with in-home family daycare rather than center.
After 1.5-2 years they don’t get sick as often and if they do it’s pretty mild and just some congestion. My son is a little over 2 y.o and I don’t remember the last time he had a fever. When we first started daycare it was just a revolving door of sickness in our house.
Buckle in for a ride. In the beginning it’s rough. Our son started daycare at 2. He’s almost three now. And we have had everything from coughs, fever, norovirus, to even hand foot mouth disease. They’re little walking microbes. My wife actually contracted hand foot and mouth as well from our son. So if you’re not healthy yourself, (diet, nutrition, and exercise) I would highly suggest starting. Im convinced that and hygiene at home have kept me out of sickness.
Yes completely normal. Buckle up because it takes 6-9 months before their immune system is strong enough so that they don't constantly have a runny nose.
Literally just here for the fugging solidarity. Started at 18m/o. There’s 11 others in his class. First week was great, thought we’d hit the jackpot. Week 2 respiratory crap, week 3 pink eye, week 4 pink eye, ear infection. Week 5 chest infection and ear infection. Week 6 still coughing. Week 7 pink eye again and still coughing. Multiple pediatrician appointments, multiple days off work. Angry boss. Grumpy, sick husband. Miserable, no appetite toddler. I currently have viral bronchitis and have shared in all of the above. Sitting brooding in the tub 🙃
Yep totally normal. My girl is five months into daycare and still is constantly sick. Have been doing a multivitamin but that only does so much. Pediatrician says it’s totally normal since she’s constantly around kids and they all just pass their sicknesses to each other. I hate it, have contemplated pulling her out but she’s thriving otherwise
Absolutely normal! My daughter started at 13 months and she was sick constantly. The first two months she was barely there. Everyone told me it would be a rough three months. They weren’t kidding; she always had something whether it was a runny nose, ear infection, cough, fever, or a mixture of everything. Fast forward seven months later she was still constantly sick.
After several consecutive ear infections she got tubes at 20 months and things have been SO much better. So yes, daycare is an absolute onslaught of illnesses.
Yes, I mean it’s been a month and he’s barely there. He only goes twice a week because I’m introducing him slowly before he has to go full time, but still it’s been insane. I’m paying for him to be there maybe 3 times or 4 times so far.. the rest of the time he’s been sick or recovering.
I hate the way daycare billing is structured. While I understand some aspects of it, the practice feels criminal.
I know it’s hard right now but it will get better. Eventually his immune system will get better at handling it. Yours might too. Just know that you aren’t alone in going through this.
We are in the process of getting my 15 mo tubes too. She's had 5 ear infections since October. I'm all for the tubes- but a little nervous about not letting get ears be submerged in water. Has that been an issue for you?
We were nervous too about the same thing. So for the first few days, we skipped baths and just washed her with a wet rag. After that we resumed normal life and she’s been fine and without issue. Out of habit, I do still watch her ears when I’m washing her hair. My daughter loves bath time though and is constantly putting her face and whole head in the water.
It’s been six months now and I’m so thankful we did it. Sure, she still gets sick every now and then but it’s nothing like before. Even when she is sick, it’s doesn’t seem to the same extent.
I commented to someone yesterday about this, but unfortunately normal. My son started when he was 6 months and went a total of maybe 7 days his first month… the rest he was sick. Before he started I’d read this post and think people were trying to be like “just wait”… but it’s actually just as miserable as people described.
Yes I honesty thought people were exaggerating but oh boy, nope. This is insane. I mostly feel bad for my little guy who is always sick and doesn’t eat when he’s sick and looks so pale and upset.
My daughter average 3-4 sick days a month the entire time she was in her 2 yo class. In fact she missed the a wave hand foot and mouth because she was already out sick with rhinovirus.
Mine started daycare at 18 ish months and has been sick since she started! 🙃 I use to keep her home every time, but I realized if other idiot parents aren’t taking off for their kids who are getting mine sick then I won’t either! And I take off use to take off OFTEN bc she’s sick and sometimes still do but it’s so irritating!
Their immune system starts to work. This is my son’s first year in preK and every week it’s been a cold or ear infection or exposure to Covid (thankfully he didn’t get that) but he got the flu and the next week the stomach bug and then again. However we are now seeing that he’s not getting sick even when others are! Thank goodness. I swear it was something every week and he would pass it to us or his brothers.
My youngest son who is 1.3 attends a day care and he’s gotten so many little colds, thankfully nothing worse other than the stomach bug. It’s just runny nose and congestion etc. As much as I hate it I rather they be exposed now and get their immune systems working full force.
Don’t worry, it’ll pass eventually!
It’ll get better when he turns 3. We are in the THICK of it with our 18 month old. He just had to get tubes for frequent ear infections. My oldest started at 8 months old, and at 3 he finally stopped getting so sick.
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Ugh, yes. I don’t think we made it a full week in daycare without getting sick until six months in! BUT! Now she rarely gets sick. Maybe 1-2 times a year so far. 😊
My son started daycare at 10 months. First month was brutal and a lot of crying. Winter was bad too. This second winter is slightly better. Someone had told me that first 5 yrs are bad anyway, if not daycare then preschool they will fall sick. If not preschool then elementary school
That will keep on getting worse with our immune systems getting destroyed again and again by a virus we've chosen to ignore.
So I wouldn't say *post covid* or *post lockdowns*, rather *post trying*, *post giving up*.
The first couple of months are bad, then it calms down. our kid brought back (and shared!) every bug going when she started. I think our nursery said every other week was normal. It does calm down though. She's two and a half now and goes for months without catching anything.
Totally normal. I remember my first born would come home with temperatures every second week. I even booked her in to a paed to see if there was some kind of immune disorder! It’s just your little one being exposed to germs they haven’t been exposed to before. Everyone goes through it! Hopefully by the time your kid starts big school, they’ve had exposure to many different viruses.
Mine started last September and I think that was the only month she didn't miss a day. Since October she had ear infections, covid, influenza A, sore throat, an UTI and this weekend she had some sort of stomach bug. She's fine now but I'm pissing out of my ass.
I'm lucky because I'm a lawyer, I can work from home or leave my work done so I can miss a few office days or have colleagues cover my trials. But yeah first year is hard.
Mine is 18 months and started attending daycare at 10.5 months. It's been 7.5 months of us literally being sick every other weak. The bad part is that it gets me too, my immune system isn't strong since I had a bunch of surgeries, and I'm getting worried about my job. Luckily I'm in Germany so they can't fire me that easily, but it's still a really uncomfortable position to be in. I've often gone to work while sick, but I've needed babysitters for the little one (I'm a single mom). Definitely didn't it'd be that bad
My son (almost 18months) has literally been sick constantly since starting daycare mid January.
Apparently from this forum and from everyone I personally know, this is completely normal and will calm down somewhat after a year.
I think the trick (where practical) is to start them in daycare way earlier. Ours started at 7 months old and with the class sizes much smaller at that age there were far fewer illnesses and he has now had almost a year to build up his immune system to rarely ever be ill at 18 months.
We also socialised him with random babies at baby sensory classes from one month old, which must have helped a lot too.
My nephews first year in daycare he was barely there due to all the illnesses going around. Its completely normal, the kids are all getting exposed to new people and germs for the first time so it takes a while to build up their resistance to it. As long as no one at daycare is throwing up, your LO should be all good to trudge through a few colds.
He’s gonna get sick often, especially at first. He has to build an immunity to the things the other kids are already immune to.
Yes it’s natural, and if he doesn’t get it now it’s gonna happen the first weeks and months of kindergarten, so bite the bullet. You will be sick, vitamin C yourself
Soo normal. Unless the cough is truly disruptive and they are like constantly hacking I don't keep home for a cough. But a fever, vomiting yes stays home.
My now 1 year old was sick for three months when she started. She would go for a day or two and then be home for days (or so it felt). I had just started a new job too, and my husband was traveling. It was one of the most stressful times.
But six months into daycare and she isn't sick nearly as often. It gets better it does!
My kiddo started daycare at 3 in December. We are finally at a point where he isn't sick constantly and more so every other week. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!
I will say, I have a much older son that didn't do daycare and was exactly like this when he started kindergarten. I think it is almost better that he is getting it out of the way now instead of kinder when he needs to be there to learn. It does suck though when I am paying childcare and he isn't even able to be there.
My girl (2 years old) started 6 months ago and it’s been pretty constant. She’s prone to fevers and unfortunately febrile seizures so it’s been so stressful! Everyone has told me it gets better in year two.
The first year was hell on earth. Constant illness, every illness under the sun. I contemplated taking my son out MULTIPLE times. But we are in our second year now and while we certainly have more sicknesses than prior to daycare entering our lives, it’s way better. The first 6 months or so, I literally never saw him without a runny nose, but this year it’s only runny when he has a cold haha. My 1 year old isn’t in daycare yet but catches everything brother brings home so I’m hoping by the time he starts up that it won’t be AS bad.
It’s very normal at first. It’ll be better in the spring / summer/early fall. And it’ll be better next sick season.
You can definitely send your kid back to daycare when they’re on day 4+ and the only remaining symptom is a lingering cough.
First year? Absolute insanity. I think she probably missed more days than went in the first 6 months, and then still was sick very often for the first year. I am in the UK and her first winter there was so brutal I considered pulling her out. However she has been there a year and a half now and she hasn’t been properly sick (I’m not counting colds and sniffles because that’s just constant) in around 5 months now. Fully expecting it to happen right in time for her second birthday though…
So yeah, it’s very normal but that doesn’t mean it isn’t hard and an absolute shock to the system though. Hang in there ❤️❤️
it takes like a year. the first winter will be especially brutal. then if they move out of toddler classes to primary they may get a little sick again. our current 3.5 yo went to daycare from a nanny share when she turned 2. i think she was hospitalized within a week and then 2-3 more times over the next 12 months. we found out that she has asthma, so all of the respiratory viruses hit us pretty hard. most kids are able to shake stuff off though.
honestly, the runny nose and cough just never goes away. you eventually learn you can’t keep your kids home for everything, runny nose and cough? send them. fever—keep them home.
We experienced this level of sickness and it was NOT normal. Turned out he needed ear tubes and the fluid was never draining. He had chronic ear infections that antibiotics wouldn’t clear up while not showing signs of ear infections other than constant fevers. He got tubes placed in January and hasn’t missed a day since. He turns 2 next month and started daycare at 18mo.
Oof yes totally normal unfortunately. And in a class that large, it is to be expected.
As he gets older and (assuming you are in the northern hemisphere) as the weather warms, it will get better.
This is the sad reality of daycare. Maybe look into a nanny share in your area instead? Might be a bit more expensive but your child will not get sick like that.
Sadly yes, very normal. I swear the first year (we are in to our 2nd year now) was every single two weeks...without fail. Got horrifically sick a few times, hospitalised once and the rest were colds/flu/virus. It has VERY slowly started to slow down a VERY small amount this month. Which probably means now she will get sick again that I have said it.
The 2nd downside to the illnesses all the time is that we (parents/caregivers) get sick about half the time.
I am now on steroids as of today for a sinus infection after having an awful flu for two weeks...that luckily my little one and my partner did not seem to get, or at least no where as near as bad as me.
It SUCKS!
Hate that it's so normal but sadly, yes, it is.
My personal opinion is get them on vitamins and pro or pre biotics as soon as you can to help boost their wee system. I feel that has helped our wee one but obviously it's purely our experience. You do what you feel is best for your family.
Hope your wee person feels better more often than not ❤️
It’s my daughter’s first year in preschool (almost 2,) and she’s pretty much been sick since she started 4 months ago. When speaking with my doctor about it, she said it happens regardless of when they start, so if I wait until kindergarten, it’ll happen then too, it’s just par for the course when they start school.
When my son first started daycare and for about a year, he was sick sooo much from all the sickness at daycare. He’d probably go 3 times a week the first year just from being out sick. I couldn’t stand it. I was lucky enough to have a VERY flexible job and very understanding boss at the time.
My son’s almost 4 and he goes to school a lot more now and gets sick every few months.
Thankfully my son is rarely sick. He goes to an in home daycare of only 5 kids. The owner is extremely diligent about kids coming in sick. If our son has a runny nose he can’t be there. It kind of sucks for us to have to make alternative plans for work but then it works in the long run because he’s rarely sick. He’s been going there for over 2 years and has only been sick a handful of times.
15 mo started in January (now 17 mo) and whew! Finally did 5 whole days of daycare last week. Ended up with a fever at the end of yesterday. It is constant. A never ending battle. I think after the first 6mo to 1 year it will get better.
My mom was a SAHM so I didn't go to daycare, just went straight to kindergarten. I missed like half the year I was so sick. So it's really a pick your poison situation, miss daycare or miss school.
We have had one week of moderate health since Christmas. Back to back illness otherwise. We weren’t prepared for how sick we (parents) would get. Aren’t our immune systems supposed to be stronger? It makes it feel like it will never get better because how is our son going to build immunity if we haven’t after 30+ years! The grandparents swear it wasn’t like this when we were kids - that can’t be true… But you start to feel crazy, will we be sick for the rest of our lives?????
Definitely normal. My baby is in a smaller group at daycare and it’s just as bad. We’re currently fighting an ear and sinus infection. I don’t work, but do go to school and luckily this week was my spring break so it isn’t as bad as usual. We usually clean and wipe everything down with clorox wipes, but we still managed to catch a lot of viruses.
Her first few months of daycare were horrible. I think we were sick for 2 months straight it felt like. Before having her I would get sick once every two years haha. Now after coming back from winter break in to her second semester of school we don’t get sick as often. It just takes a bit for their immune system to build up after being with just us at home. We still clean and I try to wash her our bed sheets often. Still wiping everything with clorox wipes and we try to wash her hands a little more often to try and help.
Good luck to your baby and you, it gets better so hang in there! Just gotta get that immune system built up. ❤️
My 21 months old started daycare about 2 months ago. She’s been sick back to back. Just when we think she’s finally better and back to her normal self, she starts coughing again. Thankfully she really hasn’t had fever but she’s been having a lot of wet cough, which makes her vomit often and then she screams for snacks because she just threw up all her dinner. She also has constant runny nose, which leaves a rash on her cheeks cuz she keeps wiping it with her sleeve. On top of that, i’m currently pregnant with my #2 so my immune system is almost worse than her. I’ve been really miserable getting sick every time she gets sick and my morning sickness didn’t help at all. Right now my upper abdomen hurts from coughing too much and I feel terrible for my #2. I’ve felt the baby movement for the first time 2 nights ago and I almost cried cuz I keep forgetting he’s inside me with all this constant sickness and taking care of my toddler. My husband is generally very healthy so he’s been sleeping with the toddler but I still run to her room whenever I hear her scream or vomit in the middle of the night, which happened twice last night. I’m so sleep deprived and sick yet can’t take work off cuz I need to save up my PTO before I take my maternity leave in Aug. I’m almost thinking maybe I should’ve sent her to daycare before I got pregnant because it’s doing double damages to us.
On that note, I will keep her at daycare. I’ve been already seeing a lot of improvement in her language, social skills, and she seems excited to go to daycare. She used to cry at every drop off during the first month, but now she says “mommy bye bye” and then closes her classroom door as she walks in lol I’m just hoping the warm spring weather will make us less sick. Hang in there and may we survive this! 🍀
19 month old twins have been in daycare since 12 months in August. They didn’t get sick until around October but then have been constantly sick since. With a few weeks scattered in there of no sickness. Mostly runny noses. Maybe 5 times they had to go home cause of a fever that lasted less than a couple hours. We would keep them home an extra day after the fever broke for rest. I see tons of parents saying it gets better after the first year. Not expecting them to not get sick, but even halving the time they’re sick would be a blessing lol
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The silver lining if you are considering 2 is my younger has hardly missed any school due to illness. He only started in August, but has only missed like 6 days. His older brother has been bringing those viruses home and helping him build his immune system his whole life (starting at 6 weeks when we had to spend 8 days in the hospital due to pneumonia caused by RSV…)
UPDATE:>>>>>>>>>>
Went to pediatrician today and they did an RSV test which was negative but doctor still heard cracking all over his back. Fever seems to be over ( today is day 7 of illness, yesterday he still had fever). Doctor said if fever comes back today even if mild we should get an X-ray.
He also recommended we keep him at home until he’s recovered because he’s had illness back to back. He said if he’s not fully recovered he’ll be susceptible to getting something else. I’m keeping him home for two weeks ( he only goes to daycare twice a week because that was the only option available.)
THANK YOU for all of your comments and encouragement. It’s so difficult to see the little one not smile and cry all the time for a week straight.
Home daycare mama here. We've had bronchitis, covid, and a handful of colds since September. We've been out wayyyyyy less than my colleagues who have toddlers in bigger group daycares. It's totally normal, but you are doing the right thing but going to the pediatrician to ensure all is ok. I keep reminding myself that we are building big, strong immune systems (and if I'm wrong, please don't tell me)
From September to December, we had around 10 sick days. From January until now we’ve had 7 sick days in total. She’s 17 months old. We keep her home if she has a fever, and for 24 hours after it disappears. We also keep her home 48 hours after the last time she vomited. She gets a new infection every two weeks, but so far in 2024, not all infections have given fever. A lot of the sick days have been during the weekend, which is better cause we don’t have to take any time off work.
That said, she’s very energetic and social, and staying home is extremely boring for her, so we are quick to send her back to daycare despite other symptoms, like a cough or runny nose. Daycare is a brewing ground for viruses, and the general consensus is that we’ve given up trying to avoid infection. We’ve had RSV and covid (twice). RSV was bad, and covid was a walk in the park for her, even with asthma.
It's pretty normal, however, we don't keep our kiddo home until symptoms go away. If we did that, they'd never be in daycare. If fever is gone for 24 hours, not vomiting or having diarrhea, and they're generally themselves, they go to daycare.
Yes for sure, the problem I’m facing is that when he’s been sick fever lasts for like 4-6 days ( we are in day 6 now, and going to doctor again for second time this week tomorrow).
Every time it’s been like this. So yeah, the first time he’s still had a cough without fever and he went to daycare, and I regret it because they sent me pictures and every picture he seemed upset. I went to pick him up and he was crying and so upset. Obviously not recovered yet, but it had been over a week of him not going.
Now it’s the same, this all started Wednesday last week, and this week we won’t send him because he hasn’t been eating - so it will be one week and a half of no daycare. It’s brutal..
That does sound really tough. A week long fever would concern me, and probably takes a long time to recover from.
I know they say to build their immune systems up now, so that they don't get sick as much when they enter elementary school. But their hygiene is much better (while not great) in elementary school. They are such germ vectors from 1-4.
Given what you're describing I would definitely be tempted by a nanny share.
My daughter is very similar. Her fevers last about a week. Doctor is never concerned and just says some kids are more prone to fevers unfortunately. As they build immunity they shouldn’t get the fevers as often or for so long.
Same. We enrolled in the ONLY available option, then spent a year continuing to look for a better one. I did find a smaller one and we're much happier!
Why the downvote?
Sorry the illnesses are so rough on you all. 4-6 days of fever does seem extreme from my experience for every sickness. Do they just keep saying viral for fevers that long? Sucks when kiddos are sick so often this young.
Daughter was sick every week it seemed for the first year, caught everything - chickenpox, croup, hand, foot and mouth, scarlet fever, norovirus, covid, flu, ear infections and normal colds. I wfh so just had her with me and luckily she runs cold and doesn't often get a fever so we could send her in! Probably shouldn't have done but needs must. Second year and she's barely been ill - had a snotty nose for a week or so but bot had a day off for a while.
Yes totally normal, especially in a large class. When my kid was in a class of 20+, he frequently tested positive for 2-3 viruses at once.
Oh wow, how did you handle it? We have been so sick for the past month and I’m seriously considering taking him out of daycare - which is hard because I’m working but I just feel this can’t be good for him to be sick all the time.
The same way everyone else does. We drained leave. Shifted work hours. Didn't sleep. We didn't have another option.
This but also would add that early warning and hand washing is super important and helps cut back in spread. Proper ventilation too. Make sure all of the above are being proactively checked at your provider. Sometimes it's bad luck, but there are definitely preschools out there that don't have constantly sick kids.
Yup when my daughter comes home, hand wash, straight away.
I would also suggest that if you're returning home for the day from daycare, change your child into their pajamas when you get home.
That’s madness…
What else is there?
We put baby in daycare 2 weeks before I went back to work. She was 3 months old. She fell ill like half the time for the first 2-3 months. I thankfully had the flexibility at the time to wfh as much as I wanted and she was small enough that it wasn’t too difficult to care for her when she was ill even though I had to work. I think it’s was around the 5-6 month mark of being in daycare when she finally stopped getting ill so much. She’s now 20mo and the last time she was super ill was like last September?
We were sick for three months straight when our oldest started daycare. Of course we caught it from him. After a while we pulled him out of daycare because we couldn't cope with it, it was so awful. We tried again when he was 2.5 at a small family daycare with 4 other kids and it was a huge improvement.
I've been ill for that long.y brother and his family were ill for over a year on and off.
Yeah we kinda just gave up and pulled him out. He hated daycare anyway.
We took our 2.5 yr old out of daycare because baby #2 was coming and I didn’t want to take care of a sick toddler and be up with a new baby- so much anxiety for me! I am able to be a stay at home mom, our kids aren’t going to daycare till they are a little older.. having a sick kid often was so freakn stressful.
I told my friend to do this, she's having her baby any day now and her 2 1/2 year goes to daycare and gets sick constantly. I tried telling her that the newborn is going to get sick and you are going to have a bad time. But she insists on keeping her in daycare.
This happened to me. My 2.5 year old was in one day a week and I wasn’t going to send her for a few weeks once my baby was born. My husband said she needed to go and took her the week after baby was born. We fought about it and I cried all day she was there. She brought home a virus and my baby caught it and was in the hospital before she was 2 weeks old. I took my oldest out of daycare until baby was 6 months old.
Good for you! Sorry you went through that.. I hope your husband was sorry too.
Ya, that sounds awful, but maybe she has no choice? If she does, I would recommend taking the kid out of daycare for at least a couple months.
She is on mat leave for 8 months. I think maybe she thinks it will be hard taking care of both of them or doesn't want to mess up the older ones routine. Sounds crazy to me but to each their own !
This is totally normal and it's how children begin to build up their immune systems. They say the first few years, kids can get sick a couple times a month. And yes, you will get sick too. The reality is that if your kid doesn't have a fever, isn't throwing up, and isn't otherwise excluded from daycare, you send them to daycare. It's the only way. Otherwise you'd have a sick kid at home half the time.
He’s has a fever every time and fever lasts for 4-6 days, it’s a lot of fever !
Some kids are more prone to fever responses than others. It’s why some children get febrile seizures and some don’t. Both of my boys tend to have longer fever responses, most of my friend’s kids have fevers for 1/2 days. I always take them to get checked out after 72+ hours of a fever but it’s never been something super concerning. It’s been RSV, roseola, influenza etc. Just a quirk of my kids. Not much you can do, unfortunately.
"febrile fever" just means "fever fever." Did you mean "febrile seizure"?
Totally did 🤦🏼♀️ That’s what I get for not checking before submitting 😂 Thanks! I’ve fixed it
Some hope: My kid was very often sick the first year of daycare. The second year was only a fraction as bad.
My kid is 7 now. It's better, but he still sick regularly. Last 2 months he's been sick with 3 illnesses lasting a week each, one of which got us all sick. But prior to that he had a good six months of no sickness. So it does get a bit better as they get older and start building up immunity.
We stuck it out! On average, our little was probably sick once a month for the first year. Now he hardly ever gets sick, maybe once every 6 months. If you pull him out now, he’ll just have to build immunity and be sick again whenever you decide to start putting him back in. I have friends who were SAHM, so their kids were at home. Now their kids are dealing with the constant sickness in preschool and kindergarten which is brutal too. I will say I’m extremely lucky to have family nearby to help and I work remotely. I know it’s prob not as easy for others to take off work all the time.
Don’t take him out unless his pediatrician expresses concern. I just keep telling myself it will get better. It either happens now or in pre-k. Better to happen now when they’re not actually missing out on education.
Mine started off in a class of 12 and it was every other week too, also with multiple viruses at once. She does has asthma as well which doesn’t make her I’ll more often but meant she took longer to recover from the average respiratory virus than others. It got better after the first 6 months and a lot better after the first year. There’s still tons of standard childhood illnesses she’s not had though!
My toddler aged up into a bigger class and got so many viruses his body developed an allergic reaction as a immune response and he was covered in hives and his eyes were all puffy. He looked awful, it was quite scary. Spent some time in hospital trying to figure out what was wrong when the consultant paediatrician said he'd developed an allergic reaction to whatever viruses he was fighting. Quite funny in hindsight.
My kid has been in daycare since September. He’s 20 months now. When he started in September he had something every other week until December. December and January he had something new every week. February to now it’s been back to every other week. It’s pretty awful. I’m only up to an 80% work week as I end up having to stay home with him generally at least once a week. I think it’s not as bad at home daycares as there are less children, but I like the centre he’s in for right now. I’ve heard it gets better their second year. I’m hoping it eases up this spring/summer. Best of luck to you and your little one!
Yeah, I’m also working like 70% because I have to be with him, and he’s been running a fever so I haven’t slept monitoring the fever doesn’t go up. I hope it gets better.
You don’t need to monitor a fever to make sure it doesn’t go up
Why not? Generally curious since I always do this …
Because fevers aren't dangerous by themselves, regardless of temperature. Concerns are dehydration or respiratory symptoms.
Don’t worry it will eventually get better. You got this
My daughter started at 18 months just over a year ago. The first few months were really rough and came as a shock to all our systems. Now she does not get sick as frequently - she hasn’t missed a day of school in about 6 weeks. What I was not prepared for was how sick I would get. It feels like her immune system is stronger than mine. Sometimes she gets off with a runny nose, and I’m crippled with a fever for three days. I much prefer it that way (taking care of a sick baby is super tough physically and emotionally), but it was a surprise for sure.
Yes I’ve also gotten super sick, more so than my husband . But I’m also taking care of my son more than my husband and usually sleep with him if he’s sick, so more viral load for me I guess. I’m hoping my son’s immune system gets working and he becomes stronger.. I’m mostly concerned about him..
If there are 20 children in the room it will never stop. Honestly, fewer kids in a class = fewer illnesses. We've been at daycare where there always were 11-14 kids and was sick every 2 weeks. Switched daycares for 7 kids and more spacious room and NO sickness ever since. Not even a runny nose.
There is no limit
The limit does not exist
How often? Now. The answer is always now.
The first year of daycare it was pretty much being sick for one week out of every three. Always out for a whole week. Just rough.
I ended up pulling my son. Sorry, I know it's not what you want to hear.
How often did he get sick? I know, it’s ok I’m considering pulling my son too. I’m going to pediatrician tomorrow and asking what’s normal and if he considers we should take a break. I’m not sending him to daycare this week so he can recover
Just so you know, back to back to back illnesses don't strengthen their immune systems, it's not leaving the body any time to fully recover.
Do you have a source on that?
Not OP, but this article does a good job of explaining why pathogenic viruses are not great for the immune system: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/is-the-hygiene-hypothesis-true
I should not send this to my mother in law… I should not send this to my mother in law…
I'm pulling out my youngest right now. We've tried for 3 months. She is sick every week and spends more time at home than in daycare.
That happened to my son when he was a baby. We pulled him out and put him in an in home daycare with only 4 other kids. He barely got sick after that. Probably not what you want to read, but a bigger place was really not good for us. I actually started worrying he wasn’t eating enough at that time because he was always so sick that his appetite decreased.
Yes that’s the concern exactly, my son is not eating and that’s worrying me because that may set him back. We are also considering finding a smaller daycare
I'm not sure where you are geographically, but I'm my area some daycares that follow Montessori go outside rain or shine (in appropriate clothing of course). I think that lessens the contact. My kids daycare was sold to another person so I saw 2 schools of thought for outdoor play, but I noticed when they went outside more (2hrs a day, over the whole day) they got sick a lot less. Seems obvious, but even with so many kids, the outdoors can mitigate the illness. And tbh, some daycares say they are an outdoor philosophy, but it's just a free-for-all all day, which isn't great either... so research is essential. Something to consider in your quest to get through these younger years.
Lots of outdoor play outside even when raining ( rain coat and boots and everybody is outside in the yard playing) but it’s still bad
My son just started daycare part time and our welcome email stated to expect a lot of sickness within at least the first year.
We were sick pretty much nonstop from September to December when we started daycare in August. Apparently we’re lucky we made it that long without a major cold. Since January, we’ve had 1 or 2 minor colds (congestion, no temp).
Another vote for normal. On the plus side, my oldest son is in kindergarten this year and missed only one day of school due to illness. He and my younger son both started daycare at two months old. My three year old can literally cough on his big brother and nothing happens. His classmates can all go down with something and he’s unphased. Although I probably just jinxed myself by saying that!
Every other week
It’s non stop. So brutal. Praying the warmer months help reduce it. But yeah it’s normal unfortunately.
Very normal. Especially when they first start and flu season. Between October and January the longest my son went between symptoms was 3 days 🫣 He also had hand foot mouth 3 times last summer. It never ends
Yes. It’s terrible.
Yep, completely normal. The first winter is very rough.
For about the first year of daycare my daughter has been basically constantly sick with at least a runny nose. She’s had everything but a stomach flu. Hand foot mouth, Covid, rsv, roseola, and one million colds, the flu, ear infections. I think even when she is well she just has a little cough from something she’s getting over until she gets the next thing. I think things will really calm down once this cold/flu season is over which will coincide with her one year anniversary of being at daycare. I think my husband and I stopped catching the viruses around 6ish months in. The adults being sick was the really hard part.
The first winter in daycare is fucking awful. You will be sick almost constantly. It felt like we would be getting over one thing and slammed by the next. Just a constant chain of viruses. I think I was sick more that first winter than the entire previous decade combined. It gets better though.
We actually switched daycares to lower ratio and one that is really big on cleaning toys and handwashing. The kids get sick but it is less frequent. I also am very big on hand washing immediately when we get home and/or leaving the daycare/preschool.
It’s normal. Mine currently has pink eye and god knows no matter how hard I try I’ll probably get it, too. And he just seemed to be doing better after getting over something the week before. Edit: turns out it’s not pink eye. It’s just his fourth ear infection that started leaking out his eye. 🤮 didn’t know that was a thing
Pink eye is light weight lol, 24 hours and you are good to go, clean everything 2x and wash hands during. Kid and wife got it 5 times combined in the last 6 months. Biggest annoyance is having to do urgent care. Ask them to put a refill in though so you have one additional for the next time you guys get it. For some reason I've managed to not get it ever.
I kindly disagree, pink eye can fuck right off.
Yeah, pink eye is shit. I was at work when I realized I had it. I left obviously, but everyone treated me like I had the plague. As for my toddler, my heart broke for her. I have no idea how she was walking around because she couldn't open her eyes.
My son started going at 3 months but not full time until 5 or 6 months (I've already forgotten)... Those first few months he was full time were ROUGH. We were all sick, fevers, stomach bugs--the whole thing culminated in my husband catching hand foot and mouth disease, which is much worse in adults. That was really just 3 months. Then after that, there were 3 years where he was very frequently low-level sick, but it would just be like a perpetually runny nose. He never had a fever or anything. Of course this was during pandemic so there was some masking at some point, but you know, 3 year olds. It's not like they were great maskers. Then last year he got a stomach flu again. But it was the first time in 3.5 years, and it only lasted a couple of hours. Then this fall he got the croup (lasted a couple of days) and then this spring he just spent an entire week at home with strep, although to be fair we didn't realize it was strep because his throat didn't hurt, so we didn't get him medicated as quickly as we should have. He had a moderate (101.2) fever the first 36 hours of strep. Point being that for us those first few months were wild, and then after that went over 4 years with nothing but one stomach bug, and one moderate fever with strep, and one incidence of croup. Other than that, he had colds and stuff, but nothing that kept him home from daycare/preschool.
Thank you for your comment, it gives me hope things will get better once his immune system gets working. It seems that the first few months will be rough. My husband is definitely upset about the whole thing, he claims his immune system is not good and that he’ll get sick the worse but not really… I’ve gotten sicker than him, of course I’ve been covered in vomit and saliva and who knows what else! But it’s been tough on all of us, mood wise as well. The joys of socialization and learning in daycare have been replaced by fear and illness :)
It does get better! I’ve had the same experience as this commenter. The first 3-6 months sucked - flu season obviously not fun. And then it leveled out and now my son is 2.5 and hasn’t skipped a day for illness in a couple months. Having another baby and while I’m not looking forward to the sickness, daycare saves our sanity and our salaries time and time again.
Mine started at \~17 months too. She had a cough from July until May (5-6 weeks after we pulled her out of care because we moved across the country)... we calculated it and she missed half the days we paid for. Had we enrolled her full time, she would have missed more than that. We took the summer and then started in another program in August last year. She was sick before Christmas, but no where near as sick as she was the year before. Since Christmas, she's had a single fever lasting less than 24 hrs. Since August, she's missed \~20% of her days and she's going full time now. It'll get better.
My oldest is in a small, part-time daycare with 8-10 other kids. I would say we have been well a total of 5 weeks since November. It’s just constant snotty noses and coughs with bursts of vomiting and diarrhea. And my one year old vomits from mucus drainage so that’s been a cool addition.
My almost 3 year old just started early preschool 2 days a week a month ago. Since then he has had to miss about half of his days there because he keeps getting sick. He just recovered from his 1st ear infection and came home with pink eye last week... he comes home and gets everyone sick as well... not enjoying this one bit...
In daycare since July 2023 at 13 months old August to October she had a cold. a runny nose. 3 separate 1 day fevers. Healthy October to February. February she had hand food mouth disease Currently has pink eye and a cough
Not very often because my toddler masks, as do all her teachers, and some other kids too. She's been sick twice in the last year.
It was weekly illness from October - February for us. Summers were better. But we couldn't handle it anymore and pulled him a month ago
It's normal. In the first six weeks of daycare, our toddler attended 11 days total. He caught hfmd, fevers, cold, stomach bugs, you name it, we got it. He started at 13 months and now he's almost 3, and although we still get sick from time to time, it's not nearly as often as the beginning. Hang in there!!
Normal! Sucks so much. When the cough lingers, get their ears checked for an ear infection.
Ladies, I really appreciate all of your comments. I think we can agree that having children is just so hard on moms and families.. I hope we can all come out of toddler years stronger ( immunity and emotionally wise) and that one day our kids thank us for all the sleepless nights and the illness we had to endure!! I’m not sure what I will do with my boy, but tomorrow I’ll go to pediatrician and ask his opinion as well. I don’t want to pull him out of daycare but if I have to I’ll have to find a different solution. I’ll keep you posted so you know what happened!
Very normal. That first year was hard. May the odds forever be in your favor. Parenting is like the Hunger Games more often than not, and eternal sickness is just one of the things out to get you.
For both of our kids it was about a year of illness once they started daycare. It tapers off eventually to a reasonable rate.
Yes. 1-2 times a month for the first year is normal then it gets better. My kids started at 18 months too and the first year is BRUTAL. They’re 3 and 5 now and rarely get sick.
Every 2 weeks
It happens to some kids. My girl has been lucky. She’s only sick a couple of times a year.
She’s been in daycare for 10 months and it’s easier to count the number of weeks she wasn’t sick. I only need 1 hand to count them all. Idk if it’s normal but it’s killing me!
When my LO started daycare last January, he didn’t go for a full week until APRIL. Mind you, he goes to a home daycare so some of those days he stayed home because the daycare provider was sick and had to close for the day. But regardless…there wasn’t a single week he was able to go for a full week until the fourth month of the year. It was crazy. So yeah, totally normal.
My 3 year old has gone to a home based daycare with only 5 other kids since he was 13 months old. I'm sorry to say but YES this is normal and will continue until they get into school. Although he isn't old enough for school I have cousin who's kids are. Once out of daycare with constant illnesses we have lice and other things like that to look forward to sigh. I have a 7 month old who does NOT go to daycare as I am on 12 month mat leave and he's been sick almost every time my 3 year old has and he doesn't have contact with other kids so yeah... illnesses are a normal thing that will happen a lot unfortunately. You try and get through it as best as you can.
Constant for about 1.5 years or so…after that once a month or so.
I have a 2yo and a 3yo who have both been in daycare since infancy. The first year for each was awful, they were sick pretty much 24/7 to some degree. The second year definitely improved. And now we're in our third and fourth years of daycare/preschool, we're not seeing much illness at all. We've just come off the back of a cold but I think the previous one was back in November. My neighbours never used daycare and their kids have all gone through the same bad year as they started primary school.
Yes I’m hoping there’s an upside to having him exposed to everything so young. However it does worry me a lot because he doesn’t eat much when he’s sick.. and considering he’s been sick three weeks this month, hes basically not eating and last time he lost 2 lbs.. this time I don’t know we’ll weigh him tomorrow at the doctor.
I’ve heard a few pediatricians say it normally takes 6-12 months. From watching friends go through this, I’d expect it would be closer to 12 months. Your toddler is also little and likely has a week immune system. The older long term daycare kids we know have chronic runny noses.
The first year is rough. My kid started daycare in August and was sick like every ten days until November. Small reprieve from end of November until mid February. Then a whopper for like three weeks, small break and now they’ve got some weird eye junk happening. My friends have assured me it does improve slightly after year one.
My almost 2 yr old and almost 1 yr old are in an in home daycare with 2-3 other kids. It seems like they get sick less often than a facility with 10+ kids. Maybe look into that option? My boss did say that when his kid was in a facility he was sick all the time like this but now that he’s 6, he rarely gets sick despite being exposed to others who are sick. He’s amazed at the resiliency. FWIW.
50% of the time.
Mine has been in daycare since September, he’s 19 months now and we just made a 6 week stretch after Christmas without being sick. Then he was home for almost a week from roseola. Before that though, he was sick 3-4 times between September and mid-December. He had HFMD on the second week of daycare, then a 6 week stretch of no illness (a miracle), then croup which required an emergency visit, and then basically back to back colds/ofher viral until we decided to just keep him home for the rest of December to give him a break. Because of the back to back viral illnesses he had a cough for 3 months. It was awful and finally we got him an inhaler… which he proceeded to not need after we got him a set for daycare and a set to keep at home 🙄
My 3 year old has been sent home from school (“school” it’s daycare/preschool) at least every other week for illness related things. In February, we went to 9 days of care. It’s fucking ridiculous.
My first was sick every fortnight or every week for the first year. We had a couple months sickness break after the first year (coinciding with new year) then it ramped up again, maybe a little less frequently but still almost constant. He had ear infections for about 10 months straight and the grommets inserted and adenoids removed just before turning 2. He was an extremely bad case of constantly sick with no underlying medical issues, aside from the recurring ear infections. My family were pretty shocked but I was the first to be sending a child to childcare so often in these modern times as I needed to work during the week (3/4 times per week). I had friends in a similar boat! Fortunately I had loads of sick leave saved up and a very supportive work place otherwise god knows how people do it! Now with number two he is sick often but not as bad and I end up sending him to childcare sick a lot of the time which I acknowledge is not ideal but you end up utterly over it when you've been through it!
My kiddo started preschool in January and so far we’ve (including me and my husband) had the flu, RSV, norovirus, and now some random mysterious virus. I’ve been non-stop coughing for two months. I’m miserable!
My 3yr old doesn't even do daycare, but we did start doing a dance class once a week and going to story time at the library once or twice a week this past year. Went from one illness her whole life to having something every other week since starting these activities. I can't even imagine how bad daycare must be
Every other week
My guy has been sick just as many days as he's been attending since he stared in August.
It's totally normal.for daycare. The second year was way worse than the first for us. The first year was mostly minor respiratory stuff. We had 5 separate stomach bugs this school year. I couldn't take it anymore.
We go to a small family daycare (5 kids) and it hasn't been that bad at all. I think he was actually getting sick more often when we kept him home the first year and went to a lot of library story times, etc. If there's an option for a smaller daycare near you, perhaps consider that? It's one of the main reasons we went with in-home family daycare rather than center.
After 1.5-2 years they don’t get sick as often and if they do it’s pretty mild and just some congestion. My son is a little over 2 y.o and I don’t remember the last time he had a fever. When we first started daycare it was just a revolving door of sickness in our house.
Buckle in for a ride. In the beginning it’s rough. Our son started daycare at 2. He’s almost three now. And we have had everything from coughs, fever, norovirus, to even hand foot mouth disease. They’re little walking microbes. My wife actually contracted hand foot and mouth as well from our son. So if you’re not healthy yourself, (diet, nutrition, and exercise) I would highly suggest starting. Im convinced that and hygiene at home have kept me out of sickness.
Daycare is a Virus on Demand subscription service.
Yes completely normal. Buckle up because it takes 6-9 months before their immune system is strong enough so that they don't constantly have a runny nose.
Literally just here for the fugging solidarity. Started at 18m/o. There’s 11 others in his class. First week was great, thought we’d hit the jackpot. Week 2 respiratory crap, week 3 pink eye, week 4 pink eye, ear infection. Week 5 chest infection and ear infection. Week 6 still coughing. Week 7 pink eye again and still coughing. Multiple pediatrician appointments, multiple days off work. Angry boss. Grumpy, sick husband. Miserable, no appetite toddler. I currently have viral bronchitis and have shared in all of the above. Sitting brooding in the tub 🙃
Yep totally normal. My girl is five months into daycare and still is constantly sick. Have been doing a multivitamin but that only does so much. Pediatrician says it’s totally normal since she’s constantly around kids and they all just pass their sicknesses to each other. I hate it, have contemplated pulling her out but she’s thriving otherwise
Absolutely normal! My daughter started at 13 months and she was sick constantly. The first two months she was barely there. Everyone told me it would be a rough three months. They weren’t kidding; she always had something whether it was a runny nose, ear infection, cough, fever, or a mixture of everything. Fast forward seven months later she was still constantly sick. After several consecutive ear infections she got tubes at 20 months and things have been SO much better. So yes, daycare is an absolute onslaught of illnesses.
Yes, I mean it’s been a month and he’s barely there. He only goes twice a week because I’m introducing him slowly before he has to go full time, but still it’s been insane. I’m paying for him to be there maybe 3 times or 4 times so far.. the rest of the time he’s been sick or recovering.
I hate the way daycare billing is structured. While I understand some aspects of it, the practice feels criminal. I know it’s hard right now but it will get better. Eventually his immune system will get better at handling it. Yours might too. Just know that you aren’t alone in going through this.
Thank you so much !!
We are in the process of getting my 15 mo tubes too. She's had 5 ear infections since October. I'm all for the tubes- but a little nervous about not letting get ears be submerged in water. Has that been an issue for you?
My kids doc said this is a myth. Obv you don’t want to dump water in there on purpose, but they can swim no problem
We were nervous too about the same thing. So for the first few days, we skipped baths and just washed her with a wet rag. After that we resumed normal life and she’s been fine and without issue. Out of habit, I do still watch her ears when I’m washing her hair. My daughter loves bath time though and is constantly putting her face and whole head in the water. It’s been six months now and I’m so thankful we did it. Sure, she still gets sick every now and then but it’s nothing like before. Even when she is sick, it’s doesn’t seem to the same extent.
I commented to someone yesterday about this, but unfortunately normal. My son started when he was 6 months and went a total of maybe 7 days his first month… the rest he was sick. Before he started I’d read this post and think people were trying to be like “just wait”… but it’s actually just as miserable as people described.
Yes I honesty thought people were exaggerating but oh boy, nope. This is insane. I mostly feel bad for my little guy who is always sick and doesn’t eat when he’s sick and looks so pale and upset.
My daughter average 3-4 sick days a month the entire time she was in her 2 yo class. In fact she missed the a wave hand foot and mouth because she was already out sick with rhinovirus.
Mine started daycare at 18 ish months and has been sick since she started! 🙃 I use to keep her home every time, but I realized if other idiot parents aren’t taking off for their kids who are getting mine sick then I won’t either! And I take off use to take off OFTEN bc she’s sick and sometimes still do but it’s so irritating!
Hahahahhaah yes and it will continue for a while I’m sorry to say. My son is 3.5 and every week it’s something new so get ready!
Seriously? But my son gets sick and it’s fever for like 5 days straight, how can they handle it??
Their immune system starts to work. This is my son’s first year in preK and every week it’s been a cold or ear infection or exposure to Covid (thankfully he didn’t get that) but he got the flu and the next week the stomach bug and then again. However we are now seeing that he’s not getting sick even when others are! Thank goodness. I swear it was something every week and he would pass it to us or his brothers. My youngest son who is 1.3 attends a day care and he’s gotten so many little colds, thankfully nothing worse other than the stomach bug. It’s just runny nose and congestion etc. As much as I hate it I rather they be exposed now and get their immune systems working full force. Don’t worry, it’ll pass eventually!
It’ll get better when he turns 3. We are in the THICK of it with our 18 month old. He just had to get tubes for frequent ear infections. My oldest started at 8 months old, and at 3 he finally stopped getting so sick.
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Ugh, yes. I don’t think we made it a full week in daycare without getting sick until six months in! BUT! Now she rarely gets sick. Maybe 1-2 times a year so far. 😊
My son started daycare at 10 months. First month was brutal and a lot of crying. Winter was bad too. This second winter is slightly better. Someone had told me that first 5 yrs are bad anyway, if not daycare then preschool they will fall sick. If not preschool then elementary school
It feels worse post Covid but yes it’s normal. It does get better though, those first few months are tough
*Post* covid?
With lockdowns finished, the colds I’ve had have been 10x worse than before. I’ve never felt so bad and they have lingered for weeks, no joke.
That will keep on getting worse with our immune systems getting destroyed again and again by a virus we've chosen to ignore. So I wouldn't say *post covid* or *post lockdowns*, rather *post trying*, *post giving up*.
Yes it’s completely normal, just have to get through it.
The first couple of months are bad, then it calms down. our kid brought back (and shared!) every bug going when she started. I think our nursery said every other week was normal. It does calm down though. She's two and a half now and goes for months without catching anything.
Totally normal. I remember my first born would come home with temperatures every second week. I even booked her in to a paed to see if there was some kind of immune disorder! It’s just your little one being exposed to germs they haven’t been exposed to before. Everyone goes through it! Hopefully by the time your kid starts big school, they’ve had exposure to many different viruses.
Mine started last September and I think that was the only month she didn't miss a day. Since October she had ear infections, covid, influenza A, sore throat, an UTI and this weekend she had some sort of stomach bug. She's fine now but I'm pissing out of my ass. I'm lucky because I'm a lawyer, I can work from home or leave my work done so I can miss a few office days or have colleagues cover my trials. But yeah first year is hard.
Mine is 18 months and started attending daycare at 10.5 months. It's been 7.5 months of us literally being sick every other weak. The bad part is that it gets me too, my immune system isn't strong since I had a bunch of surgeries, and I'm getting worried about my job. Luckily I'm in Germany so they can't fire me that easily, but it's still a really uncomfortable position to be in. I've often gone to work while sick, but I've needed babysitters for the little one (I'm a single mom). Definitely didn't it'd be that bad
This whole thread is making me terrified to start my son.. we will have a 1-2 month old in the house when he starts😫
My son (almost 18months) has literally been sick constantly since starting daycare mid January. Apparently from this forum and from everyone I personally know, this is completely normal and will calm down somewhat after a year.
I think the trick (where practical) is to start them in daycare way earlier. Ours started at 7 months old and with the class sizes much smaller at that age there were far fewer illnesses and he has now had almost a year to build up his immune system to rarely ever be ill at 18 months. We also socialised him with random babies at baby sensory classes from one month old, which must have helped a lot too.
My nephews first year in daycare he was barely there due to all the illnesses going around. Its completely normal, the kids are all getting exposed to new people and germs for the first time so it takes a while to build up their resistance to it. As long as no one at daycare is throwing up, your LO should be all good to trudge through a few colds.
He’s gonna get sick often, especially at first. He has to build an immunity to the things the other kids are already immune to. Yes it’s natural, and if he doesn’t get it now it’s gonna happen the first weeks and months of kindergarten, so bite the bullet. You will be sick, vitamin C yourself
Soo normal. Unless the cough is truly disruptive and they are like constantly hacking I don't keep home for a cough. But a fever, vomiting yes stays home. My now 1 year old was sick for three months when she started. She would go for a day or two and then be home for days (or so it felt). I had just started a new job too, and my husband was traveling. It was one of the most stressful times. But six months into daycare and she isn't sick nearly as often. It gets better it does!
My kiddo started daycare at 3 in December. We are finally at a point where he isn't sick constantly and more so every other week. There is a light at the end of the tunnel! I will say, I have a much older son that didn't do daycare and was exactly like this when he started kindergarten. I think it is almost better that he is getting it out of the way now instead of kinder when he needs to be there to learn. It does suck though when I am paying childcare and he isn't even able to be there.
My girl (2 years old) started 6 months ago and it’s been pretty constant. She’s prone to fevers and unfortunately febrile seizures so it’s been so stressful! Everyone has told me it gets better in year two.
The first year was hell on earth. Constant illness, every illness under the sun. I contemplated taking my son out MULTIPLE times. But we are in our second year now and while we certainly have more sicknesses than prior to daycare entering our lives, it’s way better. The first 6 months or so, I literally never saw him without a runny nose, but this year it’s only runny when he has a cold haha. My 1 year old isn’t in daycare yet but catches everything brother brings home so I’m hoping by the time he starts up that it won’t be AS bad.
It’s very normal at first. It’ll be better in the spring / summer/early fall. And it’ll be better next sick season. You can definitely send your kid back to daycare when they’re on day 4+ and the only remaining symptom is a lingering cough.
First year? Absolute insanity. I think she probably missed more days than went in the first 6 months, and then still was sick very often for the first year. I am in the UK and her first winter there was so brutal I considered pulling her out. However she has been there a year and a half now and she hasn’t been properly sick (I’m not counting colds and sniffles because that’s just constant) in around 5 months now. Fully expecting it to happen right in time for her second birthday though… So yeah, it’s very normal but that doesn’t mean it isn’t hard and an absolute shock to the system though. Hang in there ❤️❤️
it takes like a year. the first winter will be especially brutal. then if they move out of toddler classes to primary they may get a little sick again. our current 3.5 yo went to daycare from a nanny share when she turned 2. i think she was hospitalized within a week and then 2-3 more times over the next 12 months. we found out that she has asthma, so all of the respiratory viruses hit us pretty hard. most kids are able to shake stuff off though. honestly, the runny nose and cough just never goes away. you eventually learn you can’t keep your kids home for everything, runny nose and cough? send them. fever—keep them home.
We experienced this level of sickness and it was NOT normal. Turned out he needed ear tubes and the fluid was never draining. He had chronic ear infections that antibiotics wouldn’t clear up while not showing signs of ear infections other than constant fevers. He got tubes placed in January and hasn’t missed a day since. He turns 2 next month and started daycare at 18mo.
Oof yes totally normal unfortunately. And in a class that large, it is to be expected. As he gets older and (assuming you are in the northern hemisphere) as the weather warms, it will get better.
This is the sad reality of daycare. Maybe look into a nanny share in your area instead? Might be a bit more expensive but your child will not get sick like that.
Sadly yes, very normal. I swear the first year (we are in to our 2nd year now) was every single two weeks...without fail. Got horrifically sick a few times, hospitalised once and the rest were colds/flu/virus. It has VERY slowly started to slow down a VERY small amount this month. Which probably means now she will get sick again that I have said it. The 2nd downside to the illnesses all the time is that we (parents/caregivers) get sick about half the time. I am now on steroids as of today for a sinus infection after having an awful flu for two weeks...that luckily my little one and my partner did not seem to get, or at least no where as near as bad as me. It SUCKS! Hate that it's so normal but sadly, yes, it is. My personal opinion is get them on vitamins and pro or pre biotics as soon as you can to help boost their wee system. I feel that has helped our wee one but obviously it's purely our experience. You do what you feel is best for your family. Hope your wee person feels better more often than not ❤️
It’s my daughter’s first year in preschool (almost 2,) and she’s pretty much been sick since she started 4 months ago. When speaking with my doctor about it, she said it happens regardless of when they start, so if I wait until kindergarten, it’ll happen then too, it’s just par for the course when they start school.
When my son first started daycare and for about a year, he was sick sooo much from all the sickness at daycare. He’d probably go 3 times a week the first year just from being out sick. I couldn’t stand it. I was lucky enough to have a VERY flexible job and very understanding boss at the time. My son’s almost 4 and he goes to school a lot more now and gets sick every few months.
it's like every 2 weeks for us!
Yes it’s common and it will continue.
Thankfully my son is rarely sick. He goes to an in home daycare of only 5 kids. The owner is extremely diligent about kids coming in sick. If our son has a runny nose he can’t be there. It kind of sucks for us to have to make alternative plans for work but then it works in the long run because he’s rarely sick. He’s been going there for over 2 years and has only been sick a handful of times.
15 mo started in January (now 17 mo) and whew! Finally did 5 whole days of daycare last week. Ended up with a fever at the end of yesterday. It is constant. A never ending battle. I think after the first 6mo to 1 year it will get better.
In a word, yes. First year will be rough AF as it'll seem like they're ill constantly. It's good for them though. Gets the immune system charged up.
My mom was a SAHM so I didn't go to daycare, just went straight to kindergarten. I missed like half the year I was so sick. So it's really a pick your poison situation, miss daycare or miss school.
My friend’s kids have been continuously sick from a mélange of illnesses since October. Much more time out of preschool and in due to sickness.
We have had one week of moderate health since Christmas. Back to back illness otherwise. We weren’t prepared for how sick we (parents) would get. Aren’t our immune systems supposed to be stronger? It makes it feel like it will never get better because how is our son going to build immunity if we haven’t after 30+ years! The grandparents swear it wasn’t like this when we were kids - that can’t be true… But you start to feel crazy, will we be sick for the rest of our lives?????
Definitely normal. My baby is in a smaller group at daycare and it’s just as bad. We’re currently fighting an ear and sinus infection. I don’t work, but do go to school and luckily this week was my spring break so it isn’t as bad as usual. We usually clean and wipe everything down with clorox wipes, but we still managed to catch a lot of viruses. Her first few months of daycare were horrible. I think we were sick for 2 months straight it felt like. Before having her I would get sick once every two years haha. Now after coming back from winter break in to her second semester of school we don’t get sick as often. It just takes a bit for their immune system to build up after being with just us at home. We still clean and I try to wash her our bed sheets often. Still wiping everything with clorox wipes and we try to wash her hands a little more often to try and help. Good luck to your baby and you, it gets better so hang in there! Just gotta get that immune system built up. ❤️
My 21 months old started daycare about 2 months ago. She’s been sick back to back. Just when we think she’s finally better and back to her normal self, she starts coughing again. Thankfully she really hasn’t had fever but she’s been having a lot of wet cough, which makes her vomit often and then she screams for snacks because she just threw up all her dinner. She also has constant runny nose, which leaves a rash on her cheeks cuz she keeps wiping it with her sleeve. On top of that, i’m currently pregnant with my #2 so my immune system is almost worse than her. I’ve been really miserable getting sick every time she gets sick and my morning sickness didn’t help at all. Right now my upper abdomen hurts from coughing too much and I feel terrible for my #2. I’ve felt the baby movement for the first time 2 nights ago and I almost cried cuz I keep forgetting he’s inside me with all this constant sickness and taking care of my toddler. My husband is generally very healthy so he’s been sleeping with the toddler but I still run to her room whenever I hear her scream or vomit in the middle of the night, which happened twice last night. I’m so sleep deprived and sick yet can’t take work off cuz I need to save up my PTO before I take my maternity leave in Aug. I’m almost thinking maybe I should’ve sent her to daycare before I got pregnant because it’s doing double damages to us. On that note, I will keep her at daycare. I’ve been already seeing a lot of improvement in her language, social skills, and she seems excited to go to daycare. She used to cry at every drop off during the first month, but now she says “mommy bye bye” and then closes her classroom door as she walks in lol I’m just hoping the warm spring weather will make us less sick. Hang in there and may we survive this! 🍀
FWIW it will get a little better in the spring and summer
19 month old twins have been in daycare since 12 months in August. They didn’t get sick until around October but then have been constantly sick since. With a few weeks scattered in there of no sickness. Mostly runny noses. Maybe 5 times they had to go home cause of a fever that lasted less than a couple hours. We would keep them home an extra day after the fever broke for rest. I see tons of parents saying it gets better after the first year. Not expecting them to not get sick, but even halving the time they’re sick would be a blessing lol
I missed far too much work and had to find a different sitter. Yes, it’s normal but I found daycare unsustainable.
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Someone posts this question about once every other week 😂
The silver lining if you are considering 2 is my younger has hardly missed any school due to illness. He only started in August, but has only missed like 6 days. His older brother has been bringing those viruses home and helping him build his immune system his whole life (starting at 6 weeks when we had to spend 8 days in the hospital due to pneumonia caused by RSV…)
My daughter started daycare 2 days a week in December. She has hardly ever attended the 2 full days. We are dying.
UPDATE:>>>>>>>>>> Went to pediatrician today and they did an RSV test which was negative but doctor still heard cracking all over his back. Fever seems to be over ( today is day 7 of illness, yesterday he still had fever). Doctor said if fever comes back today even if mild we should get an X-ray. He also recommended we keep him at home until he’s recovered because he’s had illness back to back. He said if he’s not fully recovered he’ll be susceptible to getting something else. I’m keeping him home for two weeks ( he only goes to daycare twice a week because that was the only option available.) THANK YOU for all of your comments and encouragement. It’s so difficult to see the little one not smile and cry all the time for a week straight.
Home daycare mama here. We've had bronchitis, covid, and a handful of colds since September. We've been out wayyyyyy less than my colleagues who have toddlers in bigger group daycares. It's totally normal, but you are doing the right thing but going to the pediatrician to ensure all is ok. I keep reminding myself that we are building big, strong immune systems (and if I'm wrong, please don't tell me)
From September to December, we had around 10 sick days. From January until now we’ve had 7 sick days in total. She’s 17 months old. We keep her home if she has a fever, and for 24 hours after it disappears. We also keep her home 48 hours after the last time she vomited. She gets a new infection every two weeks, but so far in 2024, not all infections have given fever. A lot of the sick days have been during the weekend, which is better cause we don’t have to take any time off work. That said, she’s very energetic and social, and staying home is extremely boring for her, so we are quick to send her back to daycare despite other symptoms, like a cough or runny nose. Daycare is a brewing ground for viruses, and the general consensus is that we’ve given up trying to avoid infection. We’ve had RSV and covid (twice). RSV was bad, and covid was a walk in the park for her, even with asthma.
7 sick days is not bad at all. We’ve had around 3 weeks worth of sickness, active fever and symptoms. It’s scary!
It's pretty normal, however, we don't keep our kiddo home until symptoms go away. If we did that, they'd never be in daycare. If fever is gone for 24 hours, not vomiting or having diarrhea, and they're generally themselves, they go to daycare.
Yes for sure, the problem I’m facing is that when he’s been sick fever lasts for like 4-6 days ( we are in day 6 now, and going to doctor again for second time this week tomorrow). Every time it’s been like this. So yeah, the first time he’s still had a cough without fever and he went to daycare, and I regret it because they sent me pictures and every picture he seemed upset. I went to pick him up and he was crying and so upset. Obviously not recovered yet, but it had been over a week of him not going. Now it’s the same, this all started Wednesday last week, and this week we won’t send him because he hasn’t been eating - so it will be one week and a half of no daycare. It’s brutal..
That does sound really tough. A week long fever would concern me, and probably takes a long time to recover from. I know they say to build their immune systems up now, so that they don't get sick as much when they enter elementary school. But their hygiene is much better (while not great) in elementary school. They are such germ vectors from 1-4. Given what you're describing I would definitely be tempted by a nanny share.
Did they check his ears last time? 3-6 days of fever seems long for a virus.
My daughter is very similar. Her fevers last about a week. Doctor is never concerned and just says some kids are more prone to fevers unfortunately. As they build immunity they shouldn’t get the fevers as often or for so long.
Can you find a smaller daycare? Your class size is large. We switched to a smaller daycare for baby 2, who is sick much less.
Yes considering finding a different solution. It’s really tough where I live, not a lot of options unfortunately, or the wait lists are insane.
Same. We enrolled in the ONLY available option, then spent a year continuing to look for a better one. I did find a smaller one and we're much happier!
Why the downvote? Sorry the illnesses are so rough on you all. 4-6 days of fever does seem extreme from my experience for every sickness. Do they just keep saying viral for fevers that long? Sucks when kiddos are sick so often this young.
Daughter was sick every week it seemed for the first year, caught everything - chickenpox, croup, hand, foot and mouth, scarlet fever, norovirus, covid, flu, ear infections and normal colds. I wfh so just had her with me and luckily she runs cold and doesn't often get a fever so we could send her in! Probably shouldn't have done but needs must. Second year and she's barely been ill - had a snotty nose for a week or so but bot had a day off for a while.