Hi. I’m father of a 2 years old boy, and my wife and I both work. Everything was fine until he joined a nursery 6 months ago. Since then he’s been catching colds and fevers and whatnot almost every single week. Then he has to stay home obviously so one of us misses work, then one of us gets sick, then we all get sick. Tissue paper everywhere, everyone coughing and sneezing all night. Then it gets back to normal for a couple of days, then boom, sick again. This situation is slowly but surely starting to affect my work and my marriage. Doctors and nursery personnel tell us it’s normal and it’s a “process”. Anyone else here going through or went through this? Does it get better?
36 comments
Pretty normal being around other sick kids all the time
Normal probably, that’s how kids build up their immunity system — by being exposed to new bugs.
Though the frequency should be “very often” but not exactly constant. If the kid truly is only healthy 2 days a week for the past 6 months, maybe get a second opinion. Do you keep a journal?
Yep, totally normal. All of my co-workers with kids are in a constant battle with this.
It is normal, and it is a process. Your son was probably not previously exposed to so many people/viruses. He is building immunity. This is normal. Little kids are also so unhygienic; they constantly have their fingers in their nose/mouth/alternating between the two…
It is rough and will take a while but I think you’ll find he gets sick less each year. Unfortunately having so many kids together creates a lot of chances to catch colds/viruses, so be prepared. He will probably get the flu every year.
2 is a great age to teach proper hand washing techniques and to cover one’s mouth when coughing/sneezing. At home when caring for him when he’s sick, you can mask and that may bring down your risk of getting what he has.
It does get better. I work for an international kindergarten and the older kids are sick less.
But also depends on the child. Some are sick all the time, others rarely.
And me as a teacher I’m sick all the time too. Once they get to elementary age it’s significantly better.
Encourage your child to wash their hands with soap when you get home. And do the same. I never eat without washing my hands with soap, try to not touch my face etc.
Doesn’t seem totally abnormal – especially given you and your wife are working as well. That’s a lot of exposure to a lot of people, and colds etc that you and your wife used to ignore are all of a sudden much more annoying. And now we get the winter rounds of illness that are apparently worse because of several years of decreased transmission.
Basically my tips are:
– humidifier, super handy when the dry air makes coughs worse at night
– Manuka honey, do some reading and then buy the most expensive you can afford
– see if you can get some bone broth made. It’s really handy when sick (watch salt content for 2 year old)
– netipot or saline nasal spray. Don’t overdo this one but it’s handy before bed when things are bead.
They say the first year of daycare is the worst. Best of luck 😬
It will get better. Soon he will have Superman immunity.
Just wait until to have more kids. It becomes like a game of musical chair for who will be getting sick.
This is normal literally everywhere people put their kids in daycare. Kids go to day care, exposed to new germs, get sick. Day cares is literally a germ factory. Give it a year or so and things should start getting better as their immune system strengthens and they get through lots of the early childhood sicknesses
Completely normal. Our daughter was sick constantly through the first 2 years, her not having a runny nose was maybe 1-2 days a month. now that she’s at the end of the 3rd year class, it seems like she’s finally passed it. Still gets sick but maybe once a month or two, and it passes fairly quickly.
Normal. It gets better every year though.
Welcome to daycare life. We went through the same thing. it normalizes after about 6 months or so. Our kid was home constantly during that time. We haven’t really had anything like it since then. My major regret is not having a clearer work policy on when I could and couldn’t stay home from work. There are/should be days off for taking care of sick kids that are separate from your normal sick leave.
Another thing is, there are places called “fever daycares” or something. They’re meant for ill kids whose parents cannot take time off to stay. We did it once or twice when we were desperate, because why would you send your kid to be around other sick kids who might have something worse? They tend to be very low student number and hard to get into, but worth checking out if you both absolutely have to work.
Also have a 2.5 year daugher in nursery school since shortly before her first birthday. This is normal and takes some time. We also had this phase where we all needed to go through all the kids viruses 😀
Yeah it sucks but it’s totally normal.
I think my child caught it all from nursery. Even herpes. And some nasty influenzas that even I am not immune to. Just complete the mandated vaccines and your child should be ok.
Yepp this is a totally normal. Both of my kiddos have gone through daycare and both were seemingly constantly sick with something for the first year to year and a half.
Happens literally everywhere across the world
It gets better at around 3 years old
Immunity shall commence!
This is incredibly normal. Like. Any country is going to have the same experience.
2 is still young, but you can start teaching and showing your son that he should be coughing and sneezing into his elbow. Get into a routine of washing hands when you come in from outside. Get into a routine of washing hands before eating. And if he does that open mouth cough/sneeze in your face thing, mimic sneezing into your elbow and have him practice, too.
You aren’t going to stop the colds, but at least you can start getting him in the habit of good hygiene. The same goes for you and your wife, too. Don’t cough or sneeze into your hands. Wash your hands when you get home. Don’t touch your face after touching random outdoor things.
And colds, etc. mutate. That’s why we continue to catch them.
Normal. I’ve lost track of where one sickness ends and another begins. I’ve been in a constant state of illness since December last year from my two kids who pick up every germ possible from kindergarten. We’ve had covid, influenza, rsv, mycoplasma pneumonia, conjunctivitis, ear infections, norovirus, and a few plain old colds. Kindergarten sent home a message last week saying strep, hand foot mouth, and some other sore throat/fever illness are now circulating. I’m ready to get off Mr. Baikin’s Wild Ride.
We are going through exactly the same thing. I even wondered if these sicknesses were hitting me harder than normal because I was raised in the US and therefore had been exposed to slightly different strains of these viruses and things growing up, because surely this could not be normal… But, after hearing the experiences of a few Japanese friends, I am beginning to think it is actually reality for many parents of toddlers. I had no idea we would all be THIS sick, THIS frequently — it’s near-constant. These are not just minor colds but full-blown sicknesses to the point of being unable to work much of the time. I just want you to know you aren’t alone.
Our son started nursery in September, so we are only 4.5 months in… Already it’s taking a big toll mentally.
We can do this! Hang in there. I’ve heard that it lasts 6 months to a couple of years but goes as quickly as it came. I have no idea how people have multiple kids.
Edit: Just want to add that we’re actually planning on keeping him home from daycare on January 4th and 5th to prevent us all getting sick for a trip were taking from the 9th. That’s how desperate we’ve gotten, lol
A lot depends on the individual kid, of course, but just speaking generally, the immunities your kid is building now will help him later. I have three (now grown) kids, and our daycare experience was similar — everyone caught whatever was going around, and we spent a small fortune on those babysitting services that specializes in sick-kid care when they were too sick for their regular daycare. But I noticed In elementary school that my “daycare kids” got sick far less often than their friends who had stay-at-home parents. Building immunity was not the reason we sent our kids to daycare, of course, but it was a really nice silver lining.
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Completely normal.
Welcome to parenting.
My girl is 4 and I am in the same situation this year. I was wondering too if it’s normal, but doctors and parents keep telling us it is. Now our life it’s basically 3 days yochien 4 days fever, pretty much all the time after coming back from the summer vacation. She barely went to school.
Completely normal! My kid has been in for a year here now, and it’s happening less frequently, but still every other month or so. I get hit much worse than her too, if she passes them on; my husband seems to get off scot-free with most of it!
Welcome to owning a small child. It’s on page 17 of the manual. This is normal operational status.
But don’t worry – it’ll taper off as the child enters approx 1000 days of use.
(Also, this takes most new owners by surprise so don’t feel bad for getting a bit of a shock yourself)
Totally normal.
You can lower the chances of you catching the cold from your child by taking Vitamin C, eating healthy, sleeping well, washing your hands after handling your child’s snot etc.
Wearing a mask is mostly effective when the sick person wears one, but a mask and glasses (if you have them) might help stop some spit droplets from hitting a membrane in your eye, nose, or mouth after a baby sneeze, which, hey, lowers your chances.
But the fact of the matter is: your baby is going to get sick a lot. Why? Because a lot of families don’t have the luxury of staying home to take care of their sick child so they just send them to daycare to spread their cold around.
It’s annoying, but proper hand washing, proper nutrition, and proper sleep schedules will go a long way to prevent you from catching it.
And when you have one in nursery school, one in elementary school, and one in junior high school, then you get all the diseases and it feels like a continuing round robin of sickness. It gets better but it is very normal to get rounds of this every time something. Goes through the schools
Dude yeah it’s annoying af. My son is almost two and has been in nursery since April. He’s probably missed an entire 6 weeks in those 9 months, making his mother or me miss work. It’s a double whammy too considering we had to send him to a private school which is crazy expensive comparatively to the public ones. You’re not alone brother.
Normal. My child went through this during daycare (she started at 1 yr old). The frequency eventually tapers of through out the years. She’s grade 1 now.
It’ll still happen but much much less frequent
My friend had exactly the same problem, only with 2 kids who were alternating when each was sick. When they finally got “used to it” around 1.5-2 years later, with just a bit of sick every so often, they decided to move countries completely. Guess what? They have to start the same problem from scratch in the new country.
I tell him that at least his kids will be superman when they grow up.
It’s usual. You can make it a little less frequent by having your child wash his hands with soap every time he comes home. Our child went through nursery school for three years and got sick every year, but not every week. We only picked something up once, though, when my spouse got influenza from our child.
First time, huh?
I went through the same thing, sometimes back to back colds for a month, it’s miserable but it is what it is.