Constant illness - was it like this before?

[Anonymous]

We were sick much more this fall/early winter than usual. 9 y/o DD needed an inhaler to get over a lingering cough, which she's never needed before. Could have just been RSV or something that hit harder than usual, or could be some lingering respiratory weakness from either COVID or years of masking causing a lower immune system.

[Anonymous]

yup sounds normal. They are little germ factories at that age.

I know it sucks as a parent, though.

[Anonymous]

It was always like this. Kids in daycare always had runny noses 100% of the time. Some kids are more prone to spiking fevers, or having prolonged coughs, when they’re sick so for some families it seems more miserable than for others but yes, when my oldest started preschool in 2017 he was sick the entire year. Kids and teachers never wore masks when sick ! Kids returned to preschool at 24 hours fever and vomit free. Their immune systems catch up to reality by elementary school and also they stop shoving dirty toys , or dirty hands, into their mouth around then too.

Oh and for kids who don’t go to preschool , they just get sick constantly in K instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Since originally posting this about a month ago, my kid has had two more fevers, each lasting 4+ days. So we’re up to 13 illnesses in seven months. How do people do this without losing their jobs/minds? Are people seriously taking off work every other week? And if so, how are they not getting fired? I genuinely don’t know what I’m going to do when I have a newborn in a few months and he brings all this crap home to the baby who will have zero immune system. I’m a pretty resilient person in general but am really struggling mentally with this. Sorry if this comes off as whining (per a previous poster), but screaming into the void of an anonymous internet forum is pretty much my only outlet at the moment.

If you are that concerned, perhaps a good starting place is your paediatrician. Kids gonna get kid stuff. Is your kid a careful hand washer for their age? Are they one to stick stuff in their mouth or touch their face constantly?

Facilities can clean and do all the processes and the like, but to some degree, it’s down to your kid, who may just be more susceptible or who may have some habits that can be mitigated. If you KNOW the teachers are lax, then consider masking your kid, if only to lessen them putting fingers and the like in their mouth or touching their face. Review hand washing with them, and tell them to wash their hands before all breaks. Send them with hand sanitizer in their lunch kit. You can do your part if it’s that important to you.

[Anonymous]

It’s kind of crazy the extent to which we’ve all accepted this as normal. It may be common, but it’s definitely not normal or ok. There are reasons we as a society have chosen to do nothing about this issue. And I do mean nothing - no improved air filtration, no sane parental leave (and rollbacks of wfh), no masking requirements for sick teachers or older kids, no subsidizing in-home care, no reducing classroom ratios, literally nothing whatsoever except for letting kids suffer constantly and pumping them full of Motrin and antibiotics over and over and over. This despite the fact that there are now mountains of evidence that viral infections (particularly Covid) can have long-lasting, sometimes permanent health effects. My own kid developed reactive airways (basically a precursor to asthma, for which there is no cure) after a bout with a nasty daycare virus.

The reason we’re doing nothing is because the burdens of all this fall disproportionately on women. OF COURSE there are exceptions, involved fathers, etc., but for the most part, we’re the ones who are expected to do early pickups and stay home nursing sick kids and sacrifice our careers, health, and sanity dealing with the fallout from the shitty options we’ve been given.

Obviously none of this is going to change anytime soon and I live in reality. I know that the underlying reasons don’t really make a difference to my day-to-day. But honestly, we should all demand better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s kind of crazy the extent to which we’ve all accepted this as normal. It may be common, but it’s definitely not normal or ok. There are reasons we as a society have chosen to do nothing about this issue. And I do mean nothing - no improved air filtration, no sane parental leave (and rollbacks of wfh), no masking requirements for sick teachers or older kids, no subsidizing in-home care, no reducing classroom ratios, literally nothing whatsoever except for letting kids suffer constantly and pumping them full of Motrin and antibiotics over and over and over. This despite the fact that there are now mountains of evidence that viral infections (particularly Covid) can have long-lasting, sometimes permanent health effects. My own kid developed reactive airways (basically a precursor to asthma, for which there is no cure) after a bout with a nasty daycare virus.

The reason we’re doing nothing is because the burdens of all this fall disproportionately on women. OF COURSE there are exceptions, involved fathers, etc., but for the most part, we’re the ones who are expected to do early pickups and stay home nursing sick kids and sacrifice our careers, health, and sanity dealing with the fallout from the shitty options we’ve been given.

Obviously none of this is going to change anytime soon and I live in reality. I know that the underlying reasons don’t really make a difference to my day-to-day. But honestly, we should all demand better.

How do you propose we fix the basic fact that kids need exposure to germs to develop their immune systems? Do you think it's better to limit their germ exposure significantly, and let every virus be a novel virus when they're 10, 11, 12 years old? And then they miss a week of school with fevers and whatnot once a month when they're 12 as opposed to 2?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s kind of crazy the extent to which we’ve all accepted this as normal. It may be common, but it’s definitely not normal or ok. There are reasons we as a society have chosen to do nothing about this issue. And I do mean nothing - no improved air filtration, no sane parental leave (and rollbacks of wfh), no masking requirements for sick teachers or older kids, no subsidizing in-home care, no reducing classroom ratios, literally nothing whatsoever except for letting kids suffer constantly and pumping them full of Motrin and antibiotics over and over and over. This despite the fact that there are now mountains of evidence that viral infections (particularly Covid) can have long-lasting, sometimes permanent health effects. My own kid developed reactive airways (basically a precursor to asthma, for which there is no cure) after a bout with a nasty daycare virus.

The reason we’re doing nothing is because the burdens of all this fall disproportionately on women. OF COURSE there are exceptions, involved fathers, etc., but for the most part, we’re the ones who are expected to do early pickups and stay home nursing sick kids and sacrifice our careers, health, and sanity dealing with the fallout from the shitty options we’ve been given.

Obviously none of this is going to change anytime soon and I live in reality. I know that the underlying reasons don’t really make a difference to my day-to-day. But honestly, we should all demand better.

How do you propose we fix the basic fact that kids need exposure to germs to develop their immune systems? Do you think it's better to limit their germ exposure significantly, and let every virus be a novel virus when they're 10, 11, 12 years old? And then they miss a week of school with fevers and whatnot once a month when they're 12 as opposed to 2?

The hygiene hypothesis has been thoroughly debunked. It applies only to exposure to bacteria, not viruses (which is 95% of daycare illness). It’s amazing that people still believe this stuff. Bombarding the immune system with large doses of viral pathogens all the time does not “help” the immune system, in fact it can do the opposite. Per Johns Hopkins: “Almost no virus is protective against allergic disease or other immune diseases. In fact, infections with viruses mostly either contribute to the development of those diseases or worsen them.” https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/is-the-hygiene-hypothesis-true

If constant exposure to viruses strengthened the immune system, parents wouldn’t be getting sick so frequently along with their kids, because they would have developed immunity themselves as a result of childhood exposure.

[Anonymous]

My kids are in HS and college. It’s always been this way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are in HS and college. It’s always been this way.

+1. I used to joke to my pediatrician that she should book us a weekly appointment. It gets better when they are in late elementary.

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry, that sucks. You should get the RSV vaccine while pregnant. I did this past fall. My older child has a nanny but still caught 3 colds over the winter, probably from library storytime. She was barely symptomatic, just a runny nose and sneezes. My newborn picked up one of the colds but it was very minor for him.

You may also want to consider switching daycares. Some have better hygiene than others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s kind of crazy the extent to which we’ve all accepted this as normal. It may be common, but it’s definitely not normal or ok. There are reasons we as a society have chosen to do nothing about this issue. And I do mean nothing - no improved air filtration, no sane parental leave (and rollbacks of wfh), no masking requirements for sick teachers or older kids, no subsidizing in-home care, no reducing classroom ratios, literally nothing whatsoever except for letting kids suffer constantly and pumping them full of Motrin and antibiotics over and over and over. This despite the fact that there are now mountains of evidence that viral infections (particularly Covid) can have long-lasting, sometimes permanent health effects. My own kid developed reactive airways (basically a precursor to asthma, for which there is no cure) after a bout with a nasty daycare virus.

The reason we’re doing nothing is because the burdens of all this fall disproportionately on women. OF COURSE there are exceptions, involved fathers, etc., but for the most part, we’re the ones who are expected to do early pickups and stay home nursing sick kids and sacrifice our careers, health, and sanity dealing with the fallout from the shitty options we’ve been given.

Obviously none of this is going to change anytime soon and I live in reality. I know that the underlying reasons don’t really make a difference to my day-to-day. But honestly, we should all demand better.

How do you propose we fix the basic fact that kids need exposure to germs to develop their immune systems? Do you think it's better to limit their germ exposure significantly, and let every virus be a novel virus when they're 10, 11, 12 years old? And then they miss a week of school with fevers and whatnot once a month when they're 12 as opposed to 2?

The hygiene hypothesis has been thoroughly debunked. It applies only to exposure to bacteria, not viruses (which is 95% of daycare illness). It’s amazing that people still believe this stuff. Bombarding the immune system with large doses of viral pathogens all the time does not “help” the immune system, in fact it can do the opposite. Per Johns Hopkins: “Almost no virus is protective against allergic disease or other immune diseases. In fact, infections with viruses mostly either contribute to the development of those diseases or worsen them.” https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/is-the-hygiene-hypothesis-true

If constant exposure to viruses strengthened the immune system, parents wouldn’t be getting sick so frequently along with their kids, because they would have developed immunity themselves as a result of childhood exposure.

That has nothing to do with the fact that exposure to a new virus family for the first time- like, the first time you ever get exposed to an enterovirus- your body has no idea what to do with it and has a strong response. If you're exposed to a similar virus again later, your response is muted. We aren't talking about being protective against the development of asthma or eczema. That's completely irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

In 2023, my 4-year-old caught 16 viruses in total: norovirus, Pink Eye, BUM WORMS (that was fun!), endless colds/fevers, and random respiratory viruses. In 2024, he's on his third or fourth cold of the year.

He goes to a part-time PreK with a strict illness policy. There are about 15 kids in his classroom; they are strict with handwashing and have multiple individual bathrooms. The teachers use Lysol wipes regularly. These kids just constantly share bugs. I work from home for this reason, I can't take an in-office job because I have nearly exhausted my sick leave (I think I have 40 hours left, and 120 vacation hours right now). My sick leave could be easily wiped out with another random respiratory bug.

[Anonymous]

I just want to say I feel you and could not relate to this post more.