Second baby- take germy toddler out of day care?

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I’m pregnant with my second and my current 18 month old goes to day care. She started in January and still going thru the sickness phase (not sure that ends..)

I’m wondering if parents consider taking their toddlers out of daycare for at least the first weeks / month they have a newborn? It will be a Fall newborn, and I’m just thinking how likely the baby will get flu/covid/rsv if my other kid stays in day care…what do people do?

And if you pull them out, how do you cover care? Hire a temp nanny or try to pull it off urself? 😭😂

[Anonymous]

I didn’t. I thought it was important for the first to have consistency in their schedule and caregivers and it gave me time to spend one on one with the baby as well and recoup from childbirth. We didn’t really have any issues with flu/rsv but maybe we just got lucky.

[Anonymous]

Toddlers are germy no matter what (my 18 mo got viruses somehow when we were social distancing even) so I would not go out of my way to keep one home to spend even more time in close proximity with a newborn.

[Anonymous]

We kept toddler in daycare for baby born in December and while baby did get colds, all was fine. It might have helped that we got Covid in September and RSV in November before baby’s arrival.

I don’t know any second time moms who decided to take their first out of daycare/preschool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t. I thought it was important for the first to have consistency in their schedule and caregivers and it gave me time to spend one on one with the baby as well and recoup from childbirth. We didn’t really have any issues with flu/rsv but maybe we just got lucky.

Same. I didn’t have a partner who got parental leave so it really would have been me solo parenting a 2yo and a newborn. I needed the breaks daycare provided.

[Anonymous]

Toddlers need consistency. IMO you would really upset their routine by doing this. Their world will change dramatically when baby #2 arrives so keeping a familiar routine will be good for them.

[Anonymous]

I'm delaying preschool for my 18 month old as we're ttc and high risk ( and already had multiple losses and failed fertility treatment). If thiw ivf round is successful we'll have a jan baby. So far we've avoided any illness by having family watch and I'm going to do an outdoor once a week preschool next year to add in some socializing ( and soccer). Mine has a Sept birthday so will still get 3 years of preschool before k.

[Anonymous]

Kept my then 19-month-old in daycare when his brother was born in late November. He needed the consistency, and he was such a needy toddler that I couldn’t focus on the baby when he was home. A few months later he gave me and the baby a bad cold, which was not fun, but I still don’t regret keeping him in daycare. Just make sure everyone is up-to-date on vaccinations. Get the RSV shot in your 3rd trimester, plus Covid, pertussis, and flu shots for everyone in the family.

[Anonymous]

Most daycares are not going to let you un-enroll and re-enroll at will. If you do pull your kid out of daycare, would you even be able to get the spot back later? Or would you just pay for using it and not send the kid? Something to think about.

[Anonymous]

I had my baby in January and he promptly got rsv from my toddler and ended up in the NICU. The doctor told us to basically not worry about the baby now catching COVID as well, it's usually not as bad in babies, but that we should be careful about the flu. But I think you can get both the flu and rsv vaccine yourself? If I could go back in time I would still take the risk and keep the toddler in daycare. As others have said, consistency is key and the toddler was already stressed out enough about the new baby. Plus rsv is really easy to get, so you still run the risk getting it elsewhere. But I really, really, really wish I could have gotten the vaccine while pregnant.

[Anonymous]

My pediatrician recommended our daycare toddler change clothes and wash hands as soon as he got home from daycare. I am sure we washed hands but do not think we changed his clothes. Baby did not get sick...older kid was not often sick either though.

[Anonymous]

No no no. Toddler will need stucture and sonme “normalcy”. Their world is about to turn upside down.

I had a 5 year old in Kindergarten and was so thankful!!!

[Anonymous]

I did not but my toddler got a terrible respiratory virus with a day of bringing our second born home. We isolated the baby in her bedroom with an adult and my son was isolated in his bedroom with another adult until his fever broke. Adults wore masks. Second born is a November bday. It was rough but luckily no one else got sick.

[Anonymous]

1. If your neonate runs a significant fever they get a spinal tap
2. If you don't continue to pay for your spot it might not be waiting for you at the end

Good luck

[Anonymous]

It’s all a matter of preference/personal risk tolerance. I had a high risk pregnancy and history of losses, so I did decide to take my toddler out of almost a year of school for the end of my pregnancy and first few months of my twins life. It was fine, I hired college baby sitters to run around with him for a few hours a day and spent a lot of extra time with him myself. I think he overall enjoyed the extra time home, and he integrated back into a preschool class fine when we were ready for germ exposure (and the whole family was sick within 2 weeks, which personally made me glad we waited a bit).