Were we always sick like this in past decades?

[Anonymous]

I very rarely got sick as a kid. I know this because jr high and high school had “perfect attendance” awards and I got them most years. (And no way would my parents have sent me to school sick).

Kids today do seem to get way more illnesses, more often. I think it’s due to the stuff PPs have pointed out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m in my late 30s, and my kids, and our whole household, seem to be sick for about two weeks at a time, at least twice every winter. They’re otherwise very healthy, active kids, and we all get flu shots. It doesn’t seem unique to our family either; my coworkers’ kids and my friends’ kids all seem to be constantly sick as well.

I don’t remember being sick this often when I was a kid, and my parents didn’t seem to get sick much either, though maybe memory plays a role. My parents have also said we weren't sick like this, nor were they sick like this as kids. I grew up in Miami, so I wonder if we were less affected by seasonal illnesses there. I remember having strep throat and some kind of enterovirus, but I don’t remember getting the flu every single winter. Are flu and common colds actually worse now than when I was growing up, or does it just feel that way?

COVID damages the human immune system. It's not rocket science, unfortunately. https://libguides.mskcc.org/CovidImpacts/Immune

[Anonymous]

Covid ruined the world forever. Young people with all the heart attacks and strokes. People sick now 24/7. Its never going to be the same.

[Anonymous]

I didn’t get sick often as a child and I don’t get sick often as an adult. My kids don’t get sick often either. None of this resonates with me.

[Anonymous]

In the past children succumbed to what could be life threatening diseases.

Grandma lived through: whooping cough, yellow fever, Spanish flu, measles, trench foot/mouth,
and more

[Anonymous]

I was sick a lot as a kid - flu, strep (even turned into scarlet fever once), colds, chicken pox, bronchitis and stomach ailments. I don’t get nearly the variety of illnesses now that I did as a kid, but a simple cold seems to last longer. DS, now a young adult, seemed to get sick less as a child than I did.

[Anonymous]

The last time my 10 grader missed a day of school for illness was maybe in 7th grade Maybe?

[Anonymous]

Yes, we were sick.

My Boomer parents had everything except polio. Every area had a school for the deaf full of kids that lost hearing at birth or as babies due to measles or Rubella. Sickly or disabled kids were shunted off into special schools or institutions or kept at home.

As a Millennial, I had 1-2 severe flus, the occasional norovirus, mono that lasted months, pneumonia, and recurrent strep. And I was considered “healthy” because the seasonal colds didn’t give me fevers and I could power through.

I had a SAHM so my mom wasn’t necessarily monitoring us for fevers every day like if we were going to daycare. If we seemed ok enough it was good enough. But both of my siblings had more serious issues - one had asthma (probably from an RSV infection as a baby), and the other was just constitutionally sickly and still is, likely due to a rare genetic disorder closely related to CF. At various times we probably all would have died if not for modern medicine.

My kids have had their share of mystery fevers but on the whole are healthy children. I might not even know every time they were “sick” if I didn’t have Internet and shame enough to check their temps when they seem off.

[Anonymous]

I mean my great grandmother had to live in a TB sanatorium as a kid, so, yes.

John Green's book on TB actually gives a really interesting primer on just how prevalent that disease used to be. I don't think people realize just how many people were going around with these horrible illnesses back before modern medicine (and how much it's still a harsh reality for much of the world).

[Anonymous]

I feel like there is an expectation that we are all healthy and if my child gets a cold and misses school or piano practice or whatever I was to blame. The world thinks I did not avail myself of modern medicine somehow. Children have always gotten colds.

[Anonymous]

I am early 60s and we got the childhood illnesses that there are now vaccines for, like mumps, measles and chicken pox. I don’t remember getting the flu as a kid but my mother had a pretty tough attitude about illness and usually assumed we were faking something so made us go to school anyway. At least that’s how I remember it.

[Anonymous]

I'm 60 and I remember a flu that leveled my entire family for several weeks. I also remember several vomiting illnesses (including one when my brother had to be hospitalized for a few days), sitting in the bathroom with the shower running because I had the croup, and pneumonia (another hospitalization for my brother). Also mumps and chicken pox. And my brother had tons of ear infections and had to have tube inserted. My mother had pneumonia when I was in high school.

I don't think kids are sicker today than they were when you were a kid.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry but I'm thinking covid really messed with everything in everyone. I know young people getting blood clots and strokes all the time. 50 year olds having heart attacks and strokes. This was not the norm prior to covid. The new research coming out is there is long term inflammation reeking havoc on our bodies. It will take a while but I think scientists will know more in a decade or so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m in my late 30s, and my kids, and our whole household, seem to be sick for about two weeks at a time, at least twice every winter. They’re otherwise very healthy, active kids, and we all get flu shots. It doesn’t seem unique to our family either; my coworkers’ kids and my friends’ kids all seem to be constantly sick as well.

I don’t remember being sick this often when I was a kid, and my parents didn’t seem to get sick much either, though maybe memory plays a role. My parents have also said we weren't sick like this, nor were they sick like this as kids. I grew up in Miami, so I wonder if we were less affected by seasonal illnesses there. I remember having strep throat and some kind of enterovirus, but I don’t remember getting the flu every single winter. Are flu and common colds actually worse now than when I was growing up, or does it just feel that way?

everyone is more sick now after covid, it wrecked our immune systems

but no one wants to talk about this

[Anonymous]

Yes people were just as sick. I had strep often as a kid, we all had chicken pox. Our parents generation had measles. Plus colds and flues.

Our generation just likes to talk about things publicly, and has zero “buck it up” mindset. Many parents our age are also spread thin and so when someone gets sick it impacts everyone.