It stopped for us around 2.5. I would say age 4 months to 1.5 we were sick every month. After 1.5 it went to every other month. 2.5 it went to around ever 4 months. HFM was the worst!

Depends on your kids. Mine were rarely sick, especially #1. #1 never had an ear infection or strep or pink eye. #2 had a few ear infections but that was about it.

Anonymous wrote:When your kid graduates from daycare.

+1. Or you pull them out and get a nanny. It’s the long hours of daycare, close quarters for sleeping, eating and diaper changes, and too many kids. We had non-stop illnesses with our oldest in daycare and then virtually none when our second came along and we got a nanny. Now both kids are in elementary school and the daycare kid and nanny kid both get sick at the same rate. The “daycare builds immunity” thing was not true for us.

Anonymous wrote:We switched our child to an 80% outdoor preschool two years ago (due to covid) and the colds and illness basically stopped. He still gets sick every few months, but it's more like 2-3 times a year. When he was in a indoor daycare/preschool, the illnesses were at least monthly. (I realize we are lucky to live in a community where the weather allows this.)

Our pediatrician has told us that if they don't get it in preschool, they'll get it in elementary school and that it's actually worse to get it in elementary since being sick a lot can lead to learning loss (which matters less in preschool years). We'll see what happens in kinder next year.

This also made a huge difference for us - we switched to eastern ridge in Vienna during covid and illness has been pretty minimal from 2-4, considering. I’m not sure if it’s the age or outdoors or probably a combo. But it certainly reduced. Sorry op I know it’s hard!

We switched our child to an 80% outdoor preschool two years ago (due to covid) and the colds and illness basically stopped. He still gets sick every few months, but it's more like 2-3 times a year. When he was in a indoor daycare/preschool, the illnesses were at least monthly. (I realize we are lucky to live in a community where the weather allows this.)

Our pediatrician has told us that if they don't get it in preschool, they'll get it in elementary school and that it's actually worse to get it in elementary since being sick a lot can lead to learning loss (which matters less in preschool years). We'll see what happens in kinder next year.

I am sure it’s hard during Covid. I have 3 kids (8, 6 and 3). The first was never sick until she was 14 months (home with nanny) and started a morning program. The first year of morning preschool was constant cold (maybe some fever occasionally). She had a runny nose for 5 months straight… thankfully, never needed to miss school much. Second child had her first cold at 2 months and was much more sick as a baby. As a result, she was mostly fine after turning 1.
Last kid had various illnesses and was not in morning preschool until September and has been wearing a mask until 2 weeks ago… I don’t think he ever really got sick and the only days he missed school was because of quarantines…

Not sure if this is good news or bad news, but my kid has continued to get regular viruses from preschool. She was home for a full year from Covid so it might be partly due to that, but before that she was in daycare for a year and a half, so it's not like she's had no prior exposure.

This is even with masks. I've been told it gets better around Kindergarten and then much better by 1st or 2nd grade.

I feel like this is one of the ways that people with very young kids have gotten extra screwed by Covid because I also think we are forced to be much more limited in what we do with a sick kid than people were before. When I describe how many days of school my kid has missed for for random viruses to people with older kids, they are amazed. Like the idea of having to keep your kid home an entire week for a cold is not typical. But Covid precautions make it really hard to send them back any sooner. My DD had a cold that led to lingering cough in the fall and the amount of back and forth I had to go through to get her back in school (multiple negative Covid tests, multiple doctor's notes and explanations) with the cough was exhausting. And that was for ONE virus. It's really frustrating. I always keep my kid home when sick but the expectation that children this age only go to school when they are 100% symptom free is really unreasonable. No fevers, colds, or vomiting at school. The other stuff? It's a bit of a judgment call but some kids just have runny noses for months at a time, likely due to a combo of allergies and predisposition. What are those parents supposed to do?

Anonymous wrote:I thought backup care does not allow childcare givers to come in if the baby is sick since COVID. How did tou guys convince them to come?

That was never an issue with our backup care through DH’s work.

When your kid graduates from daycare.

I thought backup care does not allow childcare givers to come in if the baby is sick since COVID. How did tou guys convince them to come?

This is the worst year I’ve ever seen. I don’t think our toddler has made it a full week without some illness since September. Luckily, DH’s job has back-up care as a perk but it’s not available when our child wakes up sick (needs 24 hours to get a babysitter in place) and we’ve used all our vacation and PTO until next year.

My kid started in daycare at 4 months old. It was rough until she was about 20 months: multiple colds, viruses, roseola, hand foot and mouth and then some. We really stretched our leave thin because often we would get sick too. It got a lot better after that though.

My DDs both started daycare at 12wo. The oldest was out at least once a month for nearly her first 2 years, but part of her problem was chronic ear infections...although we also encountered our share of colds, norovirus, and HFM. This was all pre-covid..
My younger DD is nearly 2 and has had a run of the mill cold, RSV, and an ear infection. She hasn't had nearly the number of illnesses as older DD, and I do think the more stringent protocols during the pandemic for cleaning and exclusion have helped a bit. That bout with RSV was brutal, though.
My oldest is in Kindergarten and she hasn't been sick in over 3 years.

I pulled my child out of daycare in part because of them near constant illnesses. Look into a nanny share.

It feels like we are sick every nice weekend, it's getting to be a real problem to miss this much work, and I'm just so so so SO tired of being in my house all the time, especially when other people with no or older kids are back to having social lives and going nice places. We haven't even had covid, the day care sicknesses are just endless. It's been almost constant colds/viruses since May 2021 and I feel like everything I've looked forward to in months has had to be canceled at the last minute. I can't afford to quit my job but I'm feeling really hopeless that I'm spending a third spring cooped up at home.