How often does your preschooler get sick?

[LoveKnowsNoBounds]

Good morning,

My 5 year old little man is frequently sick. He seems to pick up something every fortnight or three weeks. I started him on a probiotic and he lasted a month.

My family are concerned his preschool is causing all the problems, they blame not cleaning the toys perhaps. How frequently does your preschooler get sick? Should I be worried?

I'm trying to do one day a week casual teaching and with all the sickness it's hard to even do that.

[~Kim~]

It's not the toys. Its the new environment with bugs he hasn't previously been exposed to. His immune systen will build up and he'll be fine.

[Mak]

I have found that the first year we exposed the kids to more people the sicker they were! I put it down to more exposure and it certainly has not been that bad again. My GP had mentioned that it was for us the first winter at childcare particularly but that historically this had happened later when kids hit kindy or prep. It is a bit of a pain at the time but it is normal for their immune systems to have to learn resistance to common colds etc. I tend to think it is more the kids coughing, their possibly dodgy personal hygiene and being sent when they are unwell rather than a lack of cleaning too. My experience is it is normal but a difficult phase to manage. Nothing like sharing germs! xx

[LuluHB]

Neither of my girls have ever been to daycare or anywhere else where they got significant exposure to other kids. When Iz started kindy last year we had the worst winter ever - Iz seemed to go a constant circuit of cold, improving, worse, improving, ok, new cold etc. El didn't have a great year, but nowhere near as bad as Iz and I think that's because she was home without so much contact. Neither of the girls had really been sick with common viruses/colds at all before then so it was a huge shock. El is at kindy this year so I imagine we'll have a rough year with her too.

I think that while unpleasant and difficult to deal with, its pretty normal. TBH I'm more concerned about the effect this will have on #3 than I am on my "big" girls.

[fionas]

DD1 is almost 5 and barely ever gets sick. She had a tummy upset when she was 2 and that's the only sickness I can remember. She goes to childcare/kinder two days a week. She's never had antibiotics and I haven't had any since I was a child and I've been told that some kids/adults are just more robust than others.

DD2 seems to have a constant snotty nose. She also goes to childcare two days a week. But she's not had anything apart from that.

I don't have a particularly clean house - it's not what I'd call dirty, but not clean either. I say a bit of dirt is good for their immunity

[~~Snoogans~~]

Miss H never really got sick until she started Kindy this year! but then, like Lulu, this is the first time she really has had a lot of association with other rugrats

Now it feels like every other month she has a sniffle of some sort!\

Ah well, their immune systems need the workout!

[BellyBelly]

Check out my flu vaccine article (I know it doesn't sound like it will help!) but it has heaps of tips on naturally boosting immunity. There are many studies but one recently they infected everyone with the flu virus and only some got it - its not about being exposed to bugs but the state of your immune system and how well its coping. Obviously there is the factor of being younger means a more primitive immune system, a great deal of protection comes from breastmilk (and then also contributing is mum's diet) but most babies aren't on breastmilk for long these days and mother's diets aren't what they used to be too. There is also so much processed baby foods and foods in general that they are doing nothing to help keep kids or adults healthy.

My kids get gastro once a year or longer and don't get sick often, but I have had them on In-Liven from a young age (although my DD prefers the Deep Greens powder!) on and off. I also don't keep soft drink or cordial so they are great with drinking lots of water. Probiotics are brilliant for boosting the immune system, also cooking with garlic, onion and coconut oil all helps with the gut. Green leafy veggies are very important, we've struggled with that one for a bit, but recently we've found we can pack heaps of stuff into homemade sausage rolls and they eat them like gluttons! Heaps of broccoli, onion, garlic the whole lot goes into what we cook these days - just a balance of heaps of veg vs sausage meat. A little harder with spag bog for some reason but still get some down, I think its moreso my DD pointing out what she can see in it and then my DS pushes his plate away and 'doesn't like it.' But we're making progress

Vitamin D is VERY important in fighting off and preventing respiratory problems. A huge study on children showed that vitamin D was more effective than the flu vaccine that year! (details in the flu vaccine article). Also stress can make them sick. See if there are any of these you can try to help his immune system. Also I found a fabulous coconut muffin recipe from the website of the people who make the coconut oil we buy, it has coconut flour and coconut oil/butter in the recipe and they are asking me for more!

Good luck

[Nai]

My DD1 got pretty sick the year she started CC but since then has been rarely ill. She had 2 days of school last year in prep for the whole year.

DD2 has the constitution of an ox and in her 3.5 years has vomited from illness once (just once) and had one temperature over 39 degrees requiring panadol. I think she got exposed to more germs early on via her sister so she has a hardy immune system.

Having said that DP and I are pretty much never sick and if we are we recover very quickly. The girls have a multi vitamin occasionally and that's pretty much it.

Most kids I know do tend to get sick when they start CC, kinder or school where they are exposed to more germs until their immune system develops to cope with it all. I think it's pretty normal. Nothing to do with the toys etc, more to do with the increased variety of germs.

[Livinthedream]

Do you mean sick as in not eating/high temp/generally miserable/?
Or do you mean sick like snot?
Cause if you mean snot, pretty much constantly through winter
BUt as for true ilness, like going to the doctor, maybe once a year.
In our first year of FDC, we did have a few trips to the docs with temps and rashes, but mostly that was just me freaking out. (and FDC having really strict policies, current daycare is much more lax)

[lise]

My DS is younger than yours, but since starting childcare this year he has been sick just like yours. We have one good week then it seems he catches something else. In the last three months alone he's had four courses of antibiotics... His GP says it's something she sees all the time, as in, first winter in childcare causing frequent illness. I asked DS's childcare centre if other kids were as sick as frequently as DS and they said no - but they all graduated from the nursery so had been there since babies.

Hope his immune system pickup soon, it's exhausting having a frequently sick child, I know xx

[BellyBelly]

Unfortunately antibiotics will not help their gut at all, its where most of the immune system is so it will leave it struggling to defend itself next time. There's a great thread on probiotics for a 12 month old going too, some great suggestions and ideas in that. Its something you'd want to take ongoing though, wont work overnight but great for them if you get a good one.

[lise]

We've just started DS on a probiotic so am hoping it works...!

[BellyBelly]

What one did you get hun? Some are MUCH better than others.

[lise]

We were recommended Inner Health plus for kids, but if you have other recommendations I'd love to hear them

[Glamoreyez]

My son and daughter are both sick all the time... My eldest is hardly sick!
I'm a very sickly person - ill catch whatever is going round whereas DP is very, very rarely sick...

I'd love to know how to help the kids build stronger immune systems - I'd hate for them to reach where I am of having scheduled blood tests to check for infections, their immunity, etc...

[Shanti]

DD1 (3yrs) went to kindy for a year and was constantly bringing home colds or runny noses.... It seemed to be every 3 weeks!!!! And DD2 would get them too...... So another reason why I pulled DD out of kindy.
And she still BF too.

[RhiChiChi]

When my DD first started in childcare, she was sick often, particularly in the second year. It seemed more kids were sick alot in the older room.

Since she was exposed early on, she has built up immunity quite well and is rarely ill. She sometimes takes a multi-vitamin with fish oil but eats a fairly good diet - exposed to foods that Kelly has posted about. We eat lot of garlic & onion (it is in most of our cooking) and we encourage her to eat as many vegies & fresh fruits as possible. She eats quite well at her two days of creche too.

I also want to point out that I do have a good immune system, rarely ill and if DH is suffering from illness it tends to miss me, so I think that helps alot as DD is home with me more. I also don't stop DD being exposed to sick people, unless they are really, really ill. If they have a cold, sniffle etc... I don't stop her being around them just limit her smooching them! lol

Also, same as fionas - my house is clean but not like a display home and we have animals that DD is exposed to.

[Lisa B]

My LO has been at childcare for 4 months now, 3 days a week. He is regularly sick. Before Easter we went through such a bad batch of gastro, bronchiolotis, ear infections, conjuncitivitis and other random virus with temperatures and respiratory issues. It was just an onslaught of one thing after another. Since Easter we have had one 3 weeks period of consecutive illness - ear infection, conjuncitivits and respiratory symptoms. A runny nose on nearly every day but I no longer count that as an illness.

Our GP says it's best they are exposed to illness young to build their immune system (I'm not totally convinced on this one), some kids just get ill more than others and it will take about 6 months for his immune system to build up. Our paediatrician says that he is more likely to get illnesses because he has a milk protein allergy which compromises his immune system.

I know it is really hard when you are trying to work. I share the sick days off with my partner but even then it is really tough to hold down a job and do it well over this time. My work isn't that sympathetic really but know they have to accommodate the leave and I have plenty of personal leave but I worry that they will come at me with the quality and quantity of my work throughout this time. I get the guilts about work and worry about my reputation, but I also feel guilty about feeling this way when I should be thinking about the health of my child, which I do ensure his needs are met...mummy guilt!!