Little boy continuously sick, everyone making me feel bad :(

My 2 year old DS started daycare in April. He is enjoying it thankfully but it has brought us a huge downside. He has been constantly sick since May with only a one week break. I am started to doubt my mothering, what is it that I am doing wrong? My in-laws have questioned his low immunity and have pushed to give him pentavite. Do any of you use it? Is it safe? The questioning including he probably doesn't eat enough veggies etc etc

What can I do to help raise his immunity? He didn't go to care last week but he is still sick with a cough. He has had mainly colds and coughs and one bout of mild vomiting. I hate doubting myself but it is also coming from my family too with them continally fussing telling me not to take him outside at 11am on a nice winter day because he has a cough. Please help me as I feel like I am going mad!

Golly me! If children being sick was what governed how good a parent I was, yeesh! :rolleyes: I've got 2 little ones and it just seems never ending!! For peace of mind you could always pop into your family GP or a CYH nurse and have a chat about all this. They could give you some great pointers AND NOT make you feel bad! :hug: Tbh, I have family who are exactly the same - family with kids who apparently are never sick (grrr) but seriously I am doing all that I can - excercise, vegies, fruit......my only solution would be to pull DD#1 out of kindy and put both my children in a bubble. Yeah right :lol:

Just my opinion though. Thinking of you love :hug: It can be so tough sometimes!! :hug:

Unfortunately daycare is a breeding ground for coughs and colds.. (and yes I send my DD to one). She was also sick when I 1st put her in, but it helps build their immunity. And unfortunately it is now the cold season, so he would more than likely get some kind of a sniffle even if not at daycare.

I'm not too sure on the vitamins, but I would discuss with GP or health nurse before giving them to him..

Oh - and please don't doubt yourself. You aren't doing anything wrong.

If you are truly concerned, take DS to your GP and ask him to do a general exam. Talk about his immune system and what do they suggest to help.

My 2 boys are in daycare and seem to be sick a lot (not always though!). I believe that because they are exposed to a lot of children, they pick up everything. In my opinion, it is a good thing (as long as they are not serious sicknesses obviously) as it is building their immune system for later in life. Also if your DS has been in daycare since April, it will take his immune system a little while to adjust to being exposed to other kids and it is winter, so there are SO many more viruses and illness about due to the airconditioning/heating.

Thank the family for their concern but I would tell them to butt out. You are a great mother and will do what is best for your child.

We had the same problem last year when Alexzander started preschool because prior to that he would see a few other children for an hour once a week, then going to a full day of preschool with 60-ish kids there was a big difference. The hard thing for us was having a newborn in the house as well. He was quite sick with colds all through last year, but this year *touch wood* he hasn't had a cold yet. I think their immune system just needs to get used to the bugs that are around with other kids.

When my 2 oldest kids were younger they seemed to be sick all the time with minor bugs...my dad commented on this... and then my younger brother (same age as my DS1) started school and voila! dad had a sick child too!

It's just kids, they are all breeding grounds for bugs whether it be daycare, kindy school... if it's just normal colds etc i wouldn't worry too much. If it seems to be serious take him to the Dr as Chocaholic suggested, it might put your mind at ease.
But really, I think this is one of those cases where other people are butting in & making you feel bad :wall:

It all sounds pretty normal to me :hug:

There is nothing wrong with your mothing Jan!!! Daycare brings together a multitude of germs your poor DS was previously unexposed to. Of course he's going to catch things for a while yet, plus it is cold season anyway. In Darcy's first 4 months of daycare she managed to bring severe gastro home and gave it to me 9 times.....once so bad I passed out. Now I am a cop and a nurse - I have been exposed to more bugs than you can poke a stick at - daycare ones seem to be superbugs! Plus 4 bouts of tonsillitis and numerous colds. 18months later she's as tough as nails, and I don't get sick too often either.
Pentavite is a specially formulated kids vitamin supplement. Tastes like pineapple I think. Won't hurt him. He'll only wee out what he doesn't need. But do multivitamins help your immune system?
Your doing a great job. Hang in there it does get better.

:hug: hun. I am sorry that you are feeling doubts about your parenting. What your DS is going through is totally normal. Children who go to day care nearly always get one illness after another for a few months while their immunity builds. On the plus side, they come out the other side with a fantastic, strong immune system, and when they start kindy or school later they end up having very few sick days (while the kids who have never been to day care tend to constantly sick!). As annoying and distressing as this is for you now, there is a plus side - creating a strong immune system early has to be shown to have a protective effect against a lot of serious illnesses including childhood leukemia!

As for the pentavite, yes it is safe (vitamin drops) and it can help with missing nutrients and can also stimulate appetite. However, like any vitamin supplement, it isn't going to replace a good diet. How much is your 2yo eating, and what sort of things? Bear in mind that there are not many 2yos who enjoy eating vegies, so please don't feel alone in this. In fact the good vegie eaters are few and far between!

Yep, like the others have said for most kids daycare just brings on lots virus's. I know a few kids who had runny noses for like first few months of going. One kid gets something then most of them end up with it, sharing toys, coughing on each other, you know how close kids get.
So don't feel bad. I know its not fun having them sick.

My DS, also 2, does not attend childcare at all and is CONSTANTLY SICK :rolleyes:! He currently has an ear infection and tonsilitis. This year he's had a cough/runny nose every second week and 2-3 bouts of gastro. So, it's not always just childcare related, but can be just their little immune systems getting used to the world in general - nothing to do with your parenting skills and very normal IMO.

My DS started at daycare around 9 months ago, and I reckon for the 1st 6 months he was had either a beginning, middle or end of a cold, and if not a cold, then he had gastro. But it does seem to have slowed down a lot over the last couple of months, which I'm assuming is his resilience & immunity starting to kick in. Touch wood, it's probably been at least 3 weeks since either of us had anything, which is a bit of a miracle :)

FWIW, I also take my DS outside on nice and even not so nice winter days - as long as he's suitably rugged up then I think it's a good thing for him, stops us from getting cabin fever. I don't take him outside if he's obviously sick with temps and/or generally miserable, but as long as he's happy (relatively, for a toddler) I try to find at least a couple of hours a day if we can.

I don't have a toddler yet, but:

- every toddler I know (which is several) who goes to daycare has spent about the first 6 months getting sick all the time. After that they seem to have caught about everything, and they don't get sick so often.

- when my sister and her baby (who was about 1 at the time) got sick a lot last winter (no daycare there), they started taking multivitamins (at mum's suggestion) and they stopped getting sick so much. So maybe, if you and/or your bub happen to be missing something, a multivitamin would help. Personally I would consider it to be worth a try, just in case.

Have you tried some InLiven?

Thats daycare for you.

My boys rarely get sick and I give them multivits daily so it might help, worked here :)

well i better join you then lol

my little one always has a runny nose or cough or is vomiting or rash.

i spoke to my GP about it and eh said let ehr fight it she is building up ehr immmunity if she isnt exposed she wont know how to fight it.

we give her veg thats all she will eat fruit he runs, goes to school 4 days a week.

dont do the vitamin thing, they are so young their bodies are growing and learning and developing how to cope with these things, that is the exact words my GP used when i asked about using a multivitamin.

your not a bad parent, your child is just developing..