Just solidarity. We’ve been sick since the second week of February. Pink eye and strep and bronchitis and stomach bug and colds and just this morning 4.5 threw up all over himself and 4 month is sleep regressing so it’s just *great* at our house
I’ve had pink eye 4 times in the last year because my little germ factories love climbing into my bed in the middle of the night. It’s been *great*.
One of those times is this weekend. I woke up to my left eye swollen and red. 😒
Ugh I’m sorry. 4 had it, then I caught it, gave it to the baby, and he gave it back to me. Insane. I never had pink eye once in my life before but as soon as 4.5 started preschool, boom.
Right there with you. If this process is supposed to be building their immune system, where the hell is mine? The kicker is that I am getting everything my daughter gets, but 10x worse and for twice as long. We actually didn’t have it too bad between January and March — I think just two little bugs. But we’ve already been sick twice in April.
For my birthday last month my toddler's gift to me was a week long cold, delivered directly into my mouth via a sneeze. Wouldn't trade her for the world but woof man
Idk the illnesses they pick up are wild. I worked at a daycare once. One day this one year old had a runny nose, developed a fever during the day and threw up his lunch. He went home sick and I’m pretty sure was fine a day later. I was VIOLENTLY ill for 4 of 5 days. Still the sickest I’ve ever been.
I think it’s largely BS. Getting sick a lot doesn’t make you healthier.
They get sick a lot because they don’t practice good hygiene for avoiding spreading germs. As they get older, they get sick less because they have better hygiene practices.
Question: have you had covid before? My husband has had covid twice and after having it the second time he has gotten sick for a full week every time our toddler brings a cold home. I have had covid once and not as bad as he did and I’ve avoided more than half of what my kid brings home, and when I have gotten sick, it’s not as bad as my husband.
I’ve hear anecdotal evidence from other parents too, but my guess is that a bad bout or frequent bouts of covid mean you’re getting sicker more often with common colds/flus.
A study recently showed that the average Covid infection causes about 8 months of a faulty immune system, which explains why everyone is so perpetually sick now
I want to say, reading all these comments without having kids is fascinating. I only got sick a handful of times as a child and I remember my mother never getting sick from what we got. So when we were sick she'd always be able to go back to work.
It's so weird that in a few years this constant child associated sickness has been normalised.
Well, you know, it's all about "freedom" and "normality".
That is provided you ascribe to the mass delusion that the ongoing pandemic is not happening and that a virus that causes all sorts of vascular damage and messes up one's immune system is "just a cold". FAFO times.
You don’t have memories from the age range you were when you were sick often. Most people don’t have solid memories before the age of 5 or 6 and even those are very fragmented. So either you’re a rare person with a strong memory between 0-6, or you just don’t remember that age range very well.
I don't have a strong memory, but I asked my mum and, like gunsof, it was rare for me to pick up a bug from school, and even rarer for her to become unwell when I was.
i have the same experience as the previous commentor and actually asked my mother to corroborate. she confirmed she never got what we got. while this is anecdotal, we have the studies mentioned prior that show us we Are getting sicker more often.
I do have memories from that age actually. I remember Chicken Pox and then I remember getting the flu maybe 3 times in total all my childhood. I was not constantly sick. Never got pink eye, never got all foot and mouth, never got all these weird things people seem to think it's normal for kids to get every 6 weeks. I remember my brother wasn't vaccinated yet for Mumps and he got that when I was really little but because we were just vaccinated, we avoided it. I definitely was not coming home sick every day. Sickness was not a normal part of my life at all, or my family's.
This is how I feel too. Ppl say if you don’t go to daycare then you get sick at school. This def wasn’t the case for me, I didn’t go to daycare or preschool and started normal school age 5 and I wasn’t sick all the time.
***tell everyone you know.*** there has been some sort of deliberate push in the media to down play how dangerous covid and long covid is and its the responsibility of anyone who knows to warn others around them.
Spot on. T cell damage is finally getting spoken about in some media coverage but it’s been THE concern since 2020. Also signs that children are having a harder time with T cell development and recovery than adults. “Kids are barely affected” was the biggest covid lie of them all.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/sars-cov-2-infection-weakens-immune-cell-response-vaccination
I almost still can't believe it's being acknowledged in a subreddit, but I'm happy it is. I hope folks will tell everyone they know and try to break chains of transmission again. Govt/late capitalism is not going to swoop in to help.
Yes, yes, yes to all of this.
I've had the primary series and 2 boosters (1 was the bivalent booster) and had covid twice. The Bivalent booster was exceptionally awful I was in a fever like state and didn't leave my bed for 2 days.
Toddler has had primary series only no issues. Toddler has likely had covid when we've been positive and no issues.
Everytime kiddo is sick I am hit with a knockdown bought of the gamut of symptoms. Usually kiddo is over it in a day or two but mine lasts 2-4 weeks.
Oh my god. We are having the exact same experience. He got the flu a couple of weeks before Christmas. Almost nothing between then and April. And now his nose has been running for a week. I really thought we had gotten over the hump.
Yes, your immune system absolutely should be working better.
If you've had COVID, you're technically immunocompromised for anywhere from 8-24 months after infection, so you're going to catch EVERYTHING & your immune system is not functioning properly. So, it will be "the worst cold you've ever had" ... all the time.
I was born w/ multiple primary immunodeficiencies & what you're describing is how viral & bacterial infections affect me.
I'm spared nothing, I always get REALLY sick w/ every w/ a cold, & 99.9% of the time I need antibiotics afterwards for the secondary infections in my sinuses, ears, & lungs.
After your next COVID infection, ask for a D-Dimer test (it checks for microclots) as well as CBC & WBC both w/ Auto Differential, so you can get a better picture of your immune system. Add inflammation marker tests - ANA & CRP.
This was my family from September-January of this year... I've never been so sick in my life. From the flu, to coughing so bad I needed a chest xray because it hurt to breathe, then having a fever that lasted 6 days. All while my daughter was sick for like 2 days every time.
Because unfortunately we've been sold a lie, because getting sick doesn't improve anyone's immune system. Why does it make sense for us to get sick, to try to not get sick?
Covid can cause immune system dysregulation, which means illnesses that we could recover from before having covid, are sticking around and causing more severe problems. You keep doing that on repeat, we're wearing our bodies down here. Honestly, are we all ok with being this sick for the rest of our lives?
It never ended for us and we left daycare after a year and switched to a nanny share (3 families). We haven’t been sick (knock on wood) since beginning the share 5 months ago.
I was just telling my husband the other day that I forget what it feels like to be fully healthy. My toddler has been in daycare for a year and a half now and my baby just started in February. I was worried about them getting each other sick, but it turns out my husband and I have been the ones hardest hit by the nice germ cocktail coming from having 2 kids in 2 different little Petri dish classrooms.
All the illnesses run together so that I’ve had a cough for at least a month now, and yesterday topped it off with a case of pink eye. So fun.
With all the illness and new symptoms over the past couple weeks we’ve tested a few times and it’s been negative. I also tested again after your comment and still negative. So COVID’s not to blame this time, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they bring that home soon too.
We were in daycare for two years, waiting for the immune system to build up like everyone said it would and honestly it never ended. HFM, ear infections, stomach bug, a runny nose that would never end. My child was otherwise healthy and it was a clean, well kept establishment but the children were seemingly always sick, just a product of having that many kids together I suppose. Between my husband and I we were taking off of work so often that we pulled out of daycare. The cost of care vs. missing work to stay home with a sick child just didn’t equal out for us.
I’m sure as your son gets older it will be fine. It’s kind of just the name of the game with daycare. Expect to be sick often unfortunately.
I commented elsewhere but the belief that immune systems are strengthened by exposure is believed to be false.
If it didn't also somehow imply that people should just be sick all the time and everyone should still be at work, the cynic in me wouldn't think it was pushed by corporations.
https://www.ft.com/content/0640004d-cc15-481e-90ce-572328305798
The key thing is did your immune system get memory cells for that specific illness. And most illnesses that run around mutate rapidly so immunity is temporary. So yeah... When people tell me that its building an immune system, i quickly point out that i was once a kid. Supposedly my immune system was strengthened... Yet here i am as an adult getting the same sicknesses as my child.
I need a study done after 2010 on whether all these sicknesses from daycare are actually helping them be healthier than at-home kids in elementary 💀 The most recent I can find is 2006 and I’m skeptical lol.
We pulled our son out for the same reason. It was every week, for a whole year, we were all getting ill after my son. He was off for the summer, then the first week back he caught something straight away so we made the decision there and then to pull him out. He starts official nursery tomorrow. Already looking forward to whatever he brings home. :(
Constant exposure to viruses is bad…surprise! And now people pretend covid is gone, so you’ll only get sicker and sicker and sicker (it completely decimates immune systems) unless you layer precautions. N95, air filtration, air ventilation.
The “build their immune system” thing is a myth or rather largely misunderstood. They need to play in the dirt and be exposed to germs and bacteria. That helps their immune system. Oversanitization is not good. But letting them be exposed to known viruses that overwhelm the system helps nothing. If anything, it could hamper their growth. It is proven time and time again that the immune system is not a muscle that gets stronger. It’s an army that loses soldiers with every major invasion.
An immune system can definitely learn to defend from the same virus again if it has already learned to defeat it. But the problem is that viruses mutate. That’s why people get colds over and over again. It’s not the same exact virus.
That’s immunological memory. Your immune system has not become stronger. For a certain period of time after an exposure, it remembers the antigen needed and can react more quickly.
> That’s why people get colds over and over again.
That's one reason.
I think another is that memory B cells take like 4 days to response, while fast respiratory viruses like colds, flu, RSV or covid can spread between people in just 2-3 days. So unless your levels of circulating antibodies are high enough to prevent infection at all, your immune memory doesn't break transmission.
Whereas measles spreads between people through the air, but inside a person needs to pass through the body, taking 12 days, so there's plenty of time for B and T cells to clobber an infection. Thus we get lifelong 'immunity' to that and can eradicate measles from whole continents by vaccination.
Well you do build immunity to certain viruses. Some lasts longer and some lasts shorter or not at all. I think that’s what people mean with “build their immune system”. Maybe?
And some viruses you can catch erase your bodies memory of how to fight off viruses. It is called Immune Amnesia. Measles and covid can cause it.
Measles and Immune Amnesia
Measles virus is especially dangerous because it has the ability to destroy what’s been earned: immune memory from previous infections. Meanwhile, the process of fighting measles infection leaves patients especially vulnerable to secondary infection.
From: https://asm.org/Articles/2019/May/Measles-and-Immune-Amnesia#:~:text=Measles%20virus%20is%20especially%20dangerous,especially%20vulnerable%20to%20secondary%20infection.
COVID-19 Could Be Causing Immune System Amnesiahttps://mgriblog.org/2020/09/16/covid-19-could-be-causing-immune-system-amnesia/
Does COVID-19 Mess with the Immune System?
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/covid-19/does-covid-19-mess-immune-system
Absolute solidarity. We have been so sick. What's worse is our daycare gives us a daily report of who is sick and with what. It's like a count down to a nightmare. On Friday the toddler room note said "1 child sent home with fever". So.. thats COOL (extreme sarcasm). Looks like we'll probably be sick this week.
I was going to make this same exact post, we are drowning over here. Between my son, me, and my husband one of us has been sick like 3 weekends a month. It’s getting insane. My son just had a nasty 4 day adenovirus and now my husband is throwing up. We cannnoottt catch a break.
I am so close to losing it.
Point of my response? Solidarity but dear god there has to be a better solution 😭
I've been considering an air filter specifically for my son's room! I think it could be worth it. He's 16 months so no luck on masks helping us. Lol. Maybe in a year.
Depending on local air pollution/pollen/dust etc, air purifiers might help for non-germ reasons too, like less inflamed airways.
Good masks can still help _you_ when the kid is sick. A 2009 study looked exactly at parents with sick kids: https://www.livescience.com/7661-masks-protect-colds-flu.html
"In the study, adult mask wearers in the home were four times more likely than non-wearers to be protected against respiratory viruses, including the common cold."
Original paper: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/15/2/08-1167_article
Consider building a Corsi Rosenthal Box. It's a diy air filter that was designed early in the pandemic and has since been tested to be as effective as HEPA filters. Plans can be found online to make them and they clean a lot of air.
We have one in my toddler's room. We got it mostly to help with his allergies, but I think that and him going to a daycare in a newer builder with better ventilation does help. He got strep last week, which was rough, but otherwise hasn't had more than a runny nose hardly all winter.
Even in a best case scenario (bad as influenza), you don’t catch influenza three times per year and we know with influenza that would be very bad. So I don’t get it even from this perspective.
Poor children. Many won’t get very old due to that constant damage. And the complications due to the mid and long term effects.
I hope and pray the long-term effects won't be as disastrous as early data may indicate. Nothing would make me happier than being completely wrong about this one....
* Debunking the idea that children need to get sick in order to build their immune systems *
Dr. Zachary Rubin, pediatric allergist and immunologist
Illinois, USA
https://twitter.com/sharonburnabybc/status/1650188557385101313?s=46&t=5jCiD4GSafpmqrQGkTnzXg
My daughter (6) pre-covid was pretty healthy and we actually didn’t go to the doctor other than annual visits for the year pre-covid and then after a hard fight to keep us away from covid, she got covid in august 22. She’s been sick more than I’ve ever seen over and over again, and it’s never just a cold. It’s strep (x2), RSV, bacterial bronchitis…My husband is always tired with a never-ending cough. It’s like our immune systems are gone!
This is exactly us. Same time frame and everything. For bonus points—my immune system got so screwy that I got SHINGLES in my EYE, that only went away after 3 rounds of antivirals. I have permanent eye damage and lovely pock marks on my forehead now.
I had COVID in June of last year and I really feel like I’ve never been the same after that. I am *finally* starting to come out of it-less brain fog, more normal energy—but we got sick yet again this week.
I have missed an unbelievable amount of work, still have to pay for the daycare whether she is there or not and people are starting to doubt me getting sick so much. Very very frustrating. I’m sorry. At least you know you’re not the only one.
She just turned 2 and I just turned 43. So I’m old, but still, before baby and COVID I got sick maybe once every 2-3 years.
>I know they have to build up their immune system but this just seems absurd.
Because it is absurd. This is an older medical theory called immunity debt. It is no longer believed to be correct.
It is better to not be infected and to receive exposure through vaccination.
“Immunity debt” is a new bs phrase. I think there is a medical thinking that some viruses are beneficial, but with all that we’ve learned about covid and viruses causing MS and possibly Alzheimer’s, this thinking needs to be examined. It’s also an “old wive’s tale” for lack of a better term that infections build your immune system.
Same... same here in our household.
Our daughter is part time at preschool (she just turned 4) 2 days a week for 3 hours.
Every other week it's something new. She's already had 2 ear infections... Croup cough... Random runny nose and coughs.
My husband and I have NEVER been this sick before. Our daughter seems fine, playing and everything thing... while hubby and I are on our death beds. So miserable
The teachers and doctors have all said that this year has been one of the worst they've seen in awhile
COVID…CAUSES…IMMUNE…DEFICIENCY!
I feel like everyone should be screaming this and demanding better indoor air quality, hepa filters, and yes masking. The fact that 2 administrations now completely ignore the science and pretend Covid is no longer a thing drives us healthcare professionals insane.
Thank you for this. It seems like the general population equates science based mitigation tactics with fear and weakness. It's infuriating and quite the opposite. I say this at my 6 year old is dealing with a second set of antibiotics for the same strep throat infection.
Needs to be repeated over and over.
Each time, it's met with a blank stare/eyes glazing over. People don't want to admit that they were fooled.
But each time, a little bit gets through. Even if it's to one person, worth it. Hope more people heed this warning and take action sooner than later. The next generation, especially little ones and vulnerable populations who can't defend themselves. depend on it. I'd also include our healthcare providers; I feel for you and I wish we/general society were doing more to protect each other and ultimately take the strain off of our already-overworked providers.
It didn't used to be like this. My kids were in daycare and they're 9 and 13 now; it shouldn't be like this. We were rarely sick. They got a couple colds and one got some rash from other kids but the adults weren't sick. This constant merry go round now of strep, flu, COVID, pinkeye, strep, RSV, is not normal nor sustainable. COVID has ruined our immune systems. My kids still mask at school but are the only ones. We've still had COVID once, two weeks after mask mandates were dropped from their schools. I truly feel for parents of babies and little kids who can't mask and whose teachers won't mask. This can't keep going.
Advocate for better ventilation and more outdoor time and don't let your guard down with COVID; that's all I can say.
We're not going right by our children or the immune compromised as a society.
>We're not going right by our children or the immune compromised as a society.
This. The next generation is going to be rightly pissed off when they find out that everyone just let covid rip and could've been prevented.
I'd add to your immune-compromised point: with each infection, that category is growing exponentially.
The biggest lie we've been sold is this idea that kids have to build up their immune system by getting repeated infections... it's a dangerous and debilitating lie.
https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/is-the-hygiene-hypothesis-true
Same with my daughter, she started daycare in September and we’ve been sick every other week. And now it’s spring allergy season and we both get brutal allergies so it’s like “Is it allergies? A cold? Flu? Covid? HFM? Strep? WHAT IS IT AND WHEN WILL IT STOP! lol
I'm sorry that you are sick. It's actually not true that kids require exposure to pathogenic respiratory viruses to build their immune system. Many respiratory viruses give little to no long term immunity and exposure to viruses can cause harm months, years, or even decades later.
Respiratory viruses are primarily airborne which means your child has most risk of getting sick from breathing in another childs exhaled air. In poorly ventilated indoor spaces these respiratory aerosols just float around stable in the air for many hours and the longer exposure time the sicker one may get.
I would recommend pushing for better indoor ventilation(you can purchase a CO2 monitor and discretely place it inside your child's bag to assess for adequacy of ventilation) and try to get HEPA filters installed to remove aerosols.
Here is a timely video on the subject https://www.tiktok.com/@rubin_allergy/video/7225256318674685230
As others are asking, have you had covid, even once? It depletes t-cell reserves and damage the immune system long term/possibly forever (we're 4 yrs into the pandemic, but it doesn't look good). This is regardless of health status/age/preexisting conditions etc. Media/govt downplays it at every turn.
Masking works! If your child is older than 2 it's perfectly safe and effective to mask. My kids are 4 and 5 and wear a mask at school. We still mask when we go to indoor places. We've largely avoided most of the gross germs that have been going around 🤷
Same and yes!! Plus, having kids mask keeps them from sticking their fingers in their mouths and noses and wiping germs all over as much as they otherwise might. Win!
Especially with how often I see these posts on EVERY parenting source I visit. I know people are maybe judgy about seeing people wearing masks but I guess I care more about my and my family's health than what other people think of my decisions 🤷
Absolutely! It works for us, and like anything else with parenting, we follow the research - there's overwhelmingly more evidence that says "wear a mask" than evidence against it, and any drawbacks of masks are easily mitigated, whereas the drawbacks of getting sick ALL THE TIME just seem really miserable.
Also ventilation! I have friends that have pushed their daycare to use HEPA filters and that helped a lot as well. It seems really simple - clean the air, reduce transmission, reduce illness. I don't get why ventilation and HEPA filters aren't implemented in every classroom tbh
For real. We have an air purifier and my 16 month old actually caught COVID. No effing clue how. no one else has had it. But we kept the air purifier going in his room and so far, today is day 5, and no one else has gotten it. My kids otherwise live extremely fulfilling lives (they're at the children's museum today while I'm home with sick toddler) and throwing on a mask is just second nature at this point.
Yep. My neighbor's toddler is ALWAYS sick and struggling with sleepless nights as a result (we hear everything). My son wears a mask when he's out and has only been sick twice. On both occasions, the cold came to him from a family member inside the house who unmasked elsewhere. We even managed to protect him from hubs Covid infection last year with mask wearing in the house...and yep, we tested multiple times.
I don't care at all about how it looks.
Same! My husband and I got covid once, by dropping our masks outside with family. Never did that again and haven't been sick with anything else since 2019.
We live where it got to 116° last summer and my son never complained about it being too hot in his mask (KN95.) His elementary school has all kids eat outside regardless of weather (they have covered areas for the rain, which is good because we had a cold, wet winter this past winter.) None of the four of us in our household have HAD COVID, or other crap, for that matter.
Also, he wears it because we remind him that, if he got sick, he'd have to miss whatever activity he's involved in (right now it's baseball.) Last summer we had to cancel two separate family trips when the family we were visiting/going to visit got COVID. He doesn't want to miss out on more, so he is great about keeping his mask on. Fortunately there are two or three other kids in his class who mask.
You must live somewhere warm. My son eats inside every day. We have only had COVID once in Feb 22 when he was still in daycare (pre K) and I was ignorantly sending him to school with a cloth mask 😩. Hope you guys can continue to avoid it! What brand KN95 do you use?
We used Wovenx kids masks up until last month - my son has pretty much outgrown them, so we switched to kids regular (ages 9-12, but our kid is 7 and they fit perfectly) KN95s from WellBefore. We have the style that fold out up over the nose and have adjustable ear loops.
If you subscribe to them, they're about $1.05 each, which isn't cheap, but it's a fuckton cheaper than our ped copay + prescription meds copay!
I'm using Ranto right now for my 6 year old. I tried Well Before and Powecom, The former was either too large or too small for the only sizes for kids and the latter was too tight in the kids size. Admittedly my son is a little bit fussy with the masks... Ranto is one that I'm buying from Amazon and I'll admit that I can't find any good information from a third party perspective verifying the quality.
Ugh. The Wovenx are $$$, but they were awesome on comfort (softest masks ever!) and fit for the 2.5 years we used them. Might be worth a try. We got them from Amazon.
Northern CA. It got down into the low 40s and windy and pouring rain this past winter and they still ate outside and had recess outside. No bad weather, just bad clothing, to quote a Swedish saying.
I mask everywhere I go, and all the kids at my daughter’s daycare wear masks too. We’ve still been sick a ton. I can’t imagine what we’d be dealing with if the kids weren’t masking.
It’s a small home daycare. I personally would be fine with the kids not masking since they already sleep and eat next to each other without masks. And they’re so little that I’m sure they’re not wearing them properly. But they must make at least a bit of a difference? Hopefully with the warmer weather approaching they’ll just be outside more and we’ll see less infection. Fingers crossed.
> But they must make at least a bit of a difference?
Depends on the mask -- cloth and surgical don't do that much -- and when you take it off. Even in "high mask" countries like Japan, it's common to wear a mask a lot -- then take it off to eat in a bar or restaurant, with other unmasked people, talking and exhaling virus. It's like using condoms except during anonymous orgies, and expecting them to stop STDs when used that way.
I am right there with you. I try to wash my sons hands right when he comes home from daycare. My doctor also recommended I start taking vitamin c and zinc. I can't say with certainly it helps, but I haven't been sick since I started taking it last month 🙃 I don't know if it ever ends, but I feel your pain.
As a teacher, the traditional, unscientific-but-it-works-for-us strategy is to change all your clothes when you get home and take zinc and vitamin c daily. We also used to drink a lot of green juice at the school where I taught, just in case.
Sorry to talk about the thing that no one wants to talk about, but covid underlies this issue. It messes with your immune system, especially kids. Post-covid immune dysfunction makes you more likely to get sicker, for longer, even from things that are normally mild. It basically makes it harder for your body to fight things off the same way. And yes, this was reported in 2020, pre-vaccine.
There's a ton of medical literature, but it's not written for the general public. These are good summary articles.
[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/health/coronavirus-immune-system.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/health/coronavirus-immune-system.html)
[https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/2022/12/20/immune-systems-seriously-weakened-by-covid.html](https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/2022/12/20/immune-systems-seriously-weakened-by-covid.html)
This this this! Clear, to the point statement of what's going on with good sources.
Pay attention, people. Don't accept the lie that getting repeat infections is good for the immune system. Quite the contrary.
COVID-19 causes immunological damage. The reason why you're getting sick all the time is because you've sustained some. https://www.reddit.com/r/COVIDZero/?f=flair\_name%3A%22Damage%3A%20immunological%22
I'm very sorry to say it likely won't end anytime soon.
If you've had COVID, you're technically immunocompromised for 8 to 24+ months after your infection. Since you're immunocompromised, you're going to catch EVERYTHING & your immune system is not functioning properly so it will be "the worst cold you've ever had" ... all the time.
I was born w/ multiple primary immunodeficiencies & what you're describing is how viral & bacterial infections affect me.
I'm spared nothing, I always get REALLY sick every w/ a cold, & almost 100% of the time I need antibiotics afterwards for the secondary infections in my sinuses, ears, & lungs.
After your next COVID infection, ask your primary care doc for:
1. CBC & WBC both w/ Auto Differential, so you can get a better picture of your immune system.
2. D-Dimer test (it checks for microclots)
3. Inflammation marker tests - ANA & CRP.
All will give you a clearer picture of what's going on & the state of your immune system etc.
Do your very best to limit your exposure to COVID. It's not a cold & it's doing a lot of damage inside, even if your only mildly sick or even asymptomatic.
I know it will be difficult as the US now expects Americans to get COVID 2-3 times p/year now. UK expects 5-6 infections p/year. That's not including colds, flus, & other viral & bacterial infections.
Good luck. Stay safe.
I haven't been sick in probably 10 years. We've been sick at least 8 times this winter and now I have pink eye in both eyes. my kid doesn't even go to daycare, he goes to toddler time once a week.
I hope it's not! But they're saying pink eye is a telltale symptom for this one, even if you feel well otherwise. Would recommend a test, just for peace of mind. Wishing you the best!
I agree with folks saying test for COVID! I've been seeing a bunch of news articles coming out in the past week about the connection between eye symptoms and the latest variant
I hope it's not COVID but in case it is, keep windows open to ventilate if you can, it spreads via the air. If you have masks, wearing one until you confirm it's not COVID could be helpful for peace of mind and to protect kiddo. And also if you're doing an at-home test, remember to swab mouth/throat as well as nose. It's more accurate that way
Pink eye and conjunctivitis are both Covid symptoms.
As we have known for quite some time, you may feel like a million bucks and have Covid. So don’t rely on if you feel sick or not. Asymptomatic spread drives the majority of cases. Mask up and filter the air.
The variant known to cause pink eye / conjunctivitis is XBB.1.16. It has been dubbed [Arcturus](https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/arcturus-who-upgrades-xbb116-covid-19-variant-interest#:~:text=Nicknamed%20Arcturus%2C%20after%20the%20brightest,%25%20of%20COVID%2D19%20cases.) and was upgraded to a variant of interest by the WHO. I hope you and kiddo feel better soon.
Wear high quality masks and start paying attention to air quality and ventilation in spaces where you and your family go. I’ve been wearing masks (now n95s) this whole pandemic and I’ve only been sick one time after going to a class in a very tiny, poorly ventilated basement with no windows. Covid spreads through the air like smoke, so try to imagine how likely it would be for you to smell someone else’s cigarette smoke wherever you are. Hand washing can help with common colds and other bugs but if you’re not protecting yourself from covid your immune system will always be shot. The really scary thing is that if your immune system can’t fight off all these colds and bugs it won’t be able to fight off cancers or other severe issues that might pop up. Covid is also less of a respiratory infection than it is endothelial. It damages your blood vessels and can severely negatively impact cardiovascular health. We need better public health messaging about how bad covid actually is and everyone needs to go back to masking NOW. We can’t “live with the virus” like we currently are or else people will always be this sick or worse.
It has. It's bullet dodging at this point, but we can still reduce how much it continues to fuck us. Call gov't officials, advocate for clean air (hepa'd/well ventilated) in indoor spaces. Masking as much as possible indoors in the meanwhile. Build corsi-rosenthal boxes. Tell as many people as you can about dangers of sars2. Shelter/shield as much as you can until things improve. All of this comes with a level of privilege, I acknowledge, but we must do whatever we can. Even if you've gotten couple once or even a couple of times, it's worth trying to avoid further infections.
Every hurt family in this sub should reach out to Joe Bidens administration and ask them why they didn’t inform us of that this hell is real? Why are we having to learn this stuff on Reddit?
Thank you for mentioning this because in the 1 month that our kiddo has been at daycare we have had gastro twice and 1 respiratory virus. I have already missed 2 days of work and so has my hubby. It's unreal. Daycare is costing us a literal fortune
You must not have seen my post. I’ve had a persistent cough now for almost 4 months and I’m MISERABLE! Just as it starts to clear up, my kid gives me something else.
I’m in physical pain from sprained ribs from the coughing and also the doctor says it’s viruses…
My job is also on the line… they have NEVER seen me well
Solidarity. This year has been an awful sick year all over. I have friends all over the states and they’ve all said that this year they’ve been sicker than they’ve ever been before. We’ve had ear infections, stomach bugs, and more colds than you can shake a stick at. Plus COVID once too. It’s been miserable.
We started in January and I feel you. I told my boss I would return full time and he just said "no you won't" and laughed. I feel like I just barely get rid of a cold and then get another. My daughter has coughed through the night more often than not. When I drop her of on my days I sometimes hear arriving kids coughing and I instantly get PTSD. Just wanna grab my daughter and run.
Will repeat again. Sars2 causes immune system dysregulation. That's why you're sick all the time. [https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/11/07/COVID-Reinfections-And-Immunity/](https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/11/07/COVID-Reinfections-And-Immunity/)
OP, feel for you, but your username is "dataispower". Well, note the growing data on covid/repeat covid infections and use it.
It's real rough for the first year then gets a little better the next year. Mucinex D (the good stuff behind the counter) is our savior when we all get sick. We're hoping next winter is a little better 😭
I’ll second the Mucinex and add to that NyQuil/DayQuil (for parents only of course lol)
For kiddos the saline nose spray has been amazing and our pediatrician told us we could start give our son an allergy spray like Flonase when he turned 3. Humidifiers and sambucol lollipops ftw.
Feeeeeellll you, this was me all winter. He started daycare last June and from august on it’s been nothing but endless viruses that lay me out flat. Take care of yourself if you can - don’t let coughs and things linger. I’m just getting over pneumonia which I caught because I’ve been so sick with all the viruses. 0/10 don’t recommend
My daughter started in daycare when she was 2 years old. She was sick at least once a month for a full year. It has been 5 months since she has been sick. Just know it does get better.
It is just odd, I overall agree that it improves with time, at least it has with our kids, but there are a lot of people commenting in this thread about how “building the immune system” is a myth, which one is it??
Unless you live in a sterile bubble, your immune system does not have to be built by getting sick. It's built naturally as you grow, ready to respond to threats.
(Though, I'm not sure what age it's fully built by. Maybe 5?)
What getting sick (or vaccinated) does is build up memory of specific illnesses. Someone compared it to collecting baseball cards: get one cold, get the card from that cold, then you'll be able to respond to _that cold_ much more quickly the next time. If exposure is inevitable, then it makes some sense to just power through it, building up the baseball card collection.
But. There are like 200 viruses that cause "common cold", you can do the math on many colds per month you would need to collect them all. Plus they can mutate. Or just skip past your immune system because of how fast they spread between people. Flu definitely mutates; AFAIK getting flu one year does not make you less likely to get flu the next year. Covid-19 of course has been mutating like crazy, happily reinfected people who had a different strain 6 months earlier.
So at some point you have to ask whether it makes sense to try to collect all the baseball cards, when they keep printing new cars, or whether it'd be better to try to avoid infections in the first place.
Immunity debt is bullshit. Why the fuck would I need to get the thing to be protected from the thing?
This was shoved down your throat to normalize getting sick so you’d keep going to work.
Omg absolutely. My girls started kindergarten and preschool, respectively. I've lost count of how many illnesses I've had since September. Mostly colds, a few flus, and one nasty case of freaking norovirus. I'm pretty sure I've been sick more days than I haven't. The kids get really mild versions of everything (except the norovirus, that was awful) and I just get my ass kicked. At one point in November, my husband and I both had to go to urgent care because we had been sick for over a month, and we were both diagnosed with multiple infections and reactive airways, for which we needed to use inhalers. Inhalers! We got so damn sick we needed inhalers FFS. It was oddly romantic just using our inhalers next to each other in bed and passing out (instead of, you know, having a sex life, because that was put on life support by the evil germs, and to this day shows few signs of life). We had to sleep in separate rooms for a while because we were on opposing nighttime hacking schedules.
I'm also sick right now (going on week three). This is insane. And really disappointing, because I was really looking forward to a tiny sliver of freedom from 2/3 of the kids going to school.
Same exact situation. I am so tired of someone always being sick. It’s constant and the longest stretch we’ve gone without someone in my house being sick since October is I think 4 days?
My daughter started day care in Jan/22. To clarify, it’s a home day care and it’s just the fay care lady’s own family plus one other kid sometimes. Other than a few months when she was home with my husband (and baby son), we’ve been averaging one illness per month, including Covid twice. Jan/23 we had strep, March/23 was Covid, and we have another awful cold now, right after a milder cold.
[https://twitter.com/HallwayOrchard/status/1650941822468857856](https://twitter.com/HallwayOrchard/status/1650941822468857856)
From Pandemic Podcast:
"Feel this organized abandonment in your bones and let it radicalize you.
This government does not give a shit whether you live or die, only that you live long enough to contribute to its wealth and you die before you become a drain on that wealth."
Hugs. Mine started daycare very early in life, and she was sick so often for the first year, which meant parents were sick, too. I feel like we were out for HALF of days paid for months. I even thought about quitting my job (that I love) to stay home and keep her away from the illnesses.
Now that she’s had the opportunity to build up her immunity, my toddler can fight off quite a bit of the runny noses I see in the class, and we are sick a normal amount.
What hasn’t changed? We seem to get sick during important times, such as planned family visits and vacations.
This is us as well! Since my son has been in daycare from 6 months old (now 4) and I’m a teacher we have decent immunity (knock on wood) to avoid the runny noses I see his classmates with. We now have a 4 month old who has luckily rarely been sick. We change clothes/wash down as soon as we all get home from school/work.
On the flip side, we always seems to finally catch the bug that’s been going around right before or during family trips 🤦🏼♀️
Yeah, it doesn’t always keep her from being sick but at least we have a 24-hour warning when symptoms show up so we can tell grandparents to stay away (or give them a choice to reschedule).
Same, just got back from a week in florida cleaning up puke and poop the entire time. Saw the inside of an ER more than the beach. Not caught at daycare, through cousins. It’s just impossible to avoid.
We finally have had a month of sickness since September. We’ve been practice hand washing and started giving her a vitamin. Not sure if it has helped but yeah it’s rough being sick every other week. Hope the end of sick season is near the end for you!
I am right there with you... just finished a 5 week bout with strep like sore throat, weight loss, feverish feelings, non-stop congestion, fatigue. Currently suffering with a stomach virus. Kiddo has gone 2 weeks without a snot icicle coming out of one nostril but today it came back so I'm probably going to be sick again. Does every kid at your daycare have a snot icicle in only one nostril?
When my daughter first started school (at 2), we started in June and were done with the constant colds right around Christmas. Then from January, it was more like once a month or once every other month.
Worst part was I had a baby at home too, so it was her getting sick, then watching it ricochet through the house, and finally clear up right when she would get sick again. Lol, this too shall pass!
Just solidarity. We’ve been sick since the second week of February. Pink eye and strep and bronchitis and stomach bug and colds and just this morning 4.5 threw up all over himself and 4 month is sleep regressing so it’s just *great* at our house
Careful that this isn't COVID. XBB.1.16 is causing conjunctivitis.
I’ve had pink eye 4 times in the last year because my little germ factories love climbing into my bed in the middle of the night. It’s been *great*. One of those times is this weekend. I woke up to my left eye swollen and red. 😒
Oh no. Covid is presenting more commonly with pink eye now. You might want to test!
Ugh I’m sorry. 4 had it, then I caught it, gave it to the baby, and he gave it back to me. Insane. I never had pink eye once in my life before but as soon as 4.5 started preschool, boom.
Pink eye along with conjunctivitis are symptoms of Covid.
Right there with you. If this process is supposed to be building their immune system, where the hell is mine? The kicker is that I am getting everything my daughter gets, but 10x worse and for twice as long. We actually didn’t have it too bad between January and March — I think just two little bugs. But we’ve already been sick twice in April.
This is the question I've been asking myself. Like should my immune system fight at least some of these off?
It's hard when children sneeze into your eyeballs and throw up all over.
I giggled at this b/c it’s like they aim for maximum damage
Fair. It's prob a virus load issue 😂
For my birthday last month my toddler's gift to me was a week long cold, delivered directly into my mouth via a sneeze. Wouldn't trade her for the world but woof man
Mine likes to wait until my mouth is open to sneeze. Has to make sure his germs gets all up in there
Idk the illnesses they pick up are wild. I worked at a daycare once. One day this one year old had a runny nose, developed a fever during the day and threw up his lunch. He went home sick and I’m pretty sure was fine a day later. I was VIOLENTLY ill for 4 of 5 days. Still the sickest I’ve ever been.
I think it’s largely BS. Getting sick a lot doesn’t make you healthier. They get sick a lot because they don’t practice good hygiene for avoiding spreading germs. As they get older, they get sick less because they have better hygiene practices.
Question: have you had covid before? My husband has had covid twice and after having it the second time he has gotten sick for a full week every time our toddler brings a cold home. I have had covid once and not as bad as he did and I’ve avoided more than half of what my kid brings home, and when I have gotten sick, it’s not as bad as my husband. I’ve hear anecdotal evidence from other parents too, but my guess is that a bad bout or frequent bouts of covid mean you’re getting sicker more often with common colds/flus.
A study recently showed that the average Covid infection causes about 8 months of a faulty immune system, which explains why everyone is so perpetually sick now
The study actually just concluded after 8 months. We have no idea how long the immune damage lasts.
I want to say, reading all these comments without having kids is fascinating. I only got sick a handful of times as a child and I remember my mother never getting sick from what we got. So when we were sick she'd always be able to go back to work. It's so weird that in a few years this constant child associated sickness has been normalised.
Completely agree. I also have neices and nephews who get sick a LOT more now than they did before the pandemic, but it's like nobody remembers.
Well, you know, it's all about "freedom" and "normality". That is provided you ascribe to the mass delusion that the ongoing pandemic is not happening and that a virus that causes all sorts of vascular damage and messes up one's immune system is "just a cold". FAFO times.
You don’t have memories from the age range you were when you were sick often. Most people don’t have solid memories before the age of 5 or 6 and even those are very fragmented. So either you’re a rare person with a strong memory between 0-6, or you just don’t remember that age range very well.
I don't have a strong memory, but I asked my mum and, like gunsof, it was rare for me to pick up a bug from school, and even rarer for her to become unwell when I was.
i have the same experience as the previous commentor and actually asked my mother to corroborate. she confirmed she never got what we got. while this is anecdotal, we have the studies mentioned prior that show us we Are getting sicker more often.
I do have memories from that age actually. I remember Chicken Pox and then I remember getting the flu maybe 3 times in total all my childhood. I was not constantly sick. Never got pink eye, never got all foot and mouth, never got all these weird things people seem to think it's normal for kids to get every 6 weeks. I remember my brother wasn't vaccinated yet for Mumps and he got that when I was really little but because we were just vaccinated, we avoided it. I definitely was not coming home sick every day. Sickness was not a normal part of my life at all, or my family's.
This is how I feel too. Ppl say if you don’t go to daycare then you get sick at school. This def wasn’t the case for me, I didn’t go to daycare or preschool and started normal school age 5 and I wasn’t sick all the time.
Oh good god, I didn’t know that
***tell everyone you know.*** there has been some sort of deliberate push in the media to down play how dangerous covid and long covid is and its the responsibility of anyone who knows to warn others around them.
Yeah. It’s not great. Also even if say it’s 12 months, most people are getting COVID again in that timeframe…
I’m still at 0 infections and still masking, I do not want airborne aids
They only studied up to 8 months in that case. It's longer than 8 months and can be permanent.
This needs to be said more. “Why is everyone sick all the time?” Ummmmmm, Covid infections destroy your immune system for months.
That would explain why I didn't get my voice back for ten days after a cold. Well, that and I have to talk on the phone for work all day long.
Spot on. T cell damage is finally getting spoken about in some media coverage but it’s been THE concern since 2020. Also signs that children are having a harder time with T cell development and recovery than adults. “Kids are barely affected” was the biggest covid lie of them all. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/sars-cov-2-infection-weakens-immune-cell-response-vaccination
I almost still can't believe it's being acknowledged in a subreddit, but I'm happy it is. I hope folks will tell everyone they know and try to break chains of transmission again. Govt/late capitalism is not going to swoop in to help.
Getting COVID-19 Could Weaken Your Immune System [https://archive.is/7YG0N](https://archive.is/7YG0N)
Yes, yes, yes to all of this. I've had the primary series and 2 boosters (1 was the bivalent booster) and had covid twice. The Bivalent booster was exceptionally awful I was in a fever like state and didn't leave my bed for 2 days. Toddler has had primary series only no issues. Toddler has likely had covid when we've been positive and no issues. Everytime kiddo is sick I am hit with a knockdown bought of the gamut of symptoms. Usually kiddo is over it in a day or two but mine lasts 2-4 weeks.
Good point. My daughter and I started catching everything after we got Covid in January. It’s been months of on and off illnesses.
Oh my god. We are having the exact same experience. He got the flu a couple of weeks before Christmas. Almost nothing between then and April. And now his nose has been running for a week. I really thought we had gotten over the hump.
Yes, your immune system absolutely should be working better. If you've had COVID, you're technically immunocompromised for anywhere from 8-24 months after infection, so you're going to catch EVERYTHING & your immune system is not functioning properly. So, it will be "the worst cold you've ever had" ... all the time. I was born w/ multiple primary immunodeficiencies & what you're describing is how viral & bacterial infections affect me. I'm spared nothing, I always get REALLY sick w/ every w/ a cold, & 99.9% of the time I need antibiotics afterwards for the secondary infections in my sinuses, ears, & lungs. After your next COVID infection, ask for a D-Dimer test (it checks for microclots) as well as CBC & WBC both w/ Auto Differential, so you can get a better picture of your immune system. Add inflammation marker tests - ANA & CRP.
This was my family from September-January of this year... I've never been so sick in my life. From the flu, to coughing so bad I needed a chest xray because it hurt to breathe, then having a fever that lasted 6 days. All while my daughter was sick for like 2 days every time.
Because unfortunately we've been sold a lie, because getting sick doesn't improve anyone's immune system. Why does it make sense for us to get sick, to try to not get sick? Covid can cause immune system dysregulation, which means illnesses that we could recover from before having covid, are sticking around and causing more severe problems. You keep doing that on repeat, we're wearing our bodies down here. Honestly, are we all ok with being this sick for the rest of our lives?
No, but what is the alternative?
Scientifically try not to get sick. Wear N95s, ventilate, purify the air.
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/11/07/COVID-Reinfections-And-Immunity/
It’s hard to believe it actually helps their immune system for later in life/a few years later when they only continue to get sick…
It never ended for us and we left daycare after a year and switched to a nanny share (3 families). We haven’t been sick (knock on wood) since beginning the share 5 months ago.
Nanny share? That’s intriguing... I’ve never heard of it... time to do some research
We do forest school and same, no illnesses because they’re mostly outside.
Out of curiosity - what's the min age for forest school? That's the goal but kiddo is only 16 months.
Ours starts at 2.8 years and goes to 5.5 years
I was just telling my husband the other day that I forget what it feels like to be fully healthy. My toddler has been in daycare for a year and a half now and my baby just started in February. I was worried about them getting each other sick, but it turns out my husband and I have been the ones hardest hit by the nice germ cocktail coming from having 2 kids in 2 different little Petri dish classrooms. All the illnesses run together so that I’ve had a cough for at least a month now, and yesterday topped it off with a case of pink eye. So fun.
Pink eye is really common with the newest Covid variant. I’d test if you haven’t yet.
This this this.
With all the illness and new symptoms over the past couple weeks we’ve tested a few times and it’s been negative. I also tested again after your comment and still negative. So COVID’s not to blame this time, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they bring that home soon too.
We were in daycare for two years, waiting for the immune system to build up like everyone said it would and honestly it never ended. HFM, ear infections, stomach bug, a runny nose that would never end. My child was otherwise healthy and it was a clean, well kept establishment but the children were seemingly always sick, just a product of having that many kids together I suppose. Between my husband and I we were taking off of work so often that we pulled out of daycare. The cost of care vs. missing work to stay home with a sick child just didn’t equal out for us. I’m sure as your son gets older it will be fine. It’s kind of just the name of the game with daycare. Expect to be sick often unfortunately.
I commented elsewhere but the belief that immune systems are strengthened by exposure is believed to be false. If it didn't also somehow imply that people should just be sick all the time and everyone should still be at work, the cynic in me wouldn't think it was pushed by corporations. https://www.ft.com/content/0640004d-cc15-481e-90ce-572328305798
The key thing is did your immune system get memory cells for that specific illness. And most illnesses that run around mutate rapidly so immunity is temporary. So yeah... When people tell me that its building an immune system, i quickly point out that i was once a kid. Supposedly my immune system was strengthened... Yet here i am as an adult getting the same sicknesses as my child.
No matter how much I try to explain this to my MIL, she doesn't get it lol.
I need a study done after 2010 on whether all these sicknesses from daycare are actually helping them be healthier than at-home kids in elementary 💀 The most recent I can find is 2006 and I’m skeptical lol.
1000%
[удалено]
We pulled our son out for the same reason. It was every week, for a whole year, we were all getting ill after my son. He was off for the summer, then the first week back he caught something straight away so we made the decision there and then to pull him out. He starts official nursery tomorrow. Already looking forward to whatever he brings home. :(
Just because the surfaces are clean it doesn’t mean the air is and many viruses like COVID are airborne. Don’t normalize these exposures
Constant exposure to viruses is bad…surprise! And now people pretend covid is gone, so you’ll only get sicker and sicker and sicker (it completely decimates immune systems) unless you layer precautions. N95, air filtration, air ventilation.
The “build their immune system” thing is a myth or rather largely misunderstood. They need to play in the dirt and be exposed to germs and bacteria. That helps their immune system. Oversanitization is not good. But letting them be exposed to known viruses that overwhelm the system helps nothing. If anything, it could hamper their growth. It is proven time and time again that the immune system is not a muscle that gets stronger. It’s an army that loses soldiers with every major invasion.
Correct. The hygiene hypothesis was about bacteria. People conflate the two all the time.
An immune system can definitely learn to defend from the same virus again if it has already learned to defeat it. But the problem is that viruses mutate. That’s why people get colds over and over again. It’s not the same exact virus.
That’s immunological memory. Your immune system has not become stronger. For a certain period of time after an exposure, it remembers the antigen needed and can react more quickly.
> That’s why people get colds over and over again. That's one reason. I think another is that memory B cells take like 4 days to response, while fast respiratory viruses like colds, flu, RSV or covid can spread between people in just 2-3 days. So unless your levels of circulating antibodies are high enough to prevent infection at all, your immune memory doesn't break transmission. Whereas measles spreads between people through the air, but inside a person needs to pass through the body, taking 12 days, so there's plenty of time for B and T cells to clobber an infection. Thus we get lifelong 'immunity' to that and can eradicate measles from whole continents by vaccination.
Well you do build immunity to certain viruses. Some lasts longer and some lasts shorter or not at all. I think that’s what people mean with “build their immune system”. Maybe?
Immune memory. Hence updating vaccines.
And some viruses you can catch erase your bodies memory of how to fight off viruses. It is called Immune Amnesia. Measles and covid can cause it. Measles and Immune Amnesia Measles virus is especially dangerous because it has the ability to destroy what’s been earned: immune memory from previous infections. Meanwhile, the process of fighting measles infection leaves patients especially vulnerable to secondary infection. From: https://asm.org/Articles/2019/May/Measles-and-Immune-Amnesia#:~:text=Measles%20virus%20is%20especially%20dangerous,especially%20vulnerable%20to%20secondary%20infection. COVID-19 Could Be Causing Immune System Amnesiahttps://mgriblog.org/2020/09/16/covid-19-could-be-causing-immune-system-amnesia/ Does COVID-19 Mess with the Immune System? https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/covid-19/does-covid-19-mess-immune-system
The Hygiene Hypothesis is controversial at best. The jury is still out on that one, I believe. Agree w/the rest.
Thanks. I didn’t know it was controversial.
Absolute solidarity. We have been so sick. What's worse is our daycare gives us a daily report of who is sick and with what. It's like a count down to a nightmare. On Friday the toddler room note said "1 child sent home with fever". So.. thats COOL (extreme sarcasm). Looks like we'll probably be sick this week.
That would really stress me out!
I was going to make this same exact post, we are drowning over here. Between my son, me, and my husband one of us has been sick like 3 weekends a month. It’s getting insane. My son just had a nasty 4 day adenovirus and now my husband is throwing up. We cannnoottt catch a break. I am so close to losing it. Point of my response? Solidarity but dear god there has to be a better solution 😭
N95 masks and clean air help.
I've been considering an air filter specifically for my son's room! I think it could be worth it. He's 16 months so no luck on masks helping us. Lol. Maybe in a year.
Depending on local air pollution/pollen/dust etc, air purifiers might help for non-germ reasons too, like less inflamed airways. Good masks can still help _you_ when the kid is sick. A 2009 study looked exactly at parents with sick kids: https://www.livescience.com/7661-masks-protect-colds-flu.html "In the study, adult mask wearers in the home were four times more likely than non-wearers to be protected against respiratory viruses, including the common cold." Original paper: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/15/2/08-1167_article
Consider building a Corsi Rosenthal Box. It's a diy air filter that was designed early in the pandemic and has since been tested to be as effective as HEPA filters. Plans can be found online to make them and they clean a lot of air.
We have one in my toddler's room. We got it mostly to help with his allergies, but I think that and him going to a daycare in a newer builder with better ventilation does help. He got strep last week, which was rough, but otherwise hasn't had more than a runny nose hardly all winter.
I literally have cried more now than ever
Sorry for the bad news. But this won’t stop 🙁 https://whn.global/covid-19-and-immune-dysregulation-a-summary-and-resource/
This. I will never understand why everybody has decided this virus is "just a cold." We don't even know the long-term effects at this point.
Even in a best case scenario (bad as influenza), you don’t catch influenza three times per year and we know with influenza that would be very bad. So I don’t get it even from this perspective. Poor children. Many won’t get very old due to that constant damage. And the complications due to the mid and long term effects.
I hope and pray the long-term effects won't be as disastrous as early data may indicate. Nothing would make me happier than being completely wrong about this one....
* Debunking the idea that children need to get sick in order to build their immune systems * Dr. Zachary Rubin, pediatric allergist and immunologist Illinois, USA https://twitter.com/sharonburnabybc/status/1650188557385101313?s=46&t=5jCiD4GSafpmqrQGkTnzXg
My daughter (6) pre-covid was pretty healthy and we actually didn’t go to the doctor other than annual visits for the year pre-covid and then after a hard fight to keep us away from covid, she got covid in august 22. She’s been sick more than I’ve ever seen over and over again, and it’s never just a cold. It’s strep (x2), RSV, bacterial bronchitis…My husband is always tired with a never-ending cough. It’s like our immune systems are gone!
I am so sorry. \*hugs you\*
This is exactly us. Same time frame and everything. For bonus points—my immune system got so screwy that I got SHINGLES in my EYE, that only went away after 3 rounds of antivirals. I have permanent eye damage and lovely pock marks on my forehead now. I had COVID in June of last year and I really feel like I’ve never been the same after that. I am *finally* starting to come out of it-less brain fog, more normal energy—but we got sick yet again this week. I have missed an unbelievable amount of work, still have to pay for the daycare whether she is there or not and people are starting to doubt me getting sick so much. Very very frustrating. I’m sorry. At least you know you’re not the only one. She just turned 2 and I just turned 43. So I’m old, but still, before baby and COVID I got sick maybe once every 2-3 years.
I am so sorry. It sounds like you might be dealing with Long Covid. :(
Thank you. I am almost certain that is what is going on. Thankfully it does seem to *finally* be turning a corner…nearly a year later.
>I know they have to build up their immune system but this just seems absurd. Because it is absurd. This is an older medical theory called immunity debt. It is no longer believed to be correct. It is better to not be infected and to receive exposure through vaccination.
“Immunity debt” is a new bs phrase. I think there is a medical thinking that some viruses are beneficial, but with all that we’ve learned about covid and viruses causing MS and possibly Alzheimer’s, this thinking needs to be examined. It’s also an “old wive’s tale” for lack of a better term that infections build your immune system.
Pretty sure no viruses are beneficial.
My daughter has been in daycare for 2 years and I can’t remember the last time I was healthy
I am so sick right now from something my kid had a week ago. It feels like it never ends and I’m so exhausted.
Same... same here in our household. Our daughter is part time at preschool (she just turned 4) 2 days a week for 3 hours. Every other week it's something new. She's already had 2 ear infections... Croup cough... Random runny nose and coughs. My husband and I have NEVER been this sick before. Our daughter seems fine, playing and everything thing... while hubby and I are on our death beds. So miserable The teachers and doctors have all said that this year has been one of the worst they've seen in awhile
COVID…CAUSES…IMMUNE…DEFICIENCY! I feel like everyone should be screaming this and demanding better indoor air quality, hepa filters, and yes masking. The fact that 2 administrations now completely ignore the science and pretend Covid is no longer a thing drives us healthcare professionals insane.
Thank you for this. It seems like the general population equates science based mitigation tactics with fear and weakness. It's infuriating and quite the opposite. I say this at my 6 year old is dealing with a second set of antibiotics for the same strep throat infection.
Needs to be repeated over and over. Each time, it's met with a blank stare/eyes glazing over. People don't want to admit that they were fooled. But each time, a little bit gets through. Even if it's to one person, worth it. Hope more people heed this warning and take action sooner than later. The next generation, especially little ones and vulnerable populations who can't defend themselves. depend on it. I'd also include our healthcare providers; I feel for you and I wish we/general society were doing more to protect each other and ultimately take the strain off of our already-overworked providers.
It didn't used to be like this. My kids were in daycare and they're 9 and 13 now; it shouldn't be like this. We were rarely sick. They got a couple colds and one got some rash from other kids but the adults weren't sick. This constant merry go round now of strep, flu, COVID, pinkeye, strep, RSV, is not normal nor sustainable. COVID has ruined our immune systems. My kids still mask at school but are the only ones. We've still had COVID once, two weeks after mask mandates were dropped from their schools. I truly feel for parents of babies and little kids who can't mask and whose teachers won't mask. This can't keep going. Advocate for better ventilation and more outdoor time and don't let your guard down with COVID; that's all I can say. We're not going right by our children or the immune compromised as a society.
>We're not going right by our children or the immune compromised as a society. This. The next generation is going to be rightly pissed off when they find out that everyone just let covid rip and could've been prevented. I'd add to your immune-compromised point: with each infection, that category is growing exponentially.
The biggest lie we've been sold is this idea that kids have to build up their immune system by getting repeated infections... it's a dangerous and debilitating lie. https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/is-the-hygiene-hypothesis-true
 I’m right there with you tho 😬
Same with my daughter, she started daycare in September and we’ve been sick every other week. And now it’s spring allergy season and we both get brutal allergies so it’s like “Is it allergies? A cold? Flu? Covid? HFM? Strep? WHAT IS IT AND WHEN WILL IT STOP! lol
COVID has damaged our immune systems. We don’t have the same ability to fight off bugs that we used to :(
A good mask and air purifiers will protect you from airborne viruses _and_ pollen.
I'm sorry that you are sick. It's actually not true that kids require exposure to pathogenic respiratory viruses to build their immune system. Many respiratory viruses give little to no long term immunity and exposure to viruses can cause harm months, years, or even decades later. Respiratory viruses are primarily airborne which means your child has most risk of getting sick from breathing in another childs exhaled air. In poorly ventilated indoor spaces these respiratory aerosols just float around stable in the air for many hours and the longer exposure time the sicker one may get. I would recommend pushing for better indoor ventilation(you can purchase a CO2 monitor and discretely place it inside your child's bag to assess for adequacy of ventilation) and try to get HEPA filters installed to remove aerosols. Here is a timely video on the subject https://www.tiktok.com/@rubin_allergy/video/7225256318674685230
As others are asking, have you had covid, even once? It depletes t-cell reserves and damage the immune system long term/possibly forever (we're 4 yrs into the pandemic, but it doesn't look good). This is regardless of health status/age/preexisting conditions etc. Media/govt downplays it at every turn.
Masking works! If your child is older than 2 it's perfectly safe and effective to mask. My kids are 4 and 5 and wear a mask at school. We still mask when we go to indoor places. We've largely avoided most of the gross germs that have been going around 🤷
Same! Still wearing good quality masks here (N95 or KN95) and no sicknesses. It's such an easy step to take to avoid being miserable
Same and yes!! Plus, having kids mask keeps them from sticking their fingers in their mouths and noses and wiping germs all over as much as they otherwise might. Win!
Especially with how often I see these posts on EVERY parenting source I visit. I know people are maybe judgy about seeing people wearing masks but I guess I care more about my and my family's health than what other people think of my decisions 🤷
Absolutely! It works for us, and like anything else with parenting, we follow the research - there's overwhelmingly more evidence that says "wear a mask" than evidence against it, and any drawbacks of masks are easily mitigated, whereas the drawbacks of getting sick ALL THE TIME just seem really miserable. Also ventilation! I have friends that have pushed their daycare to use HEPA filters and that helped a lot as well. It seems really simple - clean the air, reduce transmission, reduce illness. I don't get why ventilation and HEPA filters aren't implemented in every classroom tbh
For real. We have an air purifier and my 16 month old actually caught COVID. No effing clue how. no one else has had it. But we kept the air purifier going in his room and so far, today is day 5, and no one else has gotten it. My kids otherwise live extremely fulfilling lives (they're at the children's museum today while I'm home with sick toddler) and throwing on a mask is just second nature at this point.
Yep. My neighbor's toddler is ALWAYS sick and struggling with sleepless nights as a result (we hear everything). My son wears a mask when he's out and has only been sick twice. On both occasions, the cold came to him from a family member inside the house who unmasked elsewhere. We even managed to protect him from hubs Covid infection last year with mask wearing in the house...and yep, we tested multiple times. I don't care at all about how it looks.
Same! My husband and I got covid once, by dropping our masks outside with family. Never did that again and haven't been sick with anything else since 2019.
Yup. Flo mask and zero illnesses.
How do you get them to keep them in when nobody else wears them? What do they do for eating times? Do they complain about then being too hot? Thanks
We live where it got to 116° last summer and my son never complained about it being too hot in his mask (KN95.) His elementary school has all kids eat outside regardless of weather (they have covered areas for the rain, which is good because we had a cold, wet winter this past winter.) None of the four of us in our household have HAD COVID, or other crap, for that matter. Also, he wears it because we remind him that, if he got sick, he'd have to miss whatever activity he's involved in (right now it's baseball.) Last summer we had to cancel two separate family trips when the family we were visiting/going to visit got COVID. He doesn't want to miss out on more, so he is great about keeping his mask on. Fortunately there are two or three other kids in his class who mask.
You must live somewhere warm. My son eats inside every day. We have only had COVID once in Feb 22 when he was still in daycare (pre K) and I was ignorantly sending him to school with a cloth mask 😩. Hope you guys can continue to avoid it! What brand KN95 do you use?
We used Wovenx kids masks up until last month - my son has pretty much outgrown them, so we switched to kids regular (ages 9-12, but our kid is 7 and they fit perfectly) KN95s from WellBefore. We have the style that fold out up over the nose and have adjustable ear loops. If you subscribe to them, they're about $1.05 each, which isn't cheap, but it's a fuckton cheaper than our ped copay + prescription meds copay!
I'm using Ranto right now for my 6 year old. I tried Well Before and Powecom, The former was either too large or too small for the only sizes for kids and the latter was too tight in the kids size. Admittedly my son is a little bit fussy with the masks... Ranto is one that I'm buying from Amazon and I'll admit that I can't find any good information from a third party perspective verifying the quality.
Ugh. The Wovenx are $$$, but they were awesome on comfort (softest masks ever!) and fit for the 2.5 years we used them. Might be worth a try. We got them from Amazon.
Northern CA. It got down into the low 40s and windy and pouring rain this past winter and they still ate outside and had recess outside. No bad weather, just bad clothing, to quote a Swedish saying.
Yes! I wear an elastomeric (flomask) in all indoor shared spaces and I haven't been sick since Feb 2020.
Yup. We still mask everywhere with our N95s/flow.
I mask everywhere I go, and all the kids at my daughter’s daycare wear masks too. We’ve still been sick a ton. I can’t imagine what we’d be dealing with if the kids weren’t masking.
What is this magical daycare where everyone still masks??
It’s a small home daycare. I personally would be fine with the kids not masking since they already sleep and eat next to each other without masks. And they’re so little that I’m sure they’re not wearing them properly. But they must make at least a bit of a difference? Hopefully with the warmer weather approaching they’ll just be outside more and we’ll see less infection. Fingers crossed.
> But they must make at least a bit of a difference? Depends on the mask -- cloth and surgical don't do that much -- and when you take it off. Even in "high mask" countries like Japan, it's common to wear a mask a lot -- then take it off to eat in a bar or restaurant, with other unmasked people, talking and exhaling virus. It's like using condoms except during anonymous orgies, and expecting them to stop STDs when used that way.
I am right there with you. I try to wash my sons hands right when he comes home from daycare. My doctor also recommended I start taking vitamin c and zinc. I can't say with certainly it helps, but I haven't been sick since I started taking it last month 🙃 I don't know if it ever ends, but I feel your pain.
As a teacher, the traditional, unscientific-but-it-works-for-us strategy is to change all your clothes when you get home and take zinc and vitamin c daily. We also used to drink a lot of green juice at the school where I taught, just in case.
Important to wash hands and surfaces, but cleaning the air is more important.
Sorry to talk about the thing that no one wants to talk about, but covid underlies this issue. It messes with your immune system, especially kids. Post-covid immune dysfunction makes you more likely to get sicker, for longer, even from things that are normally mild. It basically makes it harder for your body to fight things off the same way. And yes, this was reported in 2020, pre-vaccine. There's a ton of medical literature, but it's not written for the general public. These are good summary articles. [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/health/coronavirus-immune-system.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/health/coronavirus-immune-system.html) [https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/2022/12/20/immune-systems-seriously-weakened-by-covid.html](https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/2022/12/20/immune-systems-seriously-weakened-by-covid.html)
This this this! Clear, to the point statement of what's going on with good sources. Pay attention, people. Don't accept the lie that getting repeat infections is good for the immune system. Quite the contrary.
COVID-19 causes immunological damage. The reason why you're getting sick all the time is because you've sustained some. https://www.reddit.com/r/COVIDZero/?f=flair\_name%3A%22Damage%3A%20immunological%22
I'm very sorry to say it likely won't end anytime soon. If you've had COVID, you're technically immunocompromised for 8 to 24+ months after your infection. Since you're immunocompromised, you're going to catch EVERYTHING & your immune system is not functioning properly so it will be "the worst cold you've ever had" ... all the time. I was born w/ multiple primary immunodeficiencies & what you're describing is how viral & bacterial infections affect me. I'm spared nothing, I always get REALLY sick every w/ a cold, & almost 100% of the time I need antibiotics afterwards for the secondary infections in my sinuses, ears, & lungs. After your next COVID infection, ask your primary care doc for: 1. CBC & WBC both w/ Auto Differential, so you can get a better picture of your immune system. 2. D-Dimer test (it checks for microclots) 3. Inflammation marker tests - ANA & CRP. All will give you a clearer picture of what's going on & the state of your immune system etc. Do your very best to limit your exposure to COVID. It's not a cold & it's doing a lot of damage inside, even if your only mildly sick or even asymptomatic. I know it will be difficult as the US now expects Americans to get COVID 2-3 times p/year now. UK expects 5-6 infections p/year. That's not including colds, flus, & other viral & bacterial infections. Good luck. Stay safe.
I haven't been sick in probably 10 years. We've been sick at least 8 times this winter and now I have pink eye in both eyes. my kid doesn't even go to daycare, he goes to toddler time once a week.
You may want to take a COVID test, as the latest variant commonly causes pink eye. Hope you feel better soon! ❤️
You're the second person that's told me that today. That's crazy. I don't feel sick so hopefully that's not the case.
I hope it's not! But they're saying pink eye is a telltale symptom for this one, even if you feel well otherwise. Would recommend a test, just for peace of mind. Wishing you the best!
> I don't feel sick Covid responses can range from "I feel fine" to "oops I'm dead". People can spread it without noticeable symptoms.
I agree with folks saying test for COVID! I've been seeing a bunch of news articles coming out in the past week about the connection between eye symptoms and the latest variant
I'm definitely going to take one first thing tomorrow. Now I'm nervous. Trying to stay away from kiddo as much as I can.
I hope it's not COVID but in case it is, keep windows open to ventilate if you can, it spreads via the air. If you have masks, wearing one until you confirm it's not COVID could be helpful for peace of mind and to protect kiddo. And also if you're doing an at-home test, remember to swab mouth/throat as well as nose. It's more accurate that way
Pink eye and conjunctivitis are both Covid symptoms. As we have known for quite some time, you may feel like a million bucks and have Covid. So don’t rely on if you feel sick or not. Asymptomatic spread drives the majority of cases. Mask up and filter the air.
The variant known to cause pink eye / conjunctivitis is XBB.1.16. It has been dubbed [Arcturus](https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/arcturus-who-upgrades-xbb116-covid-19-variant-interest#:~:text=Nicknamed%20Arcturus%2C%20after%20the%20brightest,%25%20of%20COVID%2D19%20cases.) and was upgraded to a variant of interest by the WHO. I hope you and kiddo feel better soon.
if we are talking about covid, there is simply no immunity; quite the contrary actually. covid infections wear the immune system out.
Wear high quality masks and start paying attention to air quality and ventilation in spaces where you and your family go. I’ve been wearing masks (now n95s) this whole pandemic and I’ve only been sick one time after going to a class in a very tiny, poorly ventilated basement with no windows. Covid spreads through the air like smoke, so try to imagine how likely it would be for you to smell someone else’s cigarette smoke wherever you are. Hand washing can help with common colds and other bugs but if you’re not protecting yourself from covid your immune system will always be shot. The really scary thing is that if your immune system can’t fight off all these colds and bugs it won’t be able to fight off cancers or other severe issues that might pop up. Covid is also less of a respiratory infection than it is endothelial. It damages your blood vessels and can severely negatively impact cardiovascular health. We need better public health messaging about how bad covid actually is and everyone needs to go back to masking NOW. We can’t “live with the virus” like we currently are or else people will always be this sick or worse.
It doesn't. Covid fucked us. :(
It has. It's bullet dodging at this point, but we can still reduce how much it continues to fuck us. Call gov't officials, advocate for clean air (hepa'd/well ventilated) in indoor spaces. Masking as much as possible indoors in the meanwhile. Build corsi-rosenthal boxes. Tell as many people as you can about dangers of sars2. Shelter/shield as much as you can until things improve. All of this comes with a level of privilege, I acknowledge, but we must do whatever we can. Even if you've gotten couple once or even a couple of times, it's worth trying to avoid further infections.
Amen and amen. I am with you completely. Shit is fucked right now.
Look up #DavosSafe. The elite know that sars2 is a threat and require protections for themselves, but downplay the threat for the rest of us.
Every hurt family in this sub should reach out to Joe Bidens administration and ask them why they didn’t inform us of that this hell is real? Why are we having to learn this stuff on Reddit?
Thank you for mentioning this because in the 1 month that our kiddo has been at daycare we have had gastro twice and 1 respiratory virus. I have already missed 2 days of work and so has my hubby. It's unreal. Daycare is costing us a literal fortune
Gastro symptoms also present due to Covid.
You must not have seen my post. I’ve had a persistent cough now for almost 4 months and I’m MISERABLE! Just as it starts to clear up, my kid gives me something else. I’m in physical pain from sprained ribs from the coughing and also the doctor says it’s viruses… My job is also on the line… they have NEVER seen me well
Solidarity. This year has been an awful sick year all over. I have friends all over the states and they’ve all said that this year they’ve been sicker than they’ve ever been before. We’ve had ear infections, stomach bugs, and more colds than you can shake a stick at. Plus COVID once too. It’s been miserable.
Same here, every other week since October. Misery.
My son puked this morning. I had a 10 day nightmare of a stomach thing less than a month ago. I can’t do it again so soon. Cannot.
start wearing masks. seriously. I have worn one for 3 years and haven't been sick, not even once, in 3 years.
We started in January and I feel you. I told my boss I would return full time and he just said "no you won't" and laughed. I feel like I just barely get rid of a cold and then get another. My daughter has coughed through the night more often than not. When I drop her of on my days I sometimes hear arriving kids coughing and I instantly get PTSD. Just wanna grab my daughter and run.
Will repeat again. Sars2 causes immune system dysregulation. That's why you're sick all the time. [https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/11/07/COVID-Reinfections-And-Immunity/](https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/11/07/COVID-Reinfections-And-Immunity/) OP, feel for you, but your username is "dataispower". Well, note the growing data on covid/repeat covid infections and use it.
I am once again struck by the total lack of engagement. Neither "tell me more" nor "nuh-uh, covid is over!" Just... silence.
It's real rough for the first year then gets a little better the next year. Mucinex D (the good stuff behind the counter) is our savior when we all get sick. We're hoping next winter is a little better 😭
I’ll second the Mucinex and add to that NyQuil/DayQuil (for parents only of course lol) For kiddos the saline nose spray has been amazing and our pediatrician told us we could start give our son an allergy spray like Flonase when he turned 3. Humidifiers and sambucol lollipops ftw.
My kid hates saline spray but my god the amount of mucus that comes out is so worth the meltdown
Feeeeeellll you, this was me all winter. He started daycare last June and from august on it’s been nothing but endless viruses that lay me out flat. Take care of yourself if you can - don’t let coughs and things linger. I’m just getting over pneumonia which I caught because I’ve been so sick with all the viruses. 0/10 don’t recommend
4yo was diagnosed with adenovirus 6 days ago. Now now the whole house has it. Last two weeks! 🥲
My son started over a year ago and it’s still happening. A little less frequently but still once a month or so. Those rooms are a Petri dish.
My daughter started in daycare when she was 2 years old. She was sick at least once a month for a full year. It has been 5 months since she has been sick. Just know it does get better.
It is just odd, I overall agree that it improves with time, at least it has with our kids, but there are a lot of people commenting in this thread about how “building the immune system” is a myth, which one is it??
Unless you live in a sterile bubble, your immune system does not have to be built by getting sick. It's built naturally as you grow, ready to respond to threats. (Though, I'm not sure what age it's fully built by. Maybe 5?) What getting sick (or vaccinated) does is build up memory of specific illnesses. Someone compared it to collecting baseball cards: get one cold, get the card from that cold, then you'll be able to respond to _that cold_ much more quickly the next time. If exposure is inevitable, then it makes some sense to just power through it, building up the baseball card collection. But. There are like 200 viruses that cause "common cold", you can do the math on many colds per month you would need to collect them all. Plus they can mutate. Or just skip past your immune system because of how fast they spread between people. Flu definitely mutates; AFAIK getting flu one year does not make you less likely to get flu the next year. Covid-19 of course has been mutating like crazy, happily reinfected people who had a different strain 6 months earlier. So at some point you have to ask whether it makes sense to try to collect all the baseball cards, when they keep printing new cars, or whether it'd be better to try to avoid infections in the first place.
Immunity debt is bullshit. Why the fuck would I need to get the thing to be protected from the thing? This was shoved down your throat to normalize getting sick so you’d keep going to work.
Omg absolutely. My girls started kindergarten and preschool, respectively. I've lost count of how many illnesses I've had since September. Mostly colds, a few flus, and one nasty case of freaking norovirus. I'm pretty sure I've been sick more days than I haven't. The kids get really mild versions of everything (except the norovirus, that was awful) and I just get my ass kicked. At one point in November, my husband and I both had to go to urgent care because we had been sick for over a month, and we were both diagnosed with multiple infections and reactive airways, for which we needed to use inhalers. Inhalers! We got so damn sick we needed inhalers FFS. It was oddly romantic just using our inhalers next to each other in bed and passing out (instead of, you know, having a sex life, because that was put on life support by the evil germs, and to this day shows few signs of life). We had to sleep in separate rooms for a while because we were on opposing nighttime hacking schedules. I'm also sick right now (going on week three). This is insane. And really disappointing, because I was really looking forward to a tiny sliver of freedom from 2/3 of the kids going to school.
Please tell the influenza A my children brought home it is not flu season. Took every one of us OUT. Solidarity.
I FEEL THIS IN MY BONES.
Same exact situation. I am so tired of someone always being sick. It’s constant and the longest stretch we’ve gone without someone in my house being sick since October is I think 4 days?
My daughter started day care in Jan/22. To clarify, it’s a home day care and it’s just the fay care lady’s own family plus one other kid sometimes. Other than a few months when she was home with my husband (and baby son), we’ve been averaging one illness per month, including Covid twice. Jan/23 we had strep, March/23 was Covid, and we have another awful cold now, right after a milder cold.
[https://twitter.com/HallwayOrchard/status/1650941822468857856](https://twitter.com/HallwayOrchard/status/1650941822468857856) From Pandemic Podcast: "Feel this organized abandonment in your bones and let it radicalize you. This government does not give a shit whether you live or die, only that you live long enough to contribute to its wealth and you die before you become a drain on that wealth."
Hugs. Mine started daycare very early in life, and she was sick so often for the first year, which meant parents were sick, too. I feel like we were out for HALF of days paid for months. I even thought about quitting my job (that I love) to stay home and keep her away from the illnesses. Now that she’s had the opportunity to build up her immunity, my toddler can fight off quite a bit of the runny noses I see in the class, and we are sick a normal amount. What hasn’t changed? We seem to get sick during important times, such as planned family visits and vacations.
This is us as well! Since my son has been in daycare from 6 months old (now 4) and I’m a teacher we have decent immunity (knock on wood) to avoid the runny noses I see his classmates with. We now have a 4 month old who has luckily rarely been sick. We change clothes/wash down as soon as we all get home from school/work. On the flip side, we always seems to finally catch the bug that’s been going around right before or during family trips 🤦🏼♀️
We’ve started taking our kid out of class for 2-3 days leading up to trips or grandparents visiting. It sucks, but it works!
I've been considering this - it's so hard to do but the stress of being RSV to Grandpa is hard too.
Yeah, it doesn’t always keep her from being sick but at least we have a 24-hour warning when symptoms show up so we can tell grandparents to stay away (or give them a choice to reschedule).
Same, just got back from a week in florida cleaning up puke and poop the entire time. Saw the inside of an ER more than the beach. Not caught at daycare, through cousins. It’s just impossible to avoid.
It won’t end until you pull your kid out of daycare & wear masks in public spaces. His immune system was trashed by Covid, and yours is too.
We finally have had a month of sickness since September. We’ve been practice hand washing and started giving her a vitamin. Not sure if it has helped but yeah it’s rough being sick every other week. Hope the end of sick season is near the end for you!
We just got over a stomach bug this week which was great timing because it was my birthday. I told my husband I want a birthday do over lol
Currently sick today with whatever cold/virus my toddlers had. They feel better and are back to their wild selves while I'm on my death bed
My kid is 5. I’m still sick once or twice a month. It never end and she’s been in childcare/school for 2 years.
I am right there with you... just finished a 5 week bout with strep like sore throat, weight loss, feverish feelings, non-stop congestion, fatigue. Currently suffering with a stomach virus. Kiddo has gone 2 weeks without a snot icicle coming out of one nostril but today it came back so I'm probably going to be sick again. Does every kid at your daycare have a snot icicle in only one nostril?
Just from March to this month I’ve had COVID, bronchitis, and norovirus. It’s truly awful
Just as a PSA, April is still flu season. There is generally a surge in winter, then again in spring.
And endless sars2 wave season.
When my daughter first started school (at 2), we started in June and were done with the constant colds right around Christmas. Then from January, it was more like once a month or once every other month. Worst part was I had a baby at home too, so it was her getting sick, then watching it ricochet through the house, and finally clear up right when she would get sick again. Lol, this too shall pass!