Daycare illness

Hi! Sorry I don't post on here often, but I lurk quite a bit and need some advice~

My twins are 16 mos old and go to daycare. They are SICK all the time. We had a really good few months over the summer, no illness, but in the last 3 weeks we have all been sick going on 4 times now. 1st a cold, then ear infection, then stomach flu and now what seems like might be the flu. This is what it was like last winter. I don't think I can take another winter like this.
For all of you other moms who take your kids to daycare, does this happen to you too? Do you do anything extra to try to prevent illness? I just don't know what else to do. We wash hands all the time, disinfect the house regularly, I don't know what to do.

I need advice please!!!!

 

Mine started daycare in January (2006) when they were 8 weeks old. That first winter they didn't get sick much because all the babies in the baby room were too little to move around. (Although Sarah did still manage to get a mild case of RSV at 3 months.) But the second winter, when they were around 12 months, WOW. We were lucky that they didn't get anything serious, but they had nearly constant colds.

Amy came down with bad croup the following fall (around 23 months) and had a milder relapse a month or two later. But other than that, their 3rd winter in daycare was much, much better than the 2nd. And the year after that was better still. They still do get colds, but no more often (I don't think) than kids who don't go to daycare. It was just that first toddler winter that was a whopper.

As far as preventing it, there isn't much more you can do. Our daycare has all kids wash their hands when they arrive, and we always wash hands when we come home. They also have to wash their hands every time they get their diapers changed, whenever they come in from outside, and whenever they leave the classroom and then come back in. (Stock up on Aquaphor! Sarah's hands actually bleed sometimes.) They also disinfect like crazy, but the germs still just go around.

 

My girls started daycare in Nov. 2008 at 6 months, and that winter, they were pulled out several times for having a cold (and later pnemonia). Things cleared up by April, and we have been ok until now. They have had minor colds. I'm not sure what to expect this 2nd year. Our primary care giver said the first year at daycare is the worst.

Like pp, the daycare constantly is washing hands, and we do the same at home. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this coming winter!

 

My girls only went to daycare twice a week and they seemed to catch something all the time. It seemed like every weekend one of them was running a fever. Now that they don't go, they've been sick once in two months. It's just hard when they are this age to keep them from sticking their hands in their mouths and then touching a toy or sneezing all over something and spreading germs. Our daycare disinfected every day and washed their hands, but it just didn't keep them from germs, unfortunately.

 

With my DD (singleton), her 1st winter was the sickest and she was 8 mo old when she started there, so very mobile. She's been healthy ever since. With the boys, last winter they got sick all the time. But that was when they were in that crawling stage where hands are on the floor, hands are in the mouth, and everything else was in the mouth. I'm hoping this winter goes much better as they're walking/running everywhere and don't chew on toys as much.

 

Mine were constantly sick that first winter. DS has asthma so every time he got sick, he would wheeze & we'd have to keep him home to do round-the-clock breathing treatments. I was missing so much work that I really worried I was going to lose my job (not to mention that the stress of dealing with 2 constantly sick kiddos made me feel like I was gonna lose my mind!!). We finally had enough & switched them to a smaller, in-home care center. Things got much better there, however, we switched at the beginning of summer so I think that probably had something to do with it.

Hang in there & I hope your kiddos get better & stay well for a long time!!!

 

There isn't anything you can do to prevent it. Kids get sick, it's what they do.

Even if they aren't in daycare, they get sick. And if they are in daycare AT LEAST they are getting it over with FASTER. I guess that's the bright side.

Mine are not in daycare BUT we are in classes all week and I make sure we are ALWAYS with other kids. I practice handwashing common sense but I'm not overly concerned w/ "preventing" anything cuz i know it really isn't going to help. Mine are sick often and I'm okay with it cuz I know they are going to get sick NO MATTER WHAT and that it's actually good for their immune systems to be exposed to germs etc.

Use common sense w/ handwashing etc but remember (and I know it's hard w/ two SICKOS), that they DO need to get these sicknesses at one time or another and you might as well start knocking them out now.

I have to admit that I HATE dealing with two sick kids BUT.. I kind of keep reminding myself that it 'has to be done' and you just cannot fight it. Germs/Illness/Bacteria are just forces that truly cannot be reckoned with.

Keep your chin up. What's happening is TOTALLY normal and eventually (altho it will take some time) they will not be AS sick and then they will not be sick as often.

I was in daycare from age five to 12, and I was ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS sick, sometimes very sick. BUT.. the bright spot is, once I reached about 10 years old- I rarely got sick. Now today, as an adult, I catch NOTHING!

Germs are our friends dressed up as enemies