How often do your young kids get sick? 8 and under

[bbsweetpea]

I have a 3 year old, 5 year old and newly 8 year old. I work at a Mothers Day out 2x a week and my kids either go to school there or are there doing their schoolwork upstairs (it is held at our church). We also have church, field trips, park days and acting during the week. So we are around a bunch of children. We also live in central Texas and all have allergies (mold, oak and ragweed).

 

Lately when we get sick I hear comments about how we are ALWAYS sick and there must be mold or something in our house. There are 5 of us. If one of us gets sick we are pretty much guaranteed to pass it around to at least 2 more. My 3 year old has ear infections about 3 times a year. My 8 year old and I tend to have allergies and get strep/or virus germs once every 3-4 months. My 5 year old occasionally (like once a year) will come down with something. My husband gets sick maybe once every other year. Then there is the random stomach bugs that we get once or twice a year. Plus add on allergies and sinus infections due to allergies ... someone is sick every month or two.

 

Honestly, I have felt like it was normal until people made comments. My kids all have their tonsils and have never had tubes. Their doctor does not feel like it is needed and honestly why have surgery unless we have too. I have a very weak immune system due to an auto immune disease. I catch things easily. I also have asthma so I have always gotten ill easily.

 

This year has been harder on us for illness but last year we were well most of the time.

 

SO ... does this seem normal? How do you prevent illness when you are so active? We do probiotics, vitamin c, a daily vitamin and a little extra D vitamin just to help. We eat pretty healthy and drink lots of water.

 

I guess I am just annoyed at the comments I have been getting. Some of them seem to blame it on the fact we homeschool. They think if we left the house we would not be sick so much. Like my house is breeding germs or something. Ummm if we did not leave the house we probably would NOT get sick as much. It is playing with all the darn kids that get us sick. :tongue_smilie:

Edited May 13, 2011 by bbsweetpea
should read before posting. Embarassing spelling errors.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

Seems like alot to me but my kids rarely get sick. My 13 year old has spring allergies. I think the last time the stomach bug was in our house was 2 years ago right after a Valentines party with the homeschoolers (yup, they got the WHOLE group sick :001_huh:) I had a nasty cold about 2 years ago. We all had the sniffles this winter and ds had a mysterious fever about a month ago but other than that, that is it

[kitten18]

Hmmm, I'm probably not going to make you feel any better.

 

 

We rarely get sick. The kids get a couple colds in the winter and we did all have a mild stomach bug this winter but that is it. DS was on antibiotics 1x for an ear infection, DD has never been on antibiotics. We are out of the house every day for ballet, swim lessons, or to play with friends. Until recently, DS went to preschool.

 

I don't know why we don't get sick. I keep hand wipes and gel in the car but we forget to use them and if we're playing at the park, I don't make the kids wash their hands before they have a snack.

 

 

What you describe for your family sounds normal to me. We just seem to be exceptionally lucky.:tongue_smilie:

[Whereneverever]

We get sick at least that much in the late fall/winter/early spring. I know it's not mold or something because we moved this year during then and still got sick a bunch. :glare:

 

Some of us just seem to pick it up. All of it. :tongue_smilie:

[I.Dup.]

It is playing with all the darn kids that get us sick. :tongue_smilie:

 

Uhh, yes!! I don't know how you do it. I would go nutty being in crowds and passing sicknesses around like that, but I am very careful because sickness in the house is VERY hard on me.

 

My children hardly ever get sick, but we avoid situations like you've described for the most part. None of them have ever had an ear infection, I can count the colds on one hand, although we have gotten several stomach bugs :(

 

AFA "building immunity" they are free to do that when they get older and can take care of themselves, but when I'm the primary caretaker I try to be as careful as possible! I also don't enjoy social situations like you described at ALL so that's another reason we avoid them. Staying healthier sure is a bonus though!

[Rosy]

It seems like once a year we'll catch something that knocks us out for a day or two, and then it takes a day or two to recover. A fever or a stomach flu or something. When one of us gets it, we pretty much all get it (except for DH, he rarely gets sick and when he does it's not nearly as bad as the rest of us. We might also get a couple colds or a mild flu/fever type thing where we can still function but probably can't do activities, etc.

 

Your family's immune systems might be depressed by allergies. It might be worth doing a really good hard-core cleaning, keeping the pets in the garage and getting all new pillows, and see if that helps. If it makes a difference, you might invest in household modifications that will help keep allergies at bay.

[joannqn]

Not counting seasonal and food allergies, we've been sick with a cold once this cold/flu season. For DH and I, that led to sinus infections. The last time we were pukey was winter 2009.

 

We used to get sick more often, but I don't know what changed.

[klmama]

Ummm if we did not leave the house we probably would NOT get sick as much. It is playing with all the darn kids that get us sick. :tongue_smilie:

 

:iagree: Some people don't seem to think a thing about sending their little darlings off to play with other kids while they have fevers, runny noses, or tummy issues. After all, we can't let them miss out on all the fun! It drives. me. nuts.

 

Vitamin D. Lots of it. Lots of hand washing. Learn which friends simply don't understand and ask them directly every time you plan to see them if everyone in their house is healthy - including adults! (My friend once told me her dc were all healthy, so I took my dc over for a play date while I ran an errand. I didn't find out until I went back to pick them up that my friend herself had a bad cold and that she had prepared food my dc ate. Yep. Dc caught the cold and it took weeks to run its course through the whole family.)

 

If you really want things to change, I suggest you reduce how many group activities you do and limit time with friends who repeatedly put your health at risk. You know that's where the problems start! Your dc will get sick less often as they get older because their immune systems will be stronger and because their friends will be better about hand washing, not coughing on them, etc. In the meantime, be patient, teach your dc good hygiene skills, and avoid those germ-filled situations as much as you can!

[bbsweetpea]

It seems like once a year we'll catch something that knocks us out for a day or two, and then it takes a day or two to recover. A fever or a stomach flu or something. When one of us gets it, we pretty much all get it (except for DH, he rarely gets sick and when he does it's not nearly as bad as the rest of us. We might also get a couple colds or a mild flu/fever type thing where we can still function but probably can't do activities, etc.

 

Your family's immune systems might be depressed by allergies. It might be worth doing a really good hard-core cleaning, keeping the pets in the garage and getting all new pillows, and see if that helps. If it makes a difference, you might invest in household modifications that will help keep allergies at bay.

 

I recently replaced all the pillows, all of the kids mattresses and we pulled up carpet in the playroom/schoolroom. I think we might do the living area and hallways over the next couple weeks. I am also thinking about getting our air ducts cleaned on our air conditioner. We have leather furniture and not a lot of "extra" stuff in the house so those things don't hold germs. We also no longer have pets due to allergies and my asthma.

 

I do dust a few times a week, vacuum daily, and wash linens 2 x a week during allergy season. We change pillow cases every other night during this season too. Right now Lysol is our friend.

 

Typically once June hits we are well until late September early October. October to December and then March to May is when we are sick the most. That is when our allergies are acting up too so it probably is connected.

Edited May 13, 2011 by bbsweetpea

[LND1218]

I have 2 with allergies plus dh.

 

We get sick one or twice a year. We all see to get a cold once a year, and every other year or so we get a tummy bug or strep or something.

[Emerkaza]

When my kids were all younger, we would get every respiratory and intestinal virus that went around. The kids went to Church, Sunday School, AWANA, dance and karate, so we were exposed to a ton of illnesses and were sick 4-5 times per year. They must have developed immunity from all those viruses, because now they rarely get sick.

[bbsweetpea]

Most of the kids that we are around that are sick happen to be at the Mothers Day Out I work at. Of course we have rules about it but we usually don't find out until it is time for them to go home that they are sick or a family member of their has been sick. A little boy in the class I teach (and my youngest is in the class) has 5 kids in the family. Their mom brings these kids NO MATTER WHAT. One day he threw up at lunch (an hour before he went home) and when the mom picked him up she stated that he had been sick the day before but she thought he was over it.

 

We only have 2 more days of school and 1 work day. I am not working next year (first time in 7 years) but my youngest will still be attending. I already asked the director about this little boy and she said that his family will not be attending next year. Hopefully this will help. I am praying that since my other two children and I are not there that we will be able to cut out the germs. We already change clothes in the washroom the minute we get home and wash hands right away. I may just need to have us all take baths or at least the little one next year when she gets home to get the germs off her.

 

At most of our other activities the parents are very good about keeping kids home if anyone in the family is sick. The only other place we run into the germ issue is church (again some families that send kids no matter what). Again we may have to start bathing after church activities to get germs off.

[Peela]

I have noticed that some families just get sick a lot more than others. No point in comparing yourselves- however, there are probably things you can do about it. It is possible that your kids inherited your weaker immune system. You might need to work harder to keep them healthy- better food, multi vitamins, warm feet in winter, no dairy for the guy who gets ear infections, some herbal tonics during cold season..that sort of thing. We do those and we rarely get sick- but it could be just genetic.

But remember, every time your kids get sick, if they are getting better without antibiotics, their immune system is getting stronger and stronger. If you have to resort to antibiotics, unfortunately that's not the case, but sometimes it is necessary. If your kids are getting antibiotics at least once a year, I would do something about it- their systems need help, simply because they are not coping with the bombardment of viruses they are coming in contact with. If not- if they can overcome the illnesses within a week or 2 without antibiotics (which only deal with secondary infections anyway, when it comes to colds flus etc) ...they will get stronger as they grow up.

Sugar depresses the immune system, and allergies put it under chronic stress. Its not really "normal" to be sick so much but it is common. I don't think its necessarily a problem, but perhaps a little help is in order.

[catz]

I don't think that seems that unusual for the age of your kids. When my kids were younger, we had more illnesses run through the house. Especially when we were out playing with other kids quite a bit. Now that the kids are a little bigger, it's better and we've hardly had anything this winter (a couple colds, 1 strep).

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

13 yo ds has had two rounds of antibiotics (once for strep and once for a nasty cat bite) and the 14 yo boy has been on antibiotics once for a mouth infection due to ortho hardware cutting into his mouth.

 

Both my husband and I have been described as "sickly children" by our parents. I had chronic ear infections and strep as a child. My dh had asthma and ear infections.

 

We have allergy-triggered sinus issues (draining, sore throats) in the spring and fall. I try to head them off with Zyrtec. We treat sinus problems with OTC meds. Many times I have found that ear infections are not infections but simply congestion in the ear and a round of decongestant relieves the pain and pressure.

 

If they have fevers, we let them go. I don't give tylenol unless the child is complaining of a headache and can't sleep. My oldest will sleep 12-15 hours straight when he is fighting some infection.

 

We don't practice much had washing or use much anti-bacterial products.

 

My oldest ate a discarded, dust-covered soft pretzel that he plucked off the floor of a shopping mall when he was a toddler. I was horrified! However, we joke that that was his "super pill" and formed his super immune system.

 

My kids have attended karate for 7 years, gone to coops and been around sick kids. They may get colds from them but that is all. We just treat with chicken soup and OTC meds.

[JennyD]

I have found that it varies wildly from year to year. Last winter was so awful I thought I was going to lose my mind; this winter we hardly got sick at all. I think it depends a lot on what we're doing (not nearly as much socializing this winter, alas) and also what bugs happen to be going around.

 

So don't lose heart! Next year could be totally different! And never mind anyone who implies that you're doing something wrong. Some people just love to run their mouths.

[TKDmom]

It sounds normal to me. During cold and flu season, we have something passed around almost every month. This year we've had several stomach bugs. Once summer comes, it lessens but I'm sure someone will catch something at some point.

 

I agree with you. It's all the kids you're around. Living in a high allergy area makes it seem worse. I seem to always have a low grade sinus infection, and I'm pretty sure it's all the allergens. I always get stuffy if I go outside while dh is cutting the grass.

[Impish]

*knocking on wood*

 

the kids rarely get sick.

 

Now, *me* on the other hand...:glare:

[Jen in PA]

Mine don't get sick very often, although we did have two hard-hitting colds in the family this spring. I think having allergies can make it look as if kids are getting sick more often than they actually are. Also, some kids really are just prone to ear infections -- my two seem pretty resistant, but my stepson had tons when he was younger, and I am watching my great-nephew go through round after round of them now.

[JudoMom]

It seemed like we were sick from the time my oldest was about 1 until the baby was over 4. Someone had something every month or 2, and it would get passed around--dh would call it our "virus of the week". I think it's common when you have younger kids and they are around other younger kids.

[BlsdMama]

My kids have gotten more sick since moving here. It is a much more moist environment and so mold & mildew is more likely. But they still get sick very rarely IMO.

 

With co-op we got sick twice this year. We've been here for 16 months and they've been sick three times. (Not all of them of course, but I can think of three separate incidences where we've passed around a bug.) And last week Ana got sick for one day. Oh, and Daniella has had this occasional cough and a sometimes runny nose. I suspect allergies. For some reason my dark haired children avoided such things but 3 out my 4 blondies have some kind of allergy. Odd, hm?

 

DH has been sick once since moving here and I've managed to avoid all of it. Hurrah for me.

 

We've only ever had ear infections twice in the last 15 years among the eight kids.

 

I have no idea if it's hereditary, environmental, or diet. It's easy to say it's diet, but we can be sneaky cheaters. :) Although I will say we don't do soda, we don't do fruit juice unless it's special occasion, we eat more vegetables than fruit, and we watch even natural sugars. We grind flour, we drink herbal teas for vitamin/mineral supplementation, and we spend a LOT of time outside - the kids are out usually at least an 1-2 hours a day during the rainy season and yesterday the littles & middles were probably outside close to 6-7 hours.

[Carrie12345]

We don't get sick very often, but illness works its way through our family very slowly. H1N1 took nearly 6 weeks to get to dd#1 and me after taking ds#1 as its first victim (and dh and the other kids in between).

So we *feel* like we deal with a lot of illness, but it's pretty much one or two bugs a year that take their sweet time.

[mamakimberly]

We had a couple really bad years when the girls were younger. It must have built up their immune systems, because now they are pretty hearty and don't get sick! (knock on wood)

 

I think the last sickness we had for the kids was right after we moved from China to America in December and our 6yo just had a fever for a day. I honestly think it was just her body's exhaustion from travel.

 

I hope it stays this way!

[twoforjoy]

When my DS was in preschool, we were literally sick from October to May every year. I'm not exaggerating. I don't think we'd have a single day between those months where somebody in the house wasn't sick with something, and often more than one of us was sick.

 

This year I watched a friend's baby for six weeks, and his older siblings were in preschool. And, what do you know, after about two years of rarely being sick, we were sick from about a week after I started watching him until maybe two weeks after we stopped.

 

Little kids pass on a lot of germs. We could always pretty much guarantee that, if we took DS to play in the little playscape in the local mall, we'd be sick within days.

[kwickimom]

I have a 3, 5 and 8YO too. I dont think any of them have had an ear infection, they all have each had like maybe 1 fever, and they get the stomach bug BAD every year. I think they save up all the sick and then they all puke for a week. :glare:

 

They rarely ever get coughs/colds/etc. The 2 youngers once got hand,foot and mouth disease. When they get sick, we get sick, but its about once a year. My 5YO has allergies, but they are no problem if we keep him on Zyrtec.

 

We do take vitamins. We take a fruit/veggie vitamin, a multi, and probiotics daily. In the winter we all take a liquid vitamin D.

 

Me and hubby rarely get sick either. I cant remember the last time I had a cold and I havent puked in 10 years :001_smile:

 

So, to me it sounds like a lot but I have 2 friends whose 8YOs get fevers/colds/coughs/headaches/stomaches about every 6 weeks.

[MamaJeanne]

My family has been sick more this spring than any that I remember. It was driving me crazy! We would get well enough to go be around people again and be sick again within the week. At out last dr. visit (a well baby checkup thank goodness) I asked the dr if it was just my family or what. He said that there has been a lot of illness this year in general. So at least I felt a little better!

[MaMa2005]

Knock on wood - we just don't get sick. DS goes to the doctor once a year for his well-check just so I can get his eczema medicine and every year I hear the same thing - "DS didn't sick at all this year?!" I was a teacher for 20+ years, DH is still teaching, and DS is with lots of children outside our home. I think we have just built up a great amount of immunity. I KNOW we are very lucky.

[CalicoKat]

I have a 3 year old, 5 year old and newly 8 year old. I work at a Mothers Day out 2x a week and my kids either go to school there or are there doing their schoolwork upstairs (it is held at our church). We also have church, field trips, park days and acting during the week. So we are around a bunch of children. We also live in central Texas and all have allergies (mold, oak and ragweed).

 

Lately when we get sick I hear comments about how we are ALWAYS sick and there must be mold or something in our house. There are 5 of us. If one of us gets sick we are pretty much guaranteed to pass it around to at least 2 more. My 3 year old has ear infections about 3 times a year. My 8 year old and I tend to have allergies and get strep/or virus germs once every 3-4 months. My 5 year old occasionally (like once a year) will come down with something. My husband gets sick maybe once every other year. Then there is the random stomach bugs that we get once or twice a year. Plus add on allergies and sinus infections due to allergies ... someone is sick every month or two.

 

Honestly, I have felt like it was normal until people made comments. My kids all have their tonsils and have never had tubes. Their doctor does not feel like it is needed and honestly why have surgery unless we have too. I have a very weak immune system due to an auto immune disease. I catch things easily. I also have asthma so I have always gotten ill easily.

 

This year has been harder on us for illness but last year we were well most of the time.

 

SO ... does this seem normal? How do you prevent illness when you are so active? We do probiotics, vitamin c, a daily vitamin and a little extra D vitamin just to help. We eat pretty healthy and drink lots of water.

 

I guess I am just annoyed at the comments I have been getting. Some of them seem to blame it on the fact we homeschool. They think if we left the house we would not be sick so much. Like my house is breeding germs or something. Ummm if we did not leave the house we probably would NOT get sick as much. It is playing with all the darn kids that get us sick. :tongue_smilie:

 

This used to be us. We were always sick for weeks. We'd go to co-op until about November and then we'd be out until April because of flu season, cold season, Picked-up-crud-on-holidy-travel-season, flu season and back to cold season.

 

I really stoked the kid's immune systems up one year feeding them lots of what was in season throughout the spring & summer months. Cut father back on sugar, and non-food additives, put an emphasis on oranges during the winter months. We had a better year. Only flu season happened and it did go to everyone. Our foster son has been in/out of the house all year long and we haven't (knock on wood) gotten any of the crud he's brought back either.

 

I think nutrition is a key to good health.

[elise1mds]

In the last year, my 8yo son has had... OK, well he currently has a cold. That's been it. He used to get sinus infections once or twice a year, but now I keep him on Zyrtec (and Pepcid, actually, because he gets hives in certain situations) and he hasn't had one in about 18 months. DD has had pneumonia two Februarys in a row and had ear infections and tubes when she was tiny, but overall she's extremely healthy. She's the one who gave DS the cold, but it didn't knock her out at all... just a bad case of sniffles and sinus pressure.

 

We are one of the healthier families I know. Most of my friends' kids seem to get sick a lot more often than mine do.

 

DH and I are rarely ill. DH tends to catch more stuff than I do, and I usually don't catch anything that's brought home by anyone else in the family. *knock wood* I was a fairly healthy kid, too, so I guess I just have a really tough immune system ;)

[Shellydon]

My kids are all under 8. In the last year, they have all been sick twice. One 4 day cold and 1 24hour fever virus.

[Parrothead]

We haven't been sick since we caught the swine flu just after Christmas of '09.

 

When we move we get all the regional viruses then we are good until we move again. The good thing is that we have immunity from all over the country.

[Anita in NC]

My kids rarely ever get sick.

 

I can't even remember when one of them went to the doctors for a sick visit, several years ago at least.

[Dawn in OH]

We don't get sick much. My first 3 children never got sick until age 2. In my 10 years of parenthood we've had 2 cases of flu, and some colds. Maybe 1 per year. Never anything more serious. We've only once had a child sick enough to see a doctor.

 

Our first 4 years we were out and about a lot. Interacting with a lot of people (mostly adults). Now we are home a lot.

 

When we were having weekly play dates we got sick more often. The other family was always sick, and never thought twice about coming over with children that shouldn't have been out socializing.

 

I shudder to think how often we would be sick if the kids attended public school and day care.

[TheApprentice]

Not very often, and even less since I pulled them out of school 3 years ago.

[bbsweetpea]

Well my husband is sick today. He went to the DR first time in years and asked her if this year has been a bad year for illness. He has a sinus infection and ear infection (they also think it could be part viral like my DD). The Doctor stated that people she never see's in her office (like DH) has been in once or twice this year will illness. It just seems like more is going around and stronger bugs than what we are used too.

 

That made me feel a little better.

[Mommy22alyns]

We rarely get sick and rarely have gotten sick, even when the girls were younger. We usually get one cold per year, with a mildly persistent cough for Becca. The girls take echinacea/vitamin C regularly, but I'm not uber vigilant about germs. Never have been. They've had all their vaccinations, but we don't do the flu vaccine anymore.

[flobee76]

My kids are little. They get a few colds a year, never turns into infections or anything like that. We really only visit the dr. for well-checks, if that. My husband get sick about once a year, I rarely get sick... I don't even catch the kids' colds. We have a little hay-fever right now, which is being controlled with homeopathic meds, sinus flushes, etc.

 

If you are concerned, I would really look into healing your and your family's gut. :) A good, healthy gut will promote a healthy immune system. Something to look into for your whole family:

 

good probiotics

lots of vitamin C

cod liver oil

 

and cut out refined carbs...those do a number on the whole body.

[The Governess]

.

[Jenny in Florida]

We've always been pretty healthy around here (she said, knocking on wood). I would say my kids never got sick to the point of missing an activity or skipping schoolwork more than maybe one or twice a year, each.

 

They were always out and about and active in the community, too. They did various classes (dance, gymnastics, drama, etc.) and lots of summer camps and homeschool group park days and so on.

 

Neither my husband nor I are prone to getting sick, though. So, maybe it's a genetic thing.

[Dinsfamily]

Hmmmm, it does seem like a lot to me but I don't think hsing is the reason.

 

My dc have been sick once in the recent past...maybe 2 years. We all got a 24ish hr stomach bug last September. It ran through the entire family starting with the 2yo. My youngest two got the sniffles a few times when ds#3 was 6-12 months but that's it. Ds#2 is attending preschool 3x/week and I expected them to be sick more often because of that but his whole class has been healthy all year.

 

Now, I've been sick an unusual amount of times (for me) in the last 18 mos. Ds#1's best friend gave me strep twice and I somehow picked up a mild flu 2 weeks ago that lasted 3 days. No one else in the house got sick. I blame a weakened immune system from a miscarriage and then pg for the strep. The flu is a mystery.

 

Could you all just be more susceptible because of the allergies? We don't have any problems with them in our family but I know how TX pollen can wreak havoc.

[justamouse]

Hardly ever, but when we do we are DOWN for the count. 6 weeks or more we will be out of commission. So I work very hard at making sure we are not sick. :grouphug:

[Satori]

We hardly ever get sick. We live up in the mountains, not sure if that matters. If my daughter does get sick, it's very mild and she never complains.

 

My daughter had a cold more often before we started homeschooling, when she attended daycare.

 

Then I visit my brother's family who is *always* sick. The 2 year old twins and 4 year old girl attend daycare. Sometimes they're seriously sick, but every time I see his kids, all 3 have runny noses that never get wiped. I've never seen any of them without snotty noses. If we do get sick, it's usually shortly after we see them.

[DawnM]

Very rarely do my kids get sick.

 

This past year I was the one who got sick far more than usual, but now I have had a healthy streak for several months.

 

Dawn

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

 

Some of us just seem to pick it up. All of it. :tongue_smilie:

 

:iagree:

 

H1N1.

 

 

Oh I forgot about that. My inlaws came to visit in Oct of '09 from Michigan and my father in law must have picked it up before coming because 2 days after he got here it hit him HARD. Then it hit dh HARD. Then me. I felt like a 90 year old. I could not move without hurting. My back hurt, legs, arms. I truly felt like an elderly person. I could hardly walk or bend over. Ugh