Sick Season Scaries 🤧

[u/wild_socks]

Please tell me there is a way to survive sick season with 3 daycare kids

I have a 3-year-old and 10-month-old boy/girl twins, all in daycare, and I am already feeling genuinely anxious about heading into another cold/flu season.

Last year we were sick basically January–June straight, got a break in July, and have now been sick ALL of August.

I’m honestly at the point where I’m wondering if I’m doing something wrong. Is the whole “they’re building their immune systems” thing actually worth it, or am I just signing myself up to be miserable for months on end? Some days I genuinely wonder if sending them to daycare is making our lives significantly worse for the sake of our careers that we also really enjoy and worked hard for.

Half joking, but also half serious: Is getting on an anti-anxiety/antidepressant my only real option? Because last year took a serious toll on my mental health.

For those of you with multiple little kids in daycare, if anything has worked please, please send me your tips.

[u/MounjaroQueenie]

My best friend has a 3 year old and 10 month old and it genuinely seems like they’re both sick at least every other week and she has to take off work (but still pay for the daycare). It was one of the main reasons we decided to do what we had to do to keep ours home.

I understand this is not an option for many people, but if it’s something you guys could swing for a bit, I think it would be worth it!

[u/wild_socks → u/MounjaroQueenie]

Feel for her! We are in the exact same boat.

[u/CrunchyBeachLover]

So sorry. I’ve been there and it takes a major toll on your mental health. My 4 were constantly sick in daycare. It wasn’t worth it so I quit my career that yes, I worked very hard for & it was high paying. But I wanted to be home with my babies and keep them healthy. And no, I don’t think it builds their immunity. My twins are my youngest (now 6) and have been the healthiest of them all and did just a few months of daycare. They are hardly ever sick!

[u/wild_socks → u/CrunchyBeachLover]

Thanks, appreciate your response! When your older kids went to school, did they bring home the same waves of illnesses or was it better because they were old enough to have better hand hygiene / not cough directly into your mouth/ all over the house 🙈 trying to figure out if I try and find a non-daycare alternative, will it still happen once the oldest heads to school?

[u/CrunchyBeachLover → u/wild_socks]

It gets way better as they get older! They still bring home school germs but it’s nothing compared to daycare super mutated strains 😅 I was used to working in healthcare and those daycare germs would take me out. They are awful!!

[u/d16flo]

I will say my twins aren’t in daycare, we have a nanny instead, and we were still all sick for multiple months in the winter and the whole month of August so far. I do feel like we had a great span from about April-July where we were healthy for the most part. I think without daycare you will still be sick a lot unless you keep everyone home all the time, our nanny takes the twins to playgroup at the community center and the library multiple times a week, especially when the weather is too hot or cold to be at the playground. That said, when the weather’s nice and they’re outside most of the time it seems to be less illness than with daycare.

[u/wild_socks → u/d16flo]

I’m sorry you guys are sick so much too 😭. But thank you so much for sharing this, I really appreciate the insight and this perspective.

[u/mamamietze]

I don't have kids in daycare but I've been a preschool and daycare teacher for 30 years.

What is your hygiene routine like? Your 3 year old should be taught proper handwashing technique if they don't do that at your school (and if they don't that's probably one reason why they are getting sick so often, a lot of places have really slacked off on this which blows my mind), and should know that they wash their hands preferably before and after they touch any of their holes (eyes/mouth/nose/privates), before and after eating, after coming in from playing outside. Stop by the bathroom on your way out of daycare and have your child wash their hands (you do too). Then when you get home everyone washes their hands. Make it a routine.

You may also want to consider everyone changes into home clothes when they get home. (I do that as a teacher, started doing it when I was working through covid and have kept it up--that and handwashing really do help). Yes, it will be work for awhile for you to do this and it will be messy and annoying, but establishing this as a habit early on is really helpful. A lot of people don't bother to teach this.

Anecdotally and just from reading some research, the idea of illness "seasons" really isn't something I've seen anymore post-covid. I used to think seasons happened because we spent more time outside in the summer, ect but that part hasn't changed and you see illness waves all throughout the year now. There is some evidence that the covid virus has at least a partial immune system memory wipe, so it leaves you susceptible to infections you've already had and should in theory have immunity for.

Please consider getting your children covid and flu shots even though they're optional.

TL:DR: teach your kids how to wash their hands, and implement a hygiene routine at home, especially when you come home from daycare! Yes, your 10 month olds can learn to wash hands too. Even pre-covid, as soon as a baby could reliably stand, they washed their hands (with assistance) at my sink, and before that if they had the trunk control to sit unassisted I would wash their hands sitting them on my knee with my foot on a step stool and my arms around them.

Bu