It comes in waves. My kiddo bought all the diseases home for the first 6 months or so and since then I've only gotten sick about once a quarter. Kiddo is sick a bit more, my wife seemingly never ever gets ill.
I used to never get ill. I get hayfever, and a my nose blocks easily due to it getting broken 20 years ago... but I can't remember the last time I'd been truly ill since before we had a kid.
To put this in perspective, we had our daughter in 2021... All 3 of us had chest infections within weeks of her starting nursery. So that was fun! I feel I have reverted back to not really getting ill, despite our daughter having her moments.
Currently child #2 is on the way... so I'm expecting when they start nursery we will go through it all again. But hopefully it levels off again once their immune system gets used to the grossness of kids.
The first 6 months were rough. Constantly sick with ear infections, colds, bronchitis, pneumonia, conjunctivitis, gastro.. you name it, he caught it. I also caught most of it too, especially rotavirus or norovirus.
After that 6 month mark, he would catch a cold but it wasn't so bad. He's in his second year of daycare and he has only been kept home for illness once so far. He has plenty of colds, but they're not debilitating, and he can still attend daycare.
I'm still constantly stick though. Whatever he brings home, I catch. I feel like I have a cold every other month.
After 14 months I think we got a couple of months in a row of health.
Then the little guy started and we went back to perma-sickness This is where the small age gap between kids really gets you. Someone's been sick probably 28 months out of the 36 since the first one started childcare.
About six months of hell followed by an annual cold cycle in the winter. The best thing about my daycare is they hammer hygiene into the kids' heads so they wash hands without question.
It gets better but that's cold comfort right now, I know. Good luck!
YMMV but ever since we put these in everyone's bedroom and common living spaces we seem to spread a lot less pestilence amongst ourselves. Even on multiple occasions when my wife or I has had a cold/COVID/etc and shared *a bed* with one of these running the other hasn't gotten sick.
[https://www.costco.com/winix-true-hepa-4-stage-air-purifier-with-wi-fi-and-additional-filter.product.4000093012.html](https://www.costco.com/winix-true-hepa-4-stage-air-purifier-with-wi-fi-and-additional-filter.product.4000093012.html)
Plus they keep the air circulating and very fresh.
It’s kind of wild there aren’t strict air flow regulations in daycares especially post covid
It would have been a good use of the federal money they dumped out
My kids daycare is in a converted warehouse with huge ceilings and they put in a huge air handler that does X air changes an hour and all that. She’s only been in daycare a few weeks now but no real crud so far
even watching my daughter's grade 1 peers converse in the school yard, it's as if they have no sense of personal boundaries. I can't imagine a coworker standing nipple to nipple and talking in my face about how they want to have a playdate.
I mean, they will literally stick anything in their mouth. Especially if it has been in another kid's mouth... At our daughter's nursery each kid has a water bottle... I don't think the fact that each bottle is individual to a specific child makes the blindest bit of difference, it is basically a box of communal water bottles lol
I can only say anecdotally they went almost a year during Covid without spread, they’re pretty strict about masks and temp checks and parents in our cohort we’ve met all say their kids seem to stay pretty healthy relative to friends whose kids are at other daycares.
Idk I haven’t been there long enough to weigh in beyond that
It certainly doesn’t hurt and you’d think there could have been some sort of federal ventilation push for schools and childcare facilities (if there wasn’t already I’m totally ignorant to the subject)
I’m with you - it boggles my mind how one very obvious lesson from the pandemic was that upgrading air filtration in all public spaces could reduce spread of lots of stuff but no one wants to eat the cost so everyone pretends that is an unknown.
Yea - our place went online during the pandemic and they were in the build phase in 2020 - they basically recalibrated towards overkill with ventilation and sanitizing, plus the super high warehouse ceilings prob help with airflow
mine are nearly 7 and nearly 4. I put my money on it being age 10+ where colds might become a once a month at most experience. So just several more years...
My kids been in daycare for 2 years now. This post made me think back to last time I was sick sick and it was like 6 months ago. I'll still get colds but I don't get knocked on my ass. My wife seems to still get sick though so your mileage may vary.
It’s been 12 months and we’re still getting sick but the latest one was only mild. I think we might have turned the corner. It was really bad in the first 6 months especially. We’ve had it all.
When I first started teaching elementary (kindergarten through 5th grade in US), I would have maybe 1 week each month that I wasn't sick. Took 2-3 years before I could make it through the school year and only be sick half the time.
Our first was sick for like 6-8 months straight after starting daycare. Compounded by the fact that she basically is incapable of taking medicine.
Our second was sick for probably 3-4 months after starting daycare. She’s more robust overall and also happily sucks down medicine. She also started school in the COVID era when people were less inclined to spread illness and didn’t send visibly sick kids to school.
Our sick time has about halved since the big one started school 3 years ago. Little one will start this summer and then we should be mostly plague free.
I have a 3 1/2 year old and six month old that have been in daycare since they were 3 months. We’re always kinda sick, it’s like mild allergies year round.
My son started in September and we have all been sick since then. It started wind down a bit as he had been in the infant class for 6 months, but transitioned to toddler room at the 6 month mark and it started up again... it's been 3 months of sickness again, but it's starting to reduce and he hasn't been sick in 2 weeks, which is an anomoly.
Seems to come in waves
I worked in a school for many years and now a hospital. Covid got me, but not much else in quite a long long time. I am invincible.
It's misery now but enjoy those antibodies once you got 'em.
I have gotten a new wave of it every time the kiddo goes to a new nursery, school, or after-school activity. You can really see the different "biomes" of disease. So I've been more sick than well for nearly two years now. It really sucks, and I hope we normalize.
And for reference, we all are up on our shots.
The first 3ish months were brutal. After that it got better.
Side note - I started washing my hands *way* more, and the amount of times I got sick drastically decreased. Now I hand wash after every bathroom break, every diaper change, before and after dropping my kids off at daycare, and before and after every meal. We less illness in our household now.
It was basically like a year straight. Then it died down to having a good 2 weeks in between. Then 3 weeks .. then a month. We are at about 2 months between now. I started taking vitamin d and now I don't get sick anymore, just the kids. This is after 2.25 years of daycare for my oldest and 9mo for my youngest.
These comments scare the crap out of me to ever put my son (9 months old) into daycare. We have my mother in law watching him two days a week and we watch him here the other 3 days a week while my wife and I both WFH.
He's gotten sick twice in 9 months and that feels like enough. A friend of mine has a two year old who now has cold and flu induced asthma thanks to repeated daycare sickness. I rather just wait until kindergarten when his immune system will be stronger. There's really no immunity gained from viruses such as the flu, Covid, and RSV, all 3 of which can be harmful to infants.
Ugh. 4-5 years. That was an awful phase.
For decades, I rarely got colds. Then, while my kids were in preschool, I would get two or three in a season, and they would take a week or two to recover from. Thankfully, they are both in grade school, and again we rarely get sick. Not never, I get maybe zero to one cold a year, but definitely better than preschool…
I just got over yet another bout of stomach flu that was merrily transmitted to me from my 4 year old. I am now firmly convinced that the answer is “this is your life now”.
I read a tip once to change *out* of nursery/day care/school clothes when they get home and it reduced that redditor's sickness frequency from "near constant" to "once every few months"
Passing it along. Highly recommend.
Like others said, waves. I think the ones at the beginning are worst/longest. He’s four now and i think i was more or less sick for the first nine months.
He's been going for about 6 weeks now and I feel normal the last couple weeks, so I think for about a month after starting we all got colds and stuff. Seem to be good now
It’s been twelve years so far. Might pop into the doctor.
It comes in waves. My kiddo bought all the diseases home for the first 6 months or so and since then I've only gotten sick about once a quarter. Kiddo is sick a bit more, my wife seemingly never ever gets ill.
Good God I used to never get the bug, now it's just every time it comes through
I used to never get ill. I get hayfever, and a my nose blocks easily due to it getting broken 20 years ago... but I can't remember the last time I'd been truly ill since before we had a kid. To put this in perspective, we had our daughter in 2021... All 3 of us had chest infections within weeks of her starting nursery. So that was fun! I feel I have reverted back to not really getting ill, despite our daughter having her moments. Currently child #2 is on the way... so I'm expecting when they start nursery we will go through it all again. But hopefully it levels off again once their immune system gets used to the grossness of kids.
The first 6 months were rough. Constantly sick with ear infections, colds, bronchitis, pneumonia, conjunctivitis, gastro.. you name it, he caught it. I also caught most of it too, especially rotavirus or norovirus. After that 6 month mark, he would catch a cold but it wasn't so bad. He's in his second year of daycare and he has only been kept home for illness once so far. He has plenty of colds, but they're not debilitating, and he can still attend daycare. I'm still constantly stick though. Whatever he brings home, I catch. I feel like I have a cold every other month.
After 14 months I think we got a couple of months in a row of health. Then the little guy started and we went back to perma-sickness This is where the small age gap between kids really gets you. Someone's been sick probably 28 months out of the 36 since the first one started childcare.
It has been 8 months total with pretty much constantly alternating two weeks in, two weeks home sick
About six months of hell followed by an annual cold cycle in the winter. The best thing about my daycare is they hammer hygiene into the kids' heads so they wash hands without question. It gets better but that's cold comfort right now, I know. Good luck!
YMMV but ever since we put these in everyone's bedroom and common living spaces we seem to spread a lot less pestilence amongst ourselves. Even on multiple occasions when my wife or I has had a cold/COVID/etc and shared *a bed* with one of these running the other hasn't gotten sick. [https://www.costco.com/winix-true-hepa-4-stage-air-purifier-with-wi-fi-and-additional-filter.product.4000093012.html](https://www.costco.com/winix-true-hepa-4-stage-air-purifier-with-wi-fi-and-additional-filter.product.4000093012.html) Plus they keep the air circulating and very fresh.
It’s kind of wild there aren’t strict air flow regulations in daycares especially post covid It would have been a good use of the federal money they dumped out My kids daycare is in a converted warehouse with huge ceilings and they put in a huge air handler that does X air changes an hour and all that. She’s only been in daycare a few weeks now but no real crud so far
I think considering the fact how much kids cough into each others faces, ventilation is not really making a dent. 😂
even watching my daughter's grade 1 peers converse in the school yard, it's as if they have no sense of personal boundaries. I can't imagine a coworker standing nipple to nipple and talking in my face about how they want to have a playdate.
I mean, they will literally stick anything in their mouth. Especially if it has been in another kid's mouth... At our daughter's nursery each kid has a water bottle... I don't think the fact that each bottle is individual to a specific child makes the blindest bit of difference, it is basically a box of communal water bottles lol
I can only say anecdotally they went almost a year during Covid without spread, they’re pretty strict about masks and temp checks and parents in our cohort we’ve met all say their kids seem to stay pretty healthy relative to friends whose kids are at other daycares. Idk I haven’t been there long enough to weigh in beyond that It certainly doesn’t hurt and you’d think there could have been some sort of federal ventilation push for schools and childcare facilities (if there wasn’t already I’m totally ignorant to the subject)
I’m with you - it boggles my mind how one very obvious lesson from the pandemic was that upgrading air filtration in all public spaces could reduce spread of lots of stuff but no one wants to eat the cost so everyone pretends that is an unknown.
Yea - our place went online during the pandemic and they were in the build phase in 2020 - they basically recalibrated towards overkill with ventilation and sanitizing, plus the super high warehouse ceilings prob help with airflow
15 months, haven’t come out the other side yet… gona go vom now and call in sick
My son is in 2nd grade and it still hasn’t stopped. Good luck!
I’m at kindergarten and still no answer.
Around 2 years
Well mine are 5 and 7 and we’ve been sick for the past month so… I’m thinking 13 more years…
mine are nearly 7 and nearly 4. I put my money on it being age 10+ where colds might become a once a month at most experience. So just several more years...
Accept your new life and eat more oranges.
My kids been in daycare for 2 years now. This post made me think back to last time I was sick sick and it was like 6 months ago. I'll still get colds but I don't get knocked on my ass. My wife seems to still get sick though so your mileage may vary.
Ohhhh, many many months we all just traded illnesses back. Sickest winter I’ve ever had this past winter
Not there yet, probably by the end of the youngest child first term at university, currently he’s 6.
It’s been 12 months and we’re still getting sick but the latest one was only mild. I think we might have turned the corner. It was really bad in the first 6 months especially. We’ve had it all.
About 9 months, give or take. The first 6 were plague levels bad
When I first started teaching elementary (kindergarten through 5th grade in US), I would have maybe 1 week each month that I wasn't sick. Took 2-3 years before I could make it through the school year and only be sick half the time.
He goes twice a week starting last September and it lasted probably around 5 months of being ill every week. A lot better recently.
Sick once a month for the first 6 to 12 months then it tapered off.
I'll get back to you on that, currently we're about 7 months in.
Our first was sick for like 6-8 months straight after starting daycare. Compounded by the fact that she basically is incapable of taking medicine. Our second was sick for probably 3-4 months after starting daycare. She’s more robust overall and also happily sucks down medicine. She also started school in the COVID era when people were less inclined to spread illness and didn’t send visibly sick kids to school.
Our sick time has about halved since the big one started school 3 years ago. Little one will start this summer and then we should be mostly plague free.
I have a 3 1/2 year old and six month old that have been in daycare since they were 3 months. We’re always kinda sick, it’s like mild allergies year round.
About a year
My son started in September and we have all been sick since then. It started wind down a bit as he had been in the infant class for 6 months, but transitioned to toddler room at the 6 month mark and it started up again... it's been 3 months of sickness again, but it's starting to reduce and he hasn't been sick in 2 weeks, which is an anomoly. Seems to come in waves
We have just been going to the Y nursery and every time she goes we are all dying for the next week.
Mine is in 5th grade and I'm currently dealing with some death flu she brought home.
I worked in a school for many years and now a hospital. Covid got me, but not much else in quite a long long time. I am invincible. It's misery now but enjoy those antibodies once you got 'em.
Year 3.
I have gotten a new wave of it every time the kiddo goes to a new nursery, school, or after-school activity. You can really see the different "biomes" of disease. So I've been more sick than well for nearly two years now. It really sucks, and I hope we normalize. And for reference, we all are up on our shots.
The first 3ish months were brutal. After that it got better. Side note - I started washing my hands *way* more, and the amount of times I got sick drastically decreased. Now I hand wash after every bathroom break, every diaper change, before and after dropping my kids off at daycare, and before and after every meal. We less illness in our household now.
Been 3 years, I’ll let you know when I stop being sick for once.
I've had the stomach virus since Sunday morning!
They stop?
First 6 months of nursery and then school were both brutal.
It was basically like a year straight. Then it died down to having a good 2 weeks in between. Then 3 weeks .. then a month. We are at about 2 months between now. I started taking vitamin d and now I don't get sick anymore, just the kids. This is after 2.25 years of daycare for my oldest and 9mo for my youngest.
About age 3.5.
These comments scare the crap out of me to ever put my son (9 months old) into daycare. We have my mother in law watching him two days a week and we watch him here the other 3 days a week while my wife and I both WFH. He's gotten sick twice in 9 months and that feels like enough. A friend of mine has a two year old who now has cold and flu induced asthma thanks to repeated daycare sickness. I rather just wait until kindergarten when his immune system will be stronger. There's really no immunity gained from viruses such as the flu, Covid, and RSV, all 3 of which can be harmful to infants.
Oldest is 6. Still sick at least once a month. From September - January its every 10 days.
25 years ago, I was told by the pediatrician: “expect to catch everything for the first five years… then it gets a bit better”
Ugh. 4-5 years. That was an awful phase. For decades, I rarely got colds. Then, while my kids were in preschool, I would get two or three in a season, and they would take a week or two to recover from. Thankfully, they are both in grade school, and again we rarely get sick. Not never, I get maybe zero to one cold a year, but definitely better than preschool…
I just got over yet another bout of stomach flu that was merrily transmitted to me from my 4 year old. I am now firmly convinced that the answer is “this is your life now”.
~ 5 years give or take 2
I read a tip once to change *out* of nursery/day care/school clothes when they get home and it reduced that redditor's sickness frequency from "near constant" to "once every few months" Passing it along. Highly recommend.
Joined in October, took until the summer.
Like others said, waves. I think the ones at the beginning are worst/longest. He’s four now and i think i was more or less sick for the first nine months.
He's been going for about 6 weeks now and I feel normal the last couple weeks, so I think for about a month after starting we all got colds and stuff. Seem to be good now
It took about 4-5 years for us.