LO has had a fever off and on since Sunday morning (so this is day six). Doctor says it's some sort of virus... He was also out of daycare for a couple of days with a mystery fever earlier this month. I'd say on average he is out at least a week/month, if not more. I know there are worse things, but I am discouraged that we pay *so much* for daycare and then like a quarter of the time I don't have childcare, it's hard and super exhausting to find the time to make up the work weekends/evenings. And I feel really bad for LO that he's constantly sick, he's been miserable all week... He's been in daycare for over a year and it's almost summer, so I really thought it would be better by now. Anyone else still struggling with viral crud? Does it really get better after the first year?
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I feel like your LO is getting sick way more than usual in the first year of daycare. Also, a fever off and on for six days sounds like more than some sort of virus. Are there any other symptoms?
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My older kid has def had viruses with a long lasting fever. It sucks. My younger is 14 months and it’s been a super tough year with illness. I’m fighting yet another cold (the kids have had it already). Baby still has fluid in her ears after a round of antibiotics (which I hate giving when it is probably just viral anyway).
We are lucky that my parents have them tues/thurs and can watch them sick/don’t usually have to worry about 24 hour rules. Or else we would have probably been out that much. Someone was sick every single vacation too (so three separate weeks as I’m a teacher).
The end has to be in sight. And yes, it gets better after the first year or so.
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Ugh I feel the same way. And mine isn’t even in daycare so I don’t understand why it’s happening so much. He got sick (just a cold) ONCE between 0 and 15months. I thought we hit the jackpot! This kid’s immune system is amazing.
Well between 15 and 20 months (now), he’s had 6 colds. Luckily never a fever, but he’s just miserable for those like 5-7 days. He’s like a totally different child and is so hard to comfort. I’m getting so frustrated. He pukes when he has a cough so the illness usually includes a night or two of scrubbing the carpet, doing laundry and giving a bath in the middle of the night. I’m so tired of this and I don’t know what to do to help. No advice, just commiseration
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I agree!! DS is 2 and I swear just as soon as he gets all cleared up, no more cough, no more snotty nose, no more fever... it only lasts for 2-3 days max and something starts back up again. It's definitely frustrating. I am so hoping now that the weather is starting to turn that we can all put this bad sick winter behind us.
ETA; I've had to use all of my sick and vacation days at work and I dont' get more until August
Luckily DH will be able to step in and take any sick days from here until then but I feel bad bc I'm not there to comfort DS
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So, I do think it's semi-normal, but my son was extremely sick like that basically from September of last year to now and it just would not get better. He would go to daycare a couple days, then be out a couple days. Just constant low grade (sometimes higher) temp, tons of green snot, etc. Sometimes it would get a little better, sometimes worse. He went on 3 rounds of antibiotics, then we tried Flonase and singulair unsuccessfully.
Anyway, I took him to see an ENT who looked at his adenoids and said they were huge and infected, which is why he could never get better. He had surgery about 6 weeks ago to remove them and the green snot IMMEDIATELY went away. He actually just got a cold this week but I think it's just a cold.
So it may just be daycare illness - I do think some kids just have a tougher time with it for whatever reason - but if it's really continual, you may want to see an ENT.
Edited to add - my son is 3.5 yo
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@Ms. RV: We've been back to the doctor a couple of times. Just cold like symptoms (runny nose) + a fever that won't go away. I really worry that something else is wrong but doctor seems to think it's normal....
@MrsADS: Thanks, this is very helpful. Many of my son's fevers are in conjunction with what seems to be a cold, and they are not even necessarily low grade. Infected adenoids seems like a possibility - will ask next time we're at the doctor, which I'm sure will be soon.
@Ajsmommy: Ugh, sorry
It's so hard to keep up with work, and in our case my husband has very little ability to use leave and we don't have family nearby. I'm pregnant and exhausted too, so it's harder to catch up after LO goes to bed (and he's never slept that much at night, which the doctor tells me is also normal 
) I think I need as much nighttime sleep as he does. I hope things get better for you soon. @annem1990: Ugh, my son is a puker when he coughs too. And with fever reducer. The other night he woke up crying in his crib, had a high fever and was soaked with puke. I felt so, so horrible for him. I really hope things get better for you soon.
@petitenoisette: I really hope some relief is in sight. I feel like the pediatrician's answer is always just "it's normal" but none of the other kids in my son's daycare class seem to be sick nearly as often. Sometimes I just wonder if he has an over-active immune system, which lead him to have lots of fevers with crud that bothers other kids less. I hope relief is near for you!
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My whole family got a similar sounding virus. Both DS had colds. DS1 got better, DS 2 got an ear infection and meds. Then DS 1 got a virus, fever for 5 days and a little grumpy. DS 2 and I got it as soon as he was better. And then as soon as my fever went away DH got it. I'm never sure whether I'd rather us all be sick at once and be done, or having it stretch on for weeks so at least one person can be well enough to take care of everyone.
Also DS1 seems to get colds less, and with less intensity than DS2. Different kids do have different immune systems, even in the same family.
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@brownepiano: ugh.... DS has been sick so much, but the fever has never lasted a full six days. I'm sure when he finally does get better, DH and I will get whatever it is
We're also moving in two weeks and still have a ton left to do, so it's just Murphy's law that it will happen, lol. I hope that was the end of seasonal illness for you all!
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My youngest always gets sick this time of year. Year 1 ear infections, Year 2 HFM/virus, Year 3 a respiratory virus. Unfortunately he has had febrile seizures with all of these. It sucks.
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@autumnleaves: that really sucks
We will go back to the doctor if he still has a fever tomorrow, I worry that there is some underlying infection like @MrsADS: mentions that is going to be difficult to diagnose and ongoing for a long time, as it just doesn't seem normal for a mystery virus to lead to a seven day fever. I'm feeling really defeated, think in part it's because I just had an exhausting one day international trip for work that included a red eye (and the whole time spent worrying about LO), was home the rest of the week with LO trying to get work done during his few moments of sleep, and the diclegis I'm taking for MS (on top of the actual pregnancy) is killing me with exhaustion and a general yucky feeling. And I know it could be so much worse if LO had chronic health issues (or once we have another LO). Kudos to all of us for surviving mom life, it's hard....
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Ack it's been soooo rough! My family and friends have been a pinball machine of illness since Christmas. It's unreal. At least 50% of playdates are cancelled due to one of our kids being sick. My son was sick from Oct- March of his first year of daycare 2 years ago but nothing serious thank God. Just viral things. One ear infection. I had what I call "Mexico Gut" for 5 days this March. Blecchhh.
So hard to see your kids so sick, for so long.
I had my 2nd son in January and every single day I completely panicked about brother getting the newborn sick. He did get 2 colds. It was absolutely terrible to worry constantly, my anxiety was so bad. But we survived ... I guess. -
@pachamama: It must be so stressful with a newborn at home during flu season....
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@periwinklebee: I’m so sorry, all this and pregnancy too! I hope your pedi can get a handle on whatever’s going on. When my oldest had on and off fever after the flu they waited forever (saying it could still be viral, but I knew from experience it likely wasn’t) but finally gave her antibiotics and it cleared up quickly, so probably a sinus infection (hard to diagnose, but she was 102+ which was weird for a sinus infection!).
FWIW my totally non-scientific take from my own kids is that immune issues (like your food allergies, my oldest has very severe seasonal allergies, etc) are correlated with your kids getting higher fevers, and more fevers than an average kid. The mechanism makes sense to me - the immune system, which causes fevers, overreacts to everything. She missed two days of school the other week for 103-104 fever - zero other symptoms and she was fine after about 36 hrs. This happens pretty regularly and more when she was younger. My middle gets it also but to a lesser extent.
I don’t know if that helps to consider it that way since you can’t do anything, but many hugs to you! It is SO HARD when your kid misses more school than an average kid would for even the same level of illness.
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Ugh, yes. O has had three separate fever events in the last three weeks. No sign of infection. Both girls have had colds and coughs, and N has reactive airway disease so she's just constantly wheezy and living on inhalers. It's been awful. Hang in there, it has to get better soon, right?
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@bhbee: Thank you
I feel like I don't cope that well with the MS, the constant nausea and groggy feeling now that I've had to start diclegis kind of makes everything else I have to deal with feel overwhelming and unmanageable... But anyways, my sense is also that LO has an overactive immune system, and even if second year of daycare is not quite as bad he's still going to be sicker than the other kids. I kept on telling myself if we could get through the first year, or make it to spring, it would be better, but that just hasn't been the case... It's not really conducive with working to have a kid who's out over a quarter of the time and no family backup. He's so social and loves the other kids and teachers at his daycare and has so much fun there, which is the main reason we have him there, but a nanny would in expectation make childcare arrangements easier (and actually be cheaper once we have two). But of course my luck would be that as soon as I pulled him from daycare and got a nanny, his immune system would mature and something would happen with the nanny (seems to happen all the time with my friends who have one), leaving me entirely without childcare. Once you're out of daycare, it's like two years on the waiting list to get back in.... So I'm also hesitant to pull him...@Mrs. Turtle: I'm sorry about the reactive airway disease and all the fevers, that sucks. I had horrible asthma as a kid (though eventually grew out of it!) and it caused my parents a lot of stress. I really hope things get better for you soon.
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@periwinklebee: yeah, I totally get it about city daycare lists. And honestly, I don’t know how much difference it would make at this point. My oldest was in daycare and when she switched to just 10 hrs/wk preschool when we moved and I went PT I didn’t see a huge difference ... they’re still around other kids somewhere once they’re not babies. And my second was never in daycare since I started to SAH when he was born and still had a horrible time starting around 9m ... likely combo of sibling germs and underlying reactive airways making every illness a big deal (thankfully he is doing so much better now!). Which is to say, don’t feel bad about making the choices that seem best to you overall, I think a lot of it will be what it will be. Sending you fortitude for the worst of the MS - just survive!!
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@bhbee: Thank you so much
I was feeling so discouraged about how bad I was feeling, and then realized that I had a fever/DS must have given me the mystery virus, and it wasn't pure MS. Ugh... DS has been fever free all weekend, so hopefully he will manage to stay at daycare today. I hope illness is easier on all of us soon!
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@snarkybiochemist:
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Just thought I'd add (since I didn't see it mentioned)...on the puking with fever reducers...ask your pediatrician what size suppository you should use. We switched to tylenol suppositories with a random virus, and found out DS didn't actually have an upset stomach, it was the tylenol making him throw up. Once we got suppositories in him (which stayed in him!) his fever went down much quicker.
But the dose by weight was WAY higher than the dose on the package, so ask your ped. Hope he's better soon!
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@MaryM: Thank you! I didn't even realize there was such a thing, will ask the pediatrician about dosing!
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@periwinklebee: It was kind of gross to think about at first...but I just kept plastic gloves near the changing table and it's not so bad.
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@MaryM: Ugh, yeah, my tolerance for gross has definitely gone way up since having LO
Luckily DH will be able to step in and take any sick days from here until then but I feel bad bc I'm not there to comfort DS
) I think I need as much nighttime sleep as he does. I hope things get better for you soon. 
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