My son is never healthy... Rant
 

Well, he is healthy now and then, just never for long. It seems that he gets sick just from passing 10m from someone else who is sick. I understand that this is relatively normal for a going on 2 year old, however my wife does not... Now I'm working again and our son is in daycare, so he's sick even more often than he used to be. I realize that it's because our current daycare provider allows children to come even if they are mildly ill, but finding a new daycare provider that will actually allow me to pick my son up late on the days when my wife is on call or backup for another resident at her hospital is really tough. Most daycares around Cleveland are completely inflexible on the pickup time, and I simply can't teleport from work to the daycare (I work till 6, daycares start charging $20+ per half hour past).

Currently, my son is fighting off an ear infection with the help of zithromax, and conjunctivitis with some eye drops I have to administer every 4 hours (ever try waking up a toddler, pinning their arms and legs down, and holding there eye open while trying not to miss with the horridly expensive eye drops, all while praying the neighbors don't call the cops for child abuse?)

great time for my wife to be out of town.

Oh, and did I mention I'm battling with a sinus infection?

Good news: He's probably working up a heck of an immune system if he's frequently sick during childhood. :)

From the age of about 6 months to sometime around 4 years old, I used to get sick every other month. Everything from cold to bronchitis (most often). Not sure exactly what caused it. I don't get sick that often anymore. Maybe once or twice per year. Judging by me, it will pass with age.

I was sick once a month until my tonsils were removed at 2.5 As for his immune system, it's really a bit of a misnomer that you build up immunity to it, because there are so many infections and they build resistance to medications so readily that you really don't build up that much in the way of immunity these days. Even common bugs are likely to be just different enough the next time you encounter it that your body will think it's a different one...

Did you know that kids get colds 8-10 times a year? I am not really sure why, but it wears off when they get a little older.

My wife is a physician and I have a biology degree, so were well aware of how often kids usually get sick. This is a rant because I'm sleepy, have to wake up every 4 hours to hold down my son and put drops in his eyes, and was looking for someone who could commiserate. It just doesn't seem there is anyone in the mood :(

I can totally understand. Just trying to clean out my daughters ears (she's 3.5 months is a nightmare) so I cannot imagine having to hold down my own child.

I would skip the middle of the night dose....but that's just me.

I know they say that kids get sick 8-10 times a year because I am in the doctor's office with my daughter 8-10 times a year. Didn't seem to be this way with my older kids...I have worried and stressed that there is something serious comprising her immune system and I have taken her to doctor after doctor who have told me the same thing...kids get sick 8-10 times a year.

Guess I just got lucky the first two times. :confused:

mine was sick a while back with some stomach something. AWFUL diarrhea for two weeks. Doc wouldn't do anything about it til "about fifteen days". WORST two weeks of my life. No sleep, nothing I could do for him, and he POOPED IN THE TUB!!!! *shudder* Thankfully, my SO felt bad for me being home with him all day and cleaned it out. Then I got it, my mom got it, and my brother got it. Cool, huh? :rolleyes:

I feel awful for you. I hate even having to get medicine in Aric's mouth, let alone thinking of holding him down! My cousin's kid had to be held down for some kind of xray a while back. They had to wrap him in a sheet at the hospital and hold him for a nurse to place an IV, and the doc graciously offered to knock him out for whatever scan they were doing.

Building up immunity and building a strong immune system are two different things. :)

What kind of diet does the little dude have? One of my best friends is a dietitian specializing in vegan cuisine, and she's helped our family quite a bit. My little one does get sick, but not often.

'm sorry you have to go through this. It's tough to see your kid sick, especially at such a young age. It can feel helpless, but don't worry. He'll probably be just fine.

Diet is essential, I believe, to healthy immune systems. While my daughter had constant stuffy nose issues as a baby, we attributed that more to the fact that she barely had a nose; my son only had one major illness-rotavirus-at 10 months. They were huge yogurt eaters, mostly veggies when on baby food and were nursed their first 6 months with breast-milk based cereal til 8 months.
Oddly enough, they've not eaten as well since probably 3rd grade on, but still don't really get sick-sniffles a day or two, even as teenagers and my son has maybe missed 10 days total since kindergarten(they're in 9th grade now) and I know 4 of those were trips.

I work @ a pediatrician's office, and you're right, it is normal, although not the best thing in the world, for kids to get sick more often than not. We have "regulars" that we see all the time because they're in daycare, or they're child # 5 or something. I see that viruses/other illnesses go around more frequently in families that keep passing it back and forth, especially in larger families. Just make sure they're taking their vitamins (whether they be drops or tabs), and their diet is good, and it should reduce the number of your visits.

AND HAND WASHING! DON'T FORGET THAT! I've only been sick 2 times while working there, all due to the enormous amount of hand washing we do.

Try to think of these years as preperation for the rest of thier lives. Your child is going thru what all kids do, teaching the body whats good and whats bad:

"A child’s immune system is not fully developed before the age of 14, making kids under this age particularly susceptible to infection and sickness. What little immunity they do start life with is passed on from the mother via the placenta (before birth) and then in breast milk. This is known as passive immunity and is fairly short-lived.

A more active and longer-lasting immunity is acquired following exposure to infection, which then stimulates the immune system to respond. This exposure can be to an infection like the common cold, caught from someone else, or through immunization."

http://www.whatreallyworks.co.uk/sta...article_ID=559

We all worry that OUR kid is sicker than most....but most of us are wrong...heh.

Well I know what your talking, my youngest son 1.5 is almost constantly sick. My wife had tried putting him in daycare, but he was sick all the time. She ended up quiting her job to to keep him at home ( Dr. Orders). Basically if there is anything going around, he is going to get it. Yes, we've done the middle of night pinning him down for for or that medicine. The only good thing about it is the Dr said once he reaches 2 his immune system will be a lot stronger and we can daycare again.

basmoq, how's he doing?

he's got better for a couple days, and now he's sick again, this time it looks like Pneumonia. It's a good thing his mother is a doctor, otherwise they would have hospitalized him. He's much more comfortable at home, and my wife is perfectly capable of caring for him.

As for the questions about diet, my wife is from Bulgaria, a place that is just now starting to learn about fast food and frozen dinners. She was raised on healthy foods and has dabbled in vegetarianism, although thankfully for my sake, she has given that one up. We feed him Tons of fruit, yogurt, a little meat, a little bread, milk, and very occasionally, we take the store bought baby juices and mix them half/half with water. We do not allow him to eat any candy, undiluted juice, salty, or overly sweet food. We also try to eat mainly healthy food (I have lost 40 lbs since I started eating healthy food last June). We even stopped partaking in the caffeine addiction.

As for my boy, this is the third time he has been sick in a month, and we have pretty much given up on his current daycare (provider lets sick kids come as long as they aren't feeling bad outwardly... We are going to try one of those commercial type daycares that does educational stuff and has a zero-tolerance policy for sickness. If that doesn't work, I will just have to quit my job and we can wallow in debt for another year until my wife is done with her residency and starts making real money as a physician.

Thanks for all the kind replies and suggestions. I haven't dealt with pneumonia before, so I'll keep you all informed.

What calorie intake is he getting per day?

never counted. He eats until he is full, we never force him to eat, but we never dissuade him. His high chair is in the kitchen, when he is hungry, he goes next to it and cries, we feed him until he wants down.

Today was another bundle of fun, he is still running a temp of 39.2 C so I took him back to the doctor. The doc changed his antibiotic, and had me take him to the hospital again for another chest x-ray and blood work, this time he also threw in a nasal culture to rule out rota virus.

I'm exhausted, last night was another sleep with the boy and wipe his nose every five minutes when he cried and pointed to his nose. The poor kid's nose is as bright as Rudolf's.

Although my 2 year old son has never been to daycare, my understanding is that it is a breeding ground for various exotic germs, as half-sick infectious kids are routinely comingled with yet uninfected kids, and the practice disinfecting surfaces and washing hands is often abbreviated. My wife, who has considerable training in biochemistry and immunology, is of opinion that constant exposure to pathogens is counterproductive, as the immune system becomes depleted and the body becomes unable to effectively fight off new infections.

The natural solution is to keep the child out of day care for a while, and give the immune system a break. But for many people this is not feasible.

We had something similar. Although each of got sick for about 4 days each, not 2 weeks. My 2 year son had this, and I got it after, and our nanny got it also. My wife learned that many of her friends' families were afflicted by same illness. Then I read about a large norovirus outbreak in our area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norovirus
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/id_norovirusFS.html
http://cbs2.com/health/health_story_091212309.html

Rota in the nose? :confused: I thought that was just associated with stool.

oops, sorry, your right on that one, I was just discussing a case my wife had who got rotavirus in the hospital. Now I can't remember what it was...

maybe you're thinking RSV?

I'm sure that was checked for in the culture, but the doctor thought it was something else. Anyhow, his fever went down and he's doing better now, he just has a residual cough from all the drainage. Happy days are here again!

My kids were sick alot when small, but 'mysteriously' the seemingly incessant chest colds disappeared when they no longer lived with people who smoked in the house.

I feel sorry for my poor mother. She had to deal with my health up until I was 18. Between the ages of 2-19 I suffered rather badly from asthma/allergies. I was in the hospital about once a week from ages 4-9. I started getting migraines at the age of 11. Thanks to overdoseage, misprescribed, and overly strong medicine since the age of 4 I had a lot complications and illnesses. The last time I was seriously ill they had to give my Cipro because the other antibiotics wouldn't work. Luckily now that I'm older and in a drier climate I'm pretty much fine except for the migraines.