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steenbean18
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Constantly sick!!
steenbean18
member
in Working Moms
One thing that nobody tells you when you have a baby:
"Once you start daycare, your baby (along with the rest of your household) will be sick almost constantly for x months straight."
Make that 5 months for us now. LO is ALWAYS sick with something from daycare and every time she gets sick, one or both of us is sick as well. I'm starting to feel guilty about all the time I've had to take off work. As a person who was almost never sick before this, I feel like my coworkers are judging me or doubting my illnesses because they're becoming so frequent.
Has anyone else dealt with this??
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Re: Constantly sick!!
DS went into daycare at 11 weeks old. The first year was bad but it has been SO much better as he's gotten older. He is almost 3 and has missed maybe 1 or 2 days this last year.
Of course I'm about to start all over with baby #2.....
I'm feeling your pain today.. got the call at 9:13 that E had already thrown up three times!
I'm home house shopping online instead of organizing my house to get it on the market
As pps say, it gets better. DD was sick a lot from 6 -12 months. DH travels frequently for work, so I had to take off work to stay home whenever this happend. I think she was out ill eight days from January to July of 2012. She's only been out two days this year so far.
As babes get older, their immune systems become stronger.
Honestly, the children of my SAHM friends who are DD's age, 22 months/toddler age, seem to get sick more frequently now than she does. I think our LOs' immune systems get stronger faster because they are exposed to so much in DC.
Hang in there and don't feel guilty. Before I had DD, I was so wrapped up in whatever I was doing to noice a coworker's extra few sick days. Now that I'm a mom, I'm just sympathetic. I know how you feel.....it's easy to think others are judging you, but you're your own toughest critic.
yes! this is exactly how i feel.
i noticed that DD only started getting sick often when she became mobile and moved into the toddler 1 room.
Hmm...so I guess I have 2 full fun years to look forward to since #2 is due 13 months after DD1? Aaaaahhhh!!!!
Yes. DD started daycare at 5 months of age back in December and spent the next 3-4 months with her weekly illness: flu, RSV, pink eye, colds which turned in to ear infections, lots of wonderful diarrhea... She didn't make it through a full week of daycare once the entire season.
The flu/cold season ended and she has been (knock on wood!) at daycare every single workday.
I felt very stressed over how much this was impacting my work. I had a frank discussion with my manager and ackowledged that I seriously underestimated how much time away from work I would need to tend to my daughter. I found a plan B - a backup nanny service that would find a nanny for me with a day's or less notice, - so that even if I had to WFH, I could at least work without having to take care of a sick baby simultaneously (which let's be honest simply isn't effective).
As for coworkers judging me. They are all suportive and if they judge me behind my back then what can I do? Those that have kids get it and those that don't, don't. And I was once childless too and honestly had my moments of irritation at coworkers I couldn't depend on because they were frequently dropping the ball to tend to their chilren. Now, I get it.
Right there with you. Kiddo (1 yr) has had: Pink Eye, RSV, loose stools, flu, cough, Roseola, and goodness knows what else. Oct / Nov really sucked. Dec, Jan, Feb were ok. March and April have been rough. Right now LO has bronciolitis and is on a nebulizer. So much fun!
Thankfully I have a very understanding manager and team. They completely understand (even though all of them are childless) and don't appear to be upset with me when I take sick time. I also am pretty kickass at what I do, so when I am at work, I get my work done and I do it well and I try not to fall too far behind.
Same with us. The first year in daycare was MUCH better than the second has been so far.
We've been really lucky in that we almost never get the constant colds that DS seems to have. On the same note, I managed to pick up strep throat last week, and DS never got it.