Dads of young children- how often are you sick?

23 comments

1. Ever since nice my first kid got into daycare, I have been sick about once every one to two months.

   It was a bit less severe with covid because everybody wore masks and disinfected their hands, but ever since that stopped, I’m back to once every one to two months.

   Been going like that for four years now. (Or two and a half of one excludes the pandemic)

2. I think getting sick with one thing can make you more susceptible to others, plus you’re no doubt worn out, sleep deprived, etc. When my youngest was about 2 months old we all had covid, then she had RSV…I forget all the different things but a relentless wave of stuff. Then nursery started and my oldest went to school so yet more colds, but nothing *too* dreadful, luckily.

   My wife and I have handily never been seriously ill at the same time, so one of us is normally capable of holding the fort! You and your wife may well have very different immune systems (there’s some evidence, anecdotal if nothing else, that people tend to be attracted to those with different immune systems from them). Ultimately your experience doesn’t seem hugely unusual, it’s just an initial wave of illness, especially this time of year – it’ll pass.

3. I don’t have kids but I see my nephew maybe 3-4 times a week and I get sick way way way more often than before (he’s 20 months old, and has been going to daycare for about 8 months)

4. Our kids were never in daycare, but Kindergarten has wreaked havoc on our house. One more to go next year and then hopefully it will get better.

   It’s basically a revolving door. There’s 5 of us. Patient Zero comes home from Kindergarten sick. Eventually her younger sister gets it. Then her older sister. Then me and/or my wife. By the time we’re all healthy, the cycle starts over again.

5. Yes this is everyone’s experience. Sick constantly. You think “this has to be just me because this is so terrible nobody would have kids if they knew this was coming”. But yeah it’s the reality. Your immune system will really start to catch up in year 2-3.

   I was sick every other week from September to April for about 3 years but now I don’t get sick ever, even though the kids continue to get sick a lot. I exercise and take multivitamins, but I think building immunity is the key.

6. I used to never get sick. Like literally never. I remember around 2009 when I had 3 roommates bedridden for a full 7 days because of the flu and I just had a sniffle. Then my oldest started daycare and suddenly I caught everything. It seemed to take about 5 years to build my immune system up again. Last fall my wife and kids were knocked out for a week and I caught the same thing and kicked it in about 12 hours. Then earlier this month they were all sick again for a full week, I didn’t get it at all (in spite of the sneezes and coughs directly into my own mouth lol).

   But everyone is different, my wife says she never used to get sick either but now she catches everything the kids do.

7. All the damn time.

   Last year my, at the time, 5 year old didn’t make it more than 2 weeks without missing a day or two of school.

   I have a 3 year old in daycare and a 6 year old in first grade and we are sick every few weeks as a family.

   Some of it is just part of having kids but, after many trips to the doctor it seems as though there has been a massive uptick in children’s sickness coming out of covid. 2 years of mask wearing and being indoors then releasing kids back into the world has amplified colds, flus, and everything else (at least anecdotally based on my kids doctors patients).

   So yeah get some vitamin c and d, eat as healthy as you can, work out when you can, get as much sleep as you can and just be ready to be sick for the next few years.

8. Monthly for the first year and a half or so that my son was in daycare. Really bad colds, but also had a few stomach viruses and the lovely hand foot and mouth disease (fucking horrible).

   Now it’s still monthly but it’s usually just very minor colds that I barely even notice. A few days of increased congestion or mild cough. My son is the same. His illnesses now rarely make him feel bad but instead manifest as a cough or a runny nose.

9. *laughs in home schooling*

10. My kids are 12 and 14. When they started daycare and into first grade we usually had something going around the house 3-6 times a year. Since then though it has dropped off considerably to maybe 1-2 a year. It’s easy to avoid getting sick from work colleagues or passersby since your exposure is limited, in other words your exposed to less viral particles. Your family members, especially toddlers, are all over you and sharing the same air and space for far longer. Plus kids are known terrible hand washers. Also, when they are young your child immune system is weaker and isn’t as robust as yours, so now your exposed at a high level to something you might have some immunity from. Now the upshot is the immune system is anti-fragile and the more often it’s active (especially early in life) the stronger it gets.

11. Kids are germ factories, LOL. I’m a teacher and I spent my first two years constantly congested.

12. Sick basically once a month since last September. Never used to get sick very often before kids.

13. I think it depends on what you do for a living. I have worked outside a lot with my hands. The whole house would get sick and I would not. I figure all those micro-exposures from the outdoors combined with staying active kept my immune system in peak form. I remember one night I was nursing all 5 family members while they were sick, cleaning vomit, cooking for them, cleaning sheets, disinfecting door knobs. Never caught it. Over the years this has been the trend with occasional exceptions.

    But yes. The kids bring home every bug.

14. When I had young kids (the youngest is now nearly 17) it was pretty frequent. They were in daycare, then school etc and for the first few years it was rough until my own immune system caught up and could fight stuff off more effectively. I suspect these last few years we’re all at a massive deficit with Covid restrictions meaning our immune systems are out of practice. One of my partner’s sisters has been in a similar situation as you – their entire house is sick and once they’re over it another thing comes along and wipes them all out again. It’s been rough.

15. I had plans with a buddy Saturday night. I ended up cancelling, because he had had flu the last two days, but was “feeling much better”; I chose to cancel, because this week has been the first week in months that we haven’t been sick, even with something minor, I just didn’t want to take the risk.

    Pretty disappointed to cancel my plans, but I’m so tired of being sick all the time.

16. It gets better when they get older but yeah when they started going to school it was pretty constant for several years

17. toddler and a 2 month old. everyone around me catching something. I was lucky enough to skip all of them. skipped rsv, covid ( from my childs instance) , human numovirus. hopefully I will continue to fight the good fight.

18. Since my kids (7 and 5) started school and day care I get sick waaaaaaaaaay more often lol. Just part of the gig I suppose.

    I also ended up with hand foot and mouth from my youngest. That’s not common in adults but I guess I’m just lucky lol. It’s normal.

    I work with 5 other dads that all have kids in the range of 3-11 and since fall I do t think there’s been a week that one of us didn’t have something or our kids had something. Winter is always worse.

19. I have 10 month old twins in daycare lol.

    Currently, both kids are sick with runny noses and suspected sore throats. Mom is also sick. Somehow I have avoided this round and I have avoided the last couple rounds.

    However, we had norovirus rip thru the house last month. If hell exists, you probably live with norovirus.

    So to answer your question, I am not sick as often as I thought I would be but mom is sick pretty often.

20. I’m a little bit different, as I was diagnosed with diabetes a few years before I became a dad, so my experience likely isn’t typical. Growing up undiagnosed, I got sick a lot. That continued and got worse through my 20s. At 30, I was diagnosed and treated, and with putting in the work myself to get better, my health took a major spike forward for a few years and I rarely got sick and felt great.

    Then I had kids, and once they started going off and interacting with other kids and bringing in germs, I started to get sick again. As a hands on parent, when your kids get sick, you get sick, and I was a stay at home dad for a long time.

    And then the last few years, we’re pretty certain that my kids have given me Covid at least twice. They were minimally symptomatic and we didn’t think much of it, then I got really sick and we realized where I probably got it from.

21. A bunch of people, in enclosed spaces, especially kids, is a being ground for illness.

    It started when we had kids, but taking public transit does it too.

    My kids are now older, and I work from home. Before COVID, I would get sick 1 or 2 times a year.

    Before that, it was constant. It sucked.

    You’re not alone in feeling the way you do. Best you can do is clean constantly with things that kill viruses.

    Keep in mind that if you’re working outside the home or going to gyms, you’re increasing your risk/exposure profile, which does not help reduce your odds of catching something.

22. I have a 9 year old and a 7 year old plus I’m a teacher.

    Basically….I’m somewhat sick 250 days of the year.

    You get used to It…..and after about 7 or 8 when they are more keen into personal space It gets waaaaaay less sicknessy

23. My wife or I were pretty much constantly sick from when my daughter started day care until…I mean it hasn’t ended and she’s 6. I have a pretty good immune system and keep up with vitamins so I’m usually just “kinda sick” but my wife gets knocked down pretty hard sometimes.