Crazy Lady Question Alert!

With all of my kids it started within the first month. It really depends on if there is anything floating around.

It's sad, but my house has already been hit.....and I homeschool lol

Son was never sick as an infant, rarely as a toddler. BF until he was about 9 months, although I had to supplement due to work.

He gets sick once in a while. Usually just a cold. This year however, he missed 3 day of the SECOND WEEK of school from bronchitis! Yikes! It happens however. Just have them wash their hands when they get home.

I have found that a glass of juice with high Vitamin C and a children's vitamin each morning has been keeping my girl fighting fit.

Last year she started Kinder and had the "sniffles" all year. She first got "Sniffly" by the second week of school. So far nothing. Happy momma.

Good luck!

Do you have medication for your OCD? I fear that you will drive yourself insane if you don't somehow curb your OCD where this is concerned. Eighteen years is a long time to live like this. And you say they don't really have exposure to germs. They're going to get sicker if you've sheltered them too much.

Talk to your doctor about helping you here. You need it more than they do.

Honestly you are causing more harm than good. As my pedo told me the healthiest kid is the dirtiest. She has said today people are too sterile which is causing kids to be at risk of more serious illnesses. Kids are suppose to be sick. This is how they build resistance. They need to be exposed to other kids and germs. Infact research has said this could be a cause of why so many kids have allergies. Back when we were kids who used sanitizer?? Who had peanut free tables at lunch??? I say relax a little your kids need to get these different viruses to become immune to them. Keeping your kids in a bubble will only cause harm.

Well of course ANYTHING is possible but my kids were/are rarely sick and neither are my husband or I. Sure we wash hands and do other reasonable things but we don't do anything special or over the top to "protect" ourselves. They went to preschool three mornings a week and public school after that. I even worked in first grade for three years and never got anything worse than a cold.
I think you may need some help controlling your anxiety, so that it doesn't control you. My daughter has anxiety about sickness and germs (so I get it) and therapy has done wonders for her.
Life is so much nicer without dealing with excessive worry over things you have very limited control over.

It won't be long before your kids start coming down with the illnesses that are going around. My kids' pediatrician said that one way to "detox" is to have the kids wash hands and C. clothes as soon as they get home from school.

If it makes you feel any better, I caught every single cold and flu virus that went around when I was a kid. I also traveled extensively overseas and picked up some crazy viruses that way too. But I rarely ever get sick any more. I never even caught the H1N1 virus while everyone else in my house got it. I tend to think that all of my exposures to germs and viruses in my younger years gave me the strong immune system that I have now.

My husband never got sick as a kid, and he catches EVERYTHING the kids bring home. And he is slower to rebound than they are.

Good luck! It must be so hard to let go and relax when you are OCD.

I think worrying about getting sick can be worse than actually getting sick.

Your kids will get sick sometimes. Once they do, you will deal with it, they will get better, and you'll see that it wasn't such a big deal. Getting sick is not fun for anybody, but it's part of life and you'll manage. Worrying about it won't do you any good.

I second the others who say probiotics, yogurt, vitamins and hand washing. All very important.

Any time now!

My sister and I were home until we started kindergarten.
We came down with everything going around for roughly 2 years and then we settled down to one or two colds per year.

Our son started day care at 3 months old.
For about 2 years he came down with everything going around.
Actually I'd never had Hand Foot Mouth before but when he caught it, I got it too - other than a few blisters on our hands and feet we never even got a fever from it so we had very mild cases of it.
His colds became fewer and fewer but they really seemed to quit once we had his tonsils/adenoids out when he turned 4.

Try not to worry.
They'll be fine!
Just make a good home made chicken soup if they do come down with anything.

It should kick in pretty soon. Most kids, once exposed to a bunch of kids at school, usually get sick fairly frequently for a while.

When my kids were young there were something like three years in which it seemed that someone in the family was always sick.

I did become a bit of a germophobe after that, (especially after my kids got pinworms) and was obsessed with making family members wash their hands, but that's subsided, thank god. I was a little over-the-top for a few years, to say the least. And it's been nice to wear shoes in the house, after many years of freaking out over it.

Let it go. That's why we have immune systems. And we have something like 40 million germs per square inch of our body no matter how much you wash. :)

If kids are not exposed to germs, their immune systems never get a chance to develop and do what they're supposed to do.
We did not evolve in a sterile environment, and we cannot survive in one. Exposure to germs is not only an inevitable part of life, but is necessary to our survival.
I didn't make my daughter change clothes after school unless we were going somewhere that necessitated it- too much extra laundry.
Never did vitamin supplements.

I'm like you in that I hate being sick and I don't like my kids getting sick, but it happens:( What I do, is I load up on my Multivitamins and Vitamin D3. Even though I am very strict with taking my vitamins BUT...I am sick with a cold right now and it's only 3 weeks into the school year:( The kids are already over their colds, but mine is still lingering. I am going to get my flu shot soon too. I get the shot every single year and knock on wood, I may still get the flu here and there some years, but when I do get it, it's a mild case, so it is well worth my time to get the shot.

I don't think there is really much you can do prevent getting sick. I still suggest to take vitamins, drink orange juice for extra Vitamin C, keep a clean house using antibacterial products, and get all the immunizations you can.:) Also, make sure you have a neti pot...it helps with cleaning the sinuses.

just wanted to say I'm so proud of you for trying to overcome your worries for your kids. what a great mama!!

So yes, they will get sick, that's is just what happens.
usually when the weather changes around here.

Do you have someone you can call on to help you when it happens? and a plan for dealing with it. I put beachtowels on the kids beds, and they sleep on that and if they get sick it's easier to clean. You could get some pedialyte to keep on hand if it makes you feel more confident, that sort of stuff.

you'll do great and so will your kids.

My friend's little boy was diagnosed with leukemia at his 1 year check up. The #1 advice the doctor told her to do to fight viruses was to have everyone in the family drink Emergen-C. She said it has really helped keeping most the viruses away during the flu & cold season. I hope this helps!!

I'm a germophobe and I don't care who knows it. Having said that, yes, kids get sick when they are first put in large groups of other kids. You can't control anyone else so just teach your child good habits like washing hands - especially before eating anything. I believe that's the single most important thing to do to avoid some germs. Also teach good bathroom habits like washing hands and using paper towel to turn off the water AND to open the door - those are two of the germiest things on the planet. I also taught my DD (now 14 yrs old) to not get too close to other kids. A little personal space goes a long way.

Best of luck.

First thing to do is to chill out. Everything will be fine. Next thing to do is to throw out the antibiotic gel. It really doesn't do much, except dry out skin and help create super bugs. Do your kids have pets? If they do that's great, because pets help boost the immune system. If not, hire a pet providing no allergies. (Dog, cat, guinea pig, hampster, etc.) Make sure they eat yogurt every day to help ward off ear infections. Not only teach them to wash their hands with soap and water as mentioned by other posters, but teach them to not put their fingers in their ears or touch their faces. If they catch a cold, just chill out and be happy they've caught it. Colds aren't fun, but they are very important to building up the immune system and let you know they're healthy. Don't forget the chicken soup and OJ.

Best thing you can do is encourage hand washing before eating and after they come home from school. Then build up their immune systems with lots of fresh veggies and fruits. Give them fresh juiced veg/fruit as a "vitamin shot" each morning. Works like a charm. If they do get sick, remember it's good for them long term to build up their antibodies.

The best things are:

Extra sleep

Hand washing

Multivitamin + extra Vitamin C every day

Probiotics (yogurt, kefir, probiotic supplements

This is what I'm doing. The stomach flu is rampant in our school right now. I'm desperate to avoid it.

Fortunately, he will be building his immune system up! I know it's hard! I'm a germaphobe too!!

My advice is hand washing and proper hygiene. That and teaching them not to touch their faces. You can drink all the vitamin C drinks and supplement with this or that. But if they are touching infected surfaces and then their face or nose, that's really not going to help at all.
Also , you might consider getting them the flu mist vaccination. Sure, it isn't 100%, but it's better than nothing. Even if they do get the flu after vaccination, the severity is much less than if no vaccination was administered. And the flu, esp secondary infections, is pretty nasty business.
Kids will get sick, but they rebound a LOT quicker than adults. My kids will get a 24 hour bug and be running around the house in a couple of days. I get the same thing and I'm flat out for a week!

I haven't read all the answers so I do apologize for the answer if its a duplicate. I was actually the opposite of you until my youngest was born. He spent some time in the NICU and then I became WAY aware of germs. I too, am a SAHM. My kids are relatively healthy but you are right, they are going to get ill. When mine come home from school, they change clothes, bring them to the laundry room and then wash their hands and snack. They also take a multi-vitamin and a Vitamin C in the winter.

I BF my daughter until she was 3. Although she went to preschool she never missed a day due to illness. Thought I was doing something right😉 Then she started kindergarten and within the first month she was diagnosed with walking pneumonia. She also had strep throat and a sinus infection. Third grade, I thought I was going to go crazy. She missed 38 days of school due to various illnesses (stomach viruses, sinus infections etc) 4th grade she missed 12 days of school, so it was a huge improvement. I am hoping for a healthy 5th grade year. Best of luck for a healthy year!!

Not sure when 'it' will hit - sorry =(

I'm also a SAHM and was a crazy germaphobe with my first child and thought I was doing a great job at it since she was rarely, if ever, really sick. Fast forward to her first year in preschool and it felt like she was constantly sick! I was also pregnant with my second child during that time and decided that I'd try to relax a little over germs and that was really the best decision for my family! I'm still cautious and make sure we all wash our hands often but no longer worry so much over every little germ that my kids come in contact with. Neither of my children are sick very often but when they are my oldest daughter takes a little longer to recoup while my youngest literally throws up and is ready to eat a snack and go back outside to play!

There's really no way to know. My son (who also has environmental allergies pretty much year round--something is always in bloom here) ran through a few colds a year up until the start of middle school. Usually one stomach virus a year or maybe every other year. After that, very few illnesses.

Daughter (2nd born) has had probably 5 colds in her entire life. She is in 7th grade. Her worst cold was when she wasn't even 1 yet and had RSV. After that, she has had a few that were annoying, but nothing major. And she's probably had 2 bouts of stomach bug her entire life. She just rarely gets sick. Even when everyone else in the house is tossing cookies for days on end... she is fine.

You just never know. He may not ever go through a phase where he catches everything he gets near. OR, he might do just that... You just can't predict.