How Often Is Your Young Toddler in Daycare Sick?

It's hard to tell whether its the daycare at fault or whether a child is just prone to sickness. Mine goes to an in home daycare(with only a few kids) twice a week as well as a preschool(with lots of kids) twice a week. He he has been sick only once this year(apart from the ocassional runny nose) and it was b/c of a stomach virus in which I stayed home with him until he recovered. He does not get sick very often. A friend of mine has her daughter in the same preschool as mine and she gets sick every month. I also give mine a flinstones vitamin every morning so maybe it has something to do with that?? I also only give him organic milk and he gets a veggie smoothie every morning with breakfast. :)

My girls were sick just about every month in a daycare. In home daycare, it depends how many kids are there...Good luck with going back to work - I know how hard it can be.

I watch a few children here at my home and they haven't been sick yet...I clean my house with natural products (no toxins, chemicals or fumes) plus my girls are older, so they aren't sick to spread it on to the others...

Good luck!!

I had my daughter in daycare for 2 years (from 8 weeks to 2 yrs) and she was sick every other month or so. I ended up being a SAHM which took a lot of sacrifices, but she is worth every single one of them. I think it really depends on the daycare, not whether it is in home or a conventional daycare. We were at the Children's Lighthouse and she was sick every week when she was an infant. I then moved her to Primrose and she was only sick every other month. You just have to realize that kids are going to touch their noses, then touch the toys, and then put the toys in their mouth. No matter how many times that they clean the toys it will happen. You just need to find the right place where they are cleaning very frequently. I personally loved Primrose.

My infant was in daycare for only a few months and was some sort of sick every few weeks. Just part of being around other kids. Home day care scares me--too many news stories.

I did home daycare until my daughter was 18 mos to keep her from getting sick and we got sick maybe once every 3-4 months. Not bad. BUT, the sitter had to return to full time work and I needed more flexibility with hours and the reliability of daycare since I took a job that requires me to travel.
The first two months of daycare, my kid was sick the entire time, really because she hadn't been exposed to a lot before. But we took a week vacation and she was well until we took her back to school. This set my mom radar off.
We are at a new school that we have been at since the beginning of July. My daughter has not been sick at all other than a minor cold until this week when every kid there started getting stomach bugs. My mom and niece up in Plano also have this too so I don't blame the daycare for this, when stuff is going around, it goes around.

Sooo...there are pro's and cons to private and daycare. Private care, the hours are shorter and you get put in a bind if you do not have a backup plan in case sitter is sick or quits for some reason. Pros are that your child gets individualized attention if the caregiver has a small ratio. Daycare-there's germs but your kid shouldn't just get sick and stay sick if theyve never been like that before. Pros are that your child gets to socialize with a diverse group of children, you have wider hours and someone is going to be there to watch your kiddo, even if the regular teacher is out.

BTW, we do the kids Vitamin C 250 mg tabs from Whole Foods and when she appears to be coming down with stuff, I give her a dose of kids echinacea-goldenROOT from Whole Foods also and it really seems to help, at least, with the respiratory stuff.

Hope this helps, if you have more questions about this or want to chat more, PM me. Good luck!

Just to give you some information. When my daughter was little the Pediatrician told me it was normal for children to get up to 10 colds a year. Daycare or not.
Lonie

Mine would get sick amlost every week. Then I started him on kids multivits and super fruits by Animal Parade. He does not get sick as often now.

My son was at inhome daycare until he was 2.5 years and then we moved him to Parker Chase for preschool. He rarely got sick at the inhome place and he rarely gets sick at Parker Chase. He gets the typical seasonal cold, but RARELY gets anything more than that. I probably take off 2-3 days per YEAR with a sick kid.

Good luck!