What Is Going On! Toddler Sick Every 2 Weeks

I would find a pediatric allergist. Underlying allergies can trigger all these things, and then they get much worse when he gets a virus. If you find out what he is allergic to, you might be able to avoid the triggers.

We had constant problems until we had tubes put in my girls ears. It made all the differance. Could be a drainage issue leading to all the sinus and ear infections.
I also believe he is building a strong immune system. You will be glad when he starts school and isn't sick every other week. Better now than later.

I really don't mean to be rude about this, but maybe it's the plug in air fresheners that you use in your house. I noticed your other post ;)

The reason I mention this is because I am very sensitive to all perfume smells and get asthma problems, runny nose, congestion, drainage etc from being around them. I cannot use scented soaps of any kind in my house, including dishsoap, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, candles etc.. Your son may be as sensitive as me. Add that to cold season and he is prob. miserable.

For example if my nephew comes over, I have to stay away from him because his mom washes his clothes in Tide and it causes my nose to run, my sinues to close up and my lungs to constrict. Just from being around the kid.

I would start by loosing the air freshers. You don't need them anyway. If you want scent - simmer a cinnamon stick in some water on your stove.

Good luck :)

Sorry to those who disagree but a two year old constantly on antibiotics is not normal. My girls are 9 & 13 and have NEVER been on antibiotics other than eye drops for a stubborn case of pink eye once.
First get rid of the air fresheners, it could be that right there. Second you might consider changing dr.s if he's saying this is normal. See if those easy fixes don't help and read ReverendRuby's response to your other questions, it's right on.

Get him on a good probiotic. You can get the liquid kind at the health food store. They're like magic for my kids and it's very important for your health. I would also give him vitamin D3 everyday and vitamin C. I give my son 35 units per pound of D3. You can get the Vitamin C in a child form, but make sure you get the supplements from a health food store so you know you're good good quality instead of chemicals.

This is normal for a child who is starting a new daycare setting at this time of year. Just make sure he is eating a well balanced diet, getting plenty of sleep, and practicing good hand wash methods. I know he is little but it never to early to start.

My old started a new school from in home on Oct and with in the first 6 months he had a tummy bug, diarrhea virus, multiple colds, and croup.

Since then he has only had a few colds.

Try not to stress, I hate seeing my boys sick too but it really is going to be ok. I promise.

sounds like a food allergy to me. my son had the same problems at 1y old. except his included a high fever (102+). after a year of hearing 'its just a virus' grrr... i started keeping a food journal and found two suspects. peaches and pears. had him tested for both and he was super allergic to pears!

we removed pears and pear juice from his diet, not an easy thing, and he's barely been sick since going on 8 years!

(of course, it could just be plain old environment triggered allergies too.)

He sounds like our daughter. She had ear infections one after another, eventually needed tubes placed in and her adenoids removed.

She had asthma. She was allergic to dust, cedar and grasses.

We finally purchased an electric air filter. Pulled out all of the carpets, took down all of the drapes and did our best to make her room a sanctuary.

My husband was very reluctant to get the tubes for our daughter, but once we realized the amount of hearing loss she had suffered, I made the appt ASAP.

She still needed her inhaler and her nebulizer through about 5th grade.

I too was tired of her being ill all of the time, but it was not her fault, it was her body fighting off all of these every day things.

I do agree, get rid of all air fresheners, scented candles, and potpourri. No Fabric Softners.. Your child is not able to handle all of these chemicals.

Expect the first solid 12mo of daycare AND kindegarten to be sick at least 1x per month. Year 2, expect being sick every other month.

We thought we'd have a "pass" in K, because we brought home so many germs (from 2 universities and 1 hospital), but no. We had no real clue what "sick all the time" really meant. We caught the seasonal stuff at our schools and my job... but it wasn't the CONSTANTLY sick thing that happens with lax sick child policies. And then when we started HS'ing for 1st grade, we thought maybe? But no. Because all his friends (sports, activities, besties) were still in awayschool.

The STRICTER the daycare's sick policy, the less he will get sick (we had a preschool that had an absolute NO sick child policy... he got sick from preschool MAYBE once, all the rest were us dragging home germs). If your son has asthma, it may well be worth looking for a daycare with a REALLY strict no-sick-child policy.

VERY FEW daycares have strict no-sick-children policies, and fewer still enforce them. Ours was strict enough that we had a boy with a brain tumor (in and out of chemo, no immune system) and a transplant kid (on immunosuppressing drugs) who were able to attend. ((And since, they've had many immunocompromised kids attend... word gets out quick in the community that there is a facility that actually has and enforces a strict policy)).

Here's the basics of our preschool's policy

- No temperature 99 or above for 72 hours
- No coughs (w/out doctor's note... this exception was for kids w/ asthma, cf, etc.)
- No sniffles*
- No runny noses*
- No sneezes*
* ((The above 3 were excusable w/ doctor's notes AFTER lab results came back negative even with an allergy diagnosis... as in even kids with documented allergies needed to go get swabbed at the beginning of whatever their season was))
- No diarrhea / stomach upsets for 24 hours
- No open infections / open wounds (this mostly hit the herpes -cold sores- and pink eye crowd)
- No lethargy/ headaches/ malaise (meaning if a kid LOOKED like they were coming down with something, they needed to be kept home, even if they didn't have fever/cough/etc. yet)

It was a VERY strict policy, and new families, before they got the facility was serious would be turned away at drop off, and first sign of symptoms, parents would be phoned (and the child would be brought into the office / their works would be sterilized). Parents almost never needed to be called, though, because when our kids were sick we kept them home, and because sick kids weren't coming, hardly anyone ever got sick! I only had 1 call in 3 years, and the teachers said on average that they only had to call home a half a dozen times a year at most. It was usually the sudden onset did GREAT in the morning / no symptoms at all, and then "hit the wall" came down with something quite quickly a few hours in. Also, as a courtesy, if something onset suddenly at home later that day, we'd ring in to let the staff know, so the medically fragile kids' parents could be alerted. With us, again, that happened maybe once in 3 years. Usually, you can tell when something is coming on.

It's a rare policy, though, (at least in our area) because most parents work / need to be working even when their kids are sick. Rather ironically, though, I almost never had to miss work or school... because my son was rarely sick. As opposed to K, where he was stay at home sick at least 1-2 weeks out of every month (as were all the other kids in K... unless you stay in the same population of kids, there is a whole new subset of microbes that are caught in school... so you get really sick in daycare for 2 years, and then really sick in public school for 2 years). It's part of why how it USED to be (and still in in some areas) there is now "attendance policy" until 2nd or 3rd grade. It was expected that K & 1st graders would be missing a lot of school. Also why 1st year teachers have sooooooo many "extra" days off. Typically new teachers use up all their sick days and vacation time their first year, even if they've been subbing. Many schools used to pair new teachers with a seasoned teacher in PART because the new teacher would be taking a lot of time off. That's not so standard anymore, though.

So it's very very normal / what to expect (sick every month)... but it's not necessary.

My kids were the same way. My son was at the doc every other weekend it seemed and now he is 15 and other than allergies, he may get sick once a year. My 4.5 yr old went 2xs for antibiotics last yr and this year. She does have colds with no fever here and there but nothing major. When she was little I used to joke we should just pitch a tent outside the pedi office! I give apple juice and lots of fruit and it helps but I've experience that age is the key thing for us. The older they get the less suck! Hang in there love, your not alone!

I have a mom in my daycare that tells me that her oldest daughter, 6 years old, has asthma and that she herself has it. She is the mom that's been making me so sick with her air fresheners, burning candle residue on her clothing, and her wild fabric softener. She will not make a connection that her whole family is sick because of her practices with these chemicals. She's making me so sick that I may give her notice the next time she pays me. She pays me for 1 month at a time though.

I'll bet anything your son is allergic to the air fresheners you talked about on the other thread.

Oh my, sounds exactly like how our 2 year old was from age 1 until we finally made a connection to dairy. No one in our family is ever sick, we don't even get colds, so when our son had ear infection after ear infection, we became frustrated. He had 2 sets of ear tubes and his adenoids out before I met with a biomedical nutritionist and she helped us with a food elimination diet. Ever since we removed dairy (and gluten too) he has not had a runny nose and has not been sick. Over Christmas we let him have a little whip cream with his pumpkin pie and sure enough - he had a runny nose the rest of the day. By the evening it was gone so we know it was the dairy. When your body cannot process a certain protein in foods, it will fight it off in all kind of ways. Some people get hives, asthma symptoms, rashes, runny nose, etc. After doing more research - actual medical research, not google research, I found that this is quite common knowledge in other countries, by here in America it is not. I know you will get all kinds of responses about kids just get sick, but if you keep having issues you may want to look into allergies or food intolerances.

My daughter was sick every two weeks last winter, which was her first year in daycare. Then she'd pass it on to me and my husband, so between the three of us, we were sick for like four months straight. So not fun. But it looks like she did build up her immune system because this winter is much, much better (knock on wood). Hang in there!

I went through this with my first and then figured it out and didn't have any more problems with my other 4. It was food allergies. With mine it was mainly dairy but he had other allergies too. They thought he had asthma too but he didn't. I didn't want to do the steroids and meds so I was able to eliminate the allergies and he did better. Also, echinacea and collidal silver helped too. Good luck!

I'm going to watch your answers, this sounds just like my 2 year old boy. He's taking Pulmicort daily, Albuterol as needed, and constantly has a cold.

The average child gets 8-10 colds a year, add a few to those who are in group care.

now allergies are often an issues also so I wouldn't put that out of the picture either. You might need to push to see an alergist for your son but keep in mind it could take a few months for him to get in. But a cold a month is not uncommon at all! And colds last a long while so it can feel like they are always sick

I feel like my almost 2 year old is sick all the time, also. Like yours, he always has a funny nose & severe congestion w/ a cough. This has been going on since I quit nursing & he started going to daycare at the gym. I would say as long as doc isn't overly concerned, you shouldn't either. It does get frustrating , though.

My kids were always snotty toddlers, several ear infections sinus infections strep you name it they had it. My daughter is 5 and still gets the occasional sinus infection but my son who is 7 is rarely sick anymore. So maybe he has build up a really good immune system during his sicko years. I hope this is the case with you but i do feel for you it was ALWAYS something!!!!

He is doing just what the doc said. He is being exposed to tons of germs and this is putting his body through lots of growth. The meds the doc is giving him sounds right too. It should last maybe another month or so, through flu season. Until Spring hits and then allergies start. Those are not so contagious and he should start showing his normal healthy self.

Welcome to the beauty of group child care!!

I used to teach kindergarten and the kids that were in day care were NEVER out sick and the kids that were home with parents, grandparent, etc. were sick ALL the time!!

Then after I stopped teaching, I did day care for a little while and brought my son with me and he was started being sick all the time too. Our doctor also said it was quite normal and that kids just need to build up their immune system. Do you have any friends that are teachers? Ask them how sick they were their first few years teaching :-) I was sick with something or other ALL the time. But a few years in, and I was NEVER sick.

It sucks seeing your kids sick. :-(

However, something to think about...my friend's daughter had ear infection after ear infection. CONSTANT!! (2 y/o). She had tubes put in and STILL ear infections...they stopped giving her dairy, and the ear infections STOPPED!!! So, maybe explore the allergy avenue...worth a shot?
Good luck!!!

I would have him checked for allergies. He could be allergic to something that you have around your house. I went through this with my son and it was allergies. He is actually allergic to only a couple of things, he is just highly allergic to them.

This happened to my daughter at that age too. Two major colds every month. She did grow out of it - now she hardly ever get sick...I think she gives germs to me and I get a ton of colds but she shakes it off. It will get better! I think this really does build their immune system.

This is normal for a child his age in a new daycare setting, especially since he already has asthma problems. It will pass eventually. I would check about allergies too, since that can make these illnesses worse.