Just curious since we seem to be fighting strep right now, how often do your kids get sick? How long are they usually sick? Do you think there is anything we can do to prevent them from getting sick?

Joe and Frances don't get sick too often any more. I'd say one or the other will get a cold maybe every month or two at this point. They're in daycare so they did get sick quite a bit at the beginning but they seem to have done a good job of building up immunities.

Dennis

Peyton hasn't been sick since November 2003 and Lindsey has never really been sick. She's had a runny nose while teething but that's been the worst of it.

I'm not sure what's attributed to their wellness but we do give Peyton a children's formula multi-vitamin and mineral supplement and she also occassionally get an extra vitamin c supplement. I don't know if that is the reason she hasn't gotten sick in awhile. She's not in daycare anymore but she was going to preschool 2 days a week up until the beginning of May.

It depends on what you consider "sick"

Katie gets ear infections pretty regularly because of her teeth. That usually means the sniffles arrive as well. As long as there is no fever, I don't take her into the dr because I'd rather not go the antibiotic route if it will take care of itself (which happens about half the time).

Maggie gets random fevers sometimes. I don't take her to the dr for those, either. The fever stays for a couple days with no other symptoms and there is no cause for it. So we just wait them out.

We went through a phase when we were starting at the Y in the winter that they had colds all the time, but that passed. I wonder if it will start up again now that it has been so long since we've gone.

Cameron barely had a cold for about a year and wasn't on any antibiotics until 2 months before he turned 3. But this fall/winter we have had some nasty bugs around here, spiking very high fevers (106.2), vomitting and diarrhea which made them dehydrated and had to go to the hospital. Plus colds and ear infections. I am hoping that we are done for the summer.

It always seems to come in waves. Either my kids are very healthy or pretty sick. Plus one kid gets sick and than the other one after that.

Rarely. I can't recall the last time one of them was sick. Of course they all stay at home so I'm sure that contributes to them not getting sick often. :nod:

Over the winter they were sick constantly it seems. Between December 8th and April 8th Janelle had 11 different viruses, 2 of them stomach bugs. Since then Janelle has had one cold and Caid 2.

Kaitlyn has been sick about every 2 months in the last 6 months. Before that she was rarely sick, maybe every 6-8 months and it was short lived. 1-3 days. This year she had a slight case of pneumonia and now has strep throat. She is now in a pre-school/daycare 3 days a week. So it is a change. She is around more kids. Maybe I will try vitamins to see if we can keep her well. :scratch:

Jackson takes those gummy bear vitamins as recommended by our pedi. He's taken them since Feb. He's had awful allergies (runny nose, coughing), but other than that, he's built up some good immunities finally.

I'm typing this and *knocking on wood* at the same time!

Both Joe and Frances take multi vitamins, but I don't know if that helps or not.

Mary

We've started giving Janelle the zycam safety suckers everytime someone else in the family gets sick, and it actually seems to be helping, only problem is we can't predict when she will be the first person to get it...

Alex has had about 2 or 3 colds, and the nasty puking virus that was going around this past winter. :( He also had one ear infection....but we didn't know he had it until his doctor pointed it out at an appt for one of the colds last November. :lol:
He had another virus that affected his diaper region mostly in February.....severely runny, acidic diarrhea. Poor guy.

He's 19 months old, not in day care/pre-school, takes no vitamins, and was weaned at 18 months. :)

At first AUstin was always sick...at 4 months, first EI and then RSV...then more EI..then 7 cases of strep in a year....


this past winter he was the healthy one...with a couple colds..one case of strep/one ear infection.

Josh however, was in4 or5 times with either wheezing and URI or strep.

Josh brings home alot from school I think...Right now Austin is at home with me but he will start preschool in the fall.

My kids seem to have colds quite often, and had the awful rotavirus this spring. Emma's had a couple of other illnesses, but nothing very serious (hand, foot, mouth was the worst) and its always been viral. Neither kid has ever had antibiotics, actually. Still, it's often enough to be annoying.

Oh, and Emma takes the gummy multivitamins every day, too.