Yep, kids definitely pick up a lot of viruses at child care.
The most common way diseases pass from one child to another is through direct contact with the mucous membranes of the nose, mouth or eyes. Children spread disease this way most often because of their inadequate hygiene (for example, infrequent or inade- quate hand washing, or rubbing of eyes).
Contaminated fomites, surfaces, toys and utensils in the child care environment may also be vehicles for the spread of infection. Influenza virus,34 RSV,30 rhinovirus, parainfluenza virus29 and CMV35 may survive on non-porous objects for many hours.

My son was the same always got sick and I still had to pay for the days he had off so after about 2mths I cancelled daycare and he never really got sick again until school but after a few time and some probotics he gets sick once or twice a year.

My daught started 3 year old kinder last year and only got sick once. Which was amazing.
This year 4 year old kinder she has been sick 2 times so far but it’s expected from kinders or childcares.
It does get better.

My GP reckons they will pick something up every two weeks. I think he may have been preparing me for the worst but definitely comes in waves. Hopefully their immunity will mean you’re over the worst of it now. It’s tough on you and them when this happens.

Yeah my son was getting sick every second week when he first started,m. It’s now been over 6 months and it’s down to maybe once per month.

100% normal. Gets better as they go along.

We were braced for a period of illnesses when our kids started child care, but to our surprise it never happened.

Child care centres are breeding grounds for sickness. It took me a year to build up a good enough immune system when I was working in a centre (I worked in play group before that and never got sick). I would look into family day care or even occasional care, unfortunately child care centres are so careless with sick kids it’s just not worth the hassle some times. I ended up quitting the industry because of the carelessness.

I get it. Why I don’t send my kids.
But also, sometimes we forget that kids don’t have the option to be kept home. Sometimes it’s a safer environment for them to be there.

My daughter isn’t in preschool so I haven’t experienced this yet myself.
She’s almost 2 and in her entire life she’s been sick 2-3 times.
A friend of mine has her 2.5 year old in preschool which he has been going to for 2 years. He gets sick at most 10 times a year. She took him out for 2 months and he wasn’t sick once, when he went back he was sick again in the first week.

Its a hard one. All you can do really is teach your kids to wash their hands a lot.

my kids got sick a lot initially ( they all stsrted at 9 months at latest) but by 4 months in they were hardly ever sick .Getting their immune system up to speed now is preferable to when they start kindy or pre school, and miss a lot of time during scholastic fundamental building blocks, learning to read etc. A few years worth of studies seem to back this up, but of course, you do whatever yr heart tells you to do. xx

I don’t use childcare but have heard these sorts of stories from friends. Seems like it is fairly common amongst most centres.

I would never let my kids go to day-care if they were feeling sick. I was lucky enough to have my Mum to fall back on if they did seem off colour. She would come to my home as she only lived up the road. Otherwise I would have taken time off from work. It is a way for the kids to build up their immunity but you don’t want it happening too often

My #1 has been sick so many times, and luckily we are in a position to keep him home when he is. I understand people have jobs that are less flexible, or parents have exhausted their sick leave, but it is pretty frustrating when we see lots of snotty kids and the centre sends home notifications about keeping kids at home when they are sick but don’t always follow through with the send-home. Sometimes it feels like we are paying to keep him home more often than not.
I think, no matter where they go, they are going to get some colds or flus.