Catching colds from GC

The last time I had a serious chest infection, my GP asked me if my wee granddaughter had croup again!

When, pre covid, I visited my GP a couple of times in a six month period worried that I kept getting colds and couldn't shake them off his advice was "stay away from the grandkids, they're germ buckets". I think it's unavoidable and they seem to recover from them much quicker than we do.

GC bring hugs, giggles and germs! My immune system gets a reboot from having the sniffles and I get the fun of the hugs and giggles. To me, it is a small price to pay.

Unfortunately yes. I once went to the Dr years ago when my Grandson was about 4 complaining of catching one virus after another, thought there must was something wrong with me. The first question she asked was, are you around young children much ?

It’s normal

Thank you all for your comments. It's good to know most of us are in the same boat

And I've probably shot myself in the foot by writing that!

I don't think it's inevitable. I have eight grandchildren aged from 13 to 2, who all live nearby and give or take Covid restrictions, I see them all often. The only thing I have caught from them is a very minor infestation of nits for the first time in my life. I can't actually remember the last time I had a cold/ cough/ flu.

Yep Urms, my cold is now into it's fourth week! Just starting to clear up and I'm immunocompromised on top of that!
When I was teaching, I rarely caught anything!

You’re right Marydoll. The doctor said to our daughter that our immune systems are on the floor because lockdowns meant people weren’t mingling!

If my granddaughter had croup, I usually ended up with a chest infection.

I read recently that, due to the fact that we have not been exposed to as many bugs as usual, due to lockdown, our immune systems are not as efficient as they have been.

Yes, I've got the cough. At present it lasts about 3 weeks I'm on day 3 so not a lot too look forward to.

I have caught colds from my grandson's . But funny enough when my daughter,son in law and both grandsons had Covid I didn't catch it from them. This was before I had my first jab.

Our bodies sure work in funny ways.

Yes, normal.

Our 3 year old dgd shares all her colds with us, or at least start a chain reaction that means that one by one, all of us care-givers are likely to get it eventually.

While they are still young enough to need you to hold their hand or join in close-contact imaginary play which involves touching the same things, I think it's almost unavoidable because almost as soon as you have washed their hands, they touch their mouth or nose and spread the germs again.

Yes, my grandson has been in nursery for 2 months. We've all had 3 colds now, brought home by him. He's also had 2 bouts of sickness & diarrhea. TBH, he's been OFF school more than in.

Each time we have the hassle of covid testing. But better safe than sorry and spreading it around!

100% normal

No, my gs has had a constant cold since starting nursery and I see him every day but haven't ever had a cold.

I’m minding L’il Miss aged 4y off school today with a very snotty nose. On antibiotics. I’ve got my fingers crossed !

Very common and normally they recover quicker than the adults do.

Yes - perfectly normal. Every time I spend any time with GC I catch something. If it's not a cold it's the tummy bug. A couple of weeks ago I caught that from GD, followed closely by a cold. Have to watch our for nits, as when GC went home after a couple of weeks here, (visiting from abroad) we got a message that they'd just found them . Fortunately no one else got them that time.

Our family say children are plague carriers!

Yes, unfortunately it goes with the job!

‘Fraud so ! I spent the years of my grandchildren’s first terms at nursery and school with cold after cold . The one advantage of Lock Down ? Not a single cold !

Very normal… they ll kindly bring you everything home (including nits?)