Daycare - The One-Stop Shop for Pre-School Diseases

Martin writes:

January has been a bit of a write-off for all of us.

Edward was diagnosed with Croup a couple of weeks ago, a few days after he went into the main Springfield hospital for a polio shot. It seems like every time we go to the Pediatrician in the Hospital Edward gets sick a few days later. Now he's in daycare when he's sick he has to come home, so he spent two days that week at home in my care.

Ed recovered from the Croup long enough have a couple of days back in daycare, go to Tiny Tots with me to open that playgroup, then to visit a friend's house for a playdate on the Sunday. The following Monday he started vomiting. Fortunately it was Martin Luther King Day so Beth was off, and I'm currently looking for a new job after completing some seasonal work for UPS, so we were both home to cope. After a few bouts he cleared his system of whatever the problem was, and was fine by the evening.

The next day he seemed fine again, so I took him into daycare. This time they called after a few hours to say he had a fever. I picked him up again, and they told me that they had had some cases of Hand Foot and Mouth disease. I spent the next 3 1/2 days with him at home, while he steadily worked through the various symptoms of HFM. Fortunately he had a fairly mild dose. Unfortunately I started coming down with the symptoms on the Friday evening, starting with a fever and sore throat.

So it looks like he caught Croup at the hospital or possibly daycare, and HFM at daycare, and in between had a day's sickness which may have been related to either or neither complaint. I spent the weekend getting sicker, and on Saturday evening, before the fever had broke, started coming out in spots on my hands. I got a much worse dose than Edward, but not as bad as the dose he gave one of his playmates Liam. He gave another playmate Soren Croup for a change of pace.

As of Tuesday evening my spots are still very much in evidence and several are large and blistery, but they are not quite as painful today as the last two days, though I have them on my feet too so walking is not much fun.

We've had to cancel plans to hold a big Superbowl party & playdate this coming weekend, for fear of a lingering infection being caught by one of his unaffected friends. We'll watch it anyway, but the mountains of potato chips, bowls of salad, dip, and order of pizza will be much reduced.