poorly girl

[BlondeMoment]

Hi everyone,
I'm starting to worry about my 3 and a half year old niece.
She's ALWAYS ill. She seems to go down with the most awful colds and temperatures and sicknesses and just as she's starting to get over it and return to herself she's down with the next one. It's been like this for at least 6 months.
I mind her twice a week and I see her a lot at the weekends too, and I don't think she's been herself for more than 5 minutes for ages. Could something be wrong? I've just this minute had to send her home yet again. She's just over another horrible cold and had actually had a good morning. The next minute she's sobbing with an earache and her temperature is climbing. It's heartbreaking. Each time she's ill she looses weight and she's down for over a week. Can we do anything to help her?
Lisa x

[Bridey]

Has she started playschool or do you take her to lots of groups? Does she have older siblings that have started school? It may just be that she's getting out and about more than she used to and is being exposed to more bugs. Not a bad thing as she will be building up immunity.

A healthy diet with lots of fresh fuit & veg and good hygiene are the only things I can recommend.

[CH1957]

I used to Nanny for two little boys who were like this, they had constant colds, temperatures, sickness bugs, spots of some sort etc and every time they got it I did too! The last bug they caught before I stopped looking after them I was so ill with that I ended up in hospital with pneumonia.
I think some children are just more prone to catching these bugs, although having said that their diet was awful, all they ever ate was cheap value pizza or 'spag bol'. Not saying your neice doesnt eat well at all, just maybe something shes going through and she'll hopefully grow out of it.

[loocyloo]

my DD had a cold for 5 mths solid at the beginning of the year!

drs were reluctant to treat it, but even when they did, she was ill again within a few days!

a friend suggested a homepath ... we saw one, chatted, he 'prescribed' some remedies and, i have my DD back !!! :D i'm not saying it is the perfect cure, but has been around for a long time and does seem to help lots of people.

good luck xxx

[BlondeMoment]

Has she started playschool or do you take her to lots of groups? Does she have older siblings that have started school? It may just be that she's getting out and about more than she used to and is being exposed to more bugs. Not a bad thing as she will be building up immunity.

A healthy diet with lots of fresh fuit & veg and good hygiene are the only things I can recommend.

She doesn't have any siblings but she does go to a nursery twice a week when she's not with me. I'm sure she does pick up all sorts from the children there but it just seems rather excessive. I'm pretty sure she has a good diet at home. Her parents are both big and they're determined she is going to have a healthier start than they did. She certainly gets lots of fruit and veg when she's here.
It's just I've never known a child like it. I know a lot of them have runny noses a lot of the time but she's down like a lead balloon every other week.

[nokidshere]

My son (now 10) was constantly poorly from birth to the age of about 7! When he started school he had 22 days off in the first two terms!! I just kept getting told he would grow out of it (chesty coughs, high temps, snotty nose etc) and lo and behold he did - somewhere around the age of 8 I think - we just noticed on deay that he did a whole term at school without being poorly!!!!

[BlondeMoment]

Thanks everyone. Guess it's pretty normal then really. I remember being ill quite a lot when I was little too. Guess we all have to build up our immune systems as we go along x

[kellib]

My son was like this when he was younger, someone only had to sneeze around him and he came down with the flu :rolleyes: He never once completed a full term at nursery due to illness!

The doctors used to say he caught infection on top of infection as his immune system was, obviously, weaker when he was ill and that he'd grow out of it.

When he started school at 5 everything changed, he's hardly ever been ill so guess he did grow out of it (touchwood lol!) :thumbsup: