apparently

That doesn't sound surprising on the face of it; of course, lots of little kids touching each other's faces and hands; so many viruses that when I call to see if my sickly son should skip school, the teacher is like, "Don't worry about it, just bring him in." We show up (it is my day to co-op, which is why I even bothered to call at all), and indeed every single child and adult is visibly or audibly sick, sneezing, coughing, etc.

What was surprising is how many different sicknesses a child can go through. My daughter had a 12 week period when she got 11 distinct illnesses, most of them brief colds, a GI bug or two (that's gastro-intestinal bug, which is my sanitized way of describing vomiting sickness), the odd mysterious virus (a panicky call to the nurses results in advice along the lines of "We are seeing a lot of that, if the fever stays over 104 for, say 5 days, you might want to call us again; in the meantime, just keep her comfortable.")

But mostly it was just a different cold each week. A day of fatigue, a day of nose symptoms, a few days of more snot and coughing, and then perhaps a day or two of health, then more fatigue. Over and over again. My son today (hence the blogging) is complaining of a hurt ear (bolstered by a study showing that waiting three days before getting antibiotics is as effective as not waiting) and has serious amounts of snot and a noticeable amount of clinginess. He had a few days last week when I noticed that everyone in the family was healthy, but this cold is the third cold now in about four weeks. Given that I've had colds that lasted four weeks, I'm not sure how he can even cycle through them that quickly.

Having been through this before, I know it'll trickle off into relative health after a few months. But I am here to warn all of you whose oldest kids are just starting or just about to start their first preschool, sickness is a coming. Nothing life threatening, nothing serious that will eventually shake us up and result in writing a column about how we've learned how incredibly precious each moment is. Just a bit more fatigue, a bit less energy, a dulled expression (I'm not sure if I'm writing about the sick kid or me, sick, here). Slightly more tenderness from the increasingly independent toddlers. Repeated over and over again.

The good news is that studies also indicate all these sicknesses are healthy - our bodies are born expecting to be in a world of infectious disease and getting some of that balances the immune system in a way that makes allergies less likely. (Exposure to dirt and animals may also help this effect out.) Just make sure you get enough sleep yourself, and worry about the Christmas shopping later :)

--Chris