People and their germs

[Ihavelostmymarbles]

So, lately I've been avoiding people as much as possible because I don't want to get sick. An old friend, well I'll be honest--my only friend, called me the other day to help her out with something. About 10 minutes into our conversation she informs me that all of her kids have been sick, and then I noticed her sniffling and short of breath from a cold. Cue a major panic attack (in my head) as I think about my kids and me getting sick.

Guess what? We got sick. Now all I can think about is the fact that this cold could really be the flu or something that's going to kill me. I'm scared for my kids too--like what if they get pneumonia?

I think I'm just done with other people now. It's easier to be alone and do my own thing than to see a friend and either worry about or actually get sick.

[GlassPinata]

I was the same way, especially about my youngest son (twenty years younger than his next-older brother, so.... truly the baby of the family).
I hired a nanny to look after him for the first few years of his life, because I didn't want him in group care, due to my fear of illness.
But the fact is, allowing children normal exposure to germs actually strengthens their immune systems.
I kept my youngest child so isolated that when he finally did start school, he caught tons of colds. He'd never been exposed to other children and their germs before.
Studies have shown that children who attend preschool or daycare miss less school due to illness when they are older. That is because they have had a chance to develop immunity to many common germs.

My advice is, don't deliberately expose your children to germs, but don't actively try to shield them from every cold and sniffle, either.
It's impossible and you'll only drive yourself crazy, for one thing, and for another it is normal for children to catch colds and this is how their immune systems develop. I''m sure your children have been immunized against all the really bad illnesses, the ones that sometimes killed kids in the past, before we had vaccines for them.
It is very unlikely that your kids would develop pneumonia from a common cold, but even if they did, they'd be okay. It is curable, and otherwise-healthy people very rarely die of it. But like i said, I very much doubt they would even get pneumonia.

Try not to isolate yourself and your children. It will only make your anxiety worse. Get out and see your friend; let your kids have friends.

Best wishes.

[Ihavelostmymarbles]

My littlest one did get pneumonia before. It scared me so badly, so I'm very careful taking her places, and she got it after I had seen that same friend before. What happened was that she got an Upper respiratory infection, and since she had one before that (again--caught from that same friend's family), it developed into pneumonia. Now she's at a higher risk for asthma and it really makes me mad. My friend knew that I had just had a baby a few months before and brought her sick kids around.

They are always sick so I'm done going around them. It messes up my VCD to the point where I question myself during the whole cold, like is this really a PE?