BTDT moms (on third child or more)

Getting closer and getting nervous about bringing baby home during the height of flu season. When I brought home DS 5, it was just us, and every few weekends DSS's but they were old enough to make sure they washed their hands properly and didn't come over for the first few months if they had a cold. This time, its with a full time five year old in kindergarten which means he's pretty much constantly sick. How do I handle this? How do I tell him not to touch his little brother when he's got a cough or sore thoat?

This can be tough. My oldest had a cold when his sister was born. Then I started having symptoms in the hospital the night she was born. Then she started having trouble breathing and it ended up that we all had RSV! She had to go to the hospital at 10 days old for it. It was awful and lasted forever. So what the pediatrician told me then was that if he wanted to kiss her or touch her to only let him kiss the back of her head. He was 18 months at the time, so we really had to watch. Since your DS is 5, I imagine if he's kept busy enough, he won't really be hovering too much. You could keep some hand sanitizer around if he wants to hold him. After going through RSV with a newborn I am really cautious, though, so if he has a cough I'd probably just tell him that when he's feeling better then he can hold him.

I am concerned about this too. My DS is also in kindergarten and will be bringing home all those yucky germs from school each day. I am just hoping that by making him wash his hands right when he walks in the door will help some. I have also heard that you can have them change clothes if you are really worrried. I might do that in the early days just to be safe if DS seems extra germy. :) I am not sure if you plan on BFing or not, but I think you said that you are, then that should pass on some of your great immune system to baby as well.

We are germaphobes here because of Ellie's chemo and her low blood counts. We have hand sanitizer everywhere and even our five year old uses it frequently. We wipe down the house and toys with clorox wipes every afternoon as part of our afternoon cleanup routine. Make sure everyone has flu shots and the adults have dtap boosters. Fortunately little bitty babies aren't easily exposed because they aren't grabbing and putting things in their mouth.

I plan on just a lot of hand washing and getting some hand sanitizer in a fun pump (Toy Story or something like that??) to encourage the boys to wash and keep germs down. Both of them are in preschool where they do a lot of hand washing, but I worry, too, that something will come home with them. Already this year DS2 has been exposed to Fifth Disease. I agree that teaching them not to put their hands in baby's face and kissing on the top or back of the head will be good, too!

We plan to have lots of handwashing and sanatizer and if the kids want to kiss they can kiss on the top of the head. It will be hard but with your older DS being 5 he most likely will understand. MY DS is 5 as well and we've talked about making sure we keep our hands to ourselves, covering our mouth with our elbow when we cough or sneeze, and always remembering to wash our hands after we use the bathroom (I have to double check on this one, because most times he'll just walk out).

Okay so stock up on hand sanitizer. Good to know.