Can you prevent the whole household from getting sick when 1 child falls ill?

This week was my first time with both kids sick at the same time. It started on Saturday when Isabelle woke up at 5am saying 'hot mummy! hot!' followed by 'drink water mummy, Isabelle drink water'. We couldn't get her back to sleep so by 10am we were all patiently sitting in the doctor's surgery. Sore throat, fever, cough, runny and congested nose.....When we got home we started the process of 'ISOLATION'. The idea was that if we kept Isabelle away from Sebastien, if we made sure that no one who looks after her then picks up Sebastien, then by some miracle the 2nd child in the same household wouldn't get sick....WRONG!

We followed the strict rules to isolating the children from each other, washing hands and using alcohol if we had to go from one child to the next, changing bedsheets and hand towels each day...did any of it work ? NOPE! First I started to get sick (headache, sore throat, dry cough). Then Isabelle's nanny started to complain of a sore throat and cough, by Thursday morning Sebastien started coughing. Back to the doctor we went. He also had Bronchiolitis and I now had sinusitis on top of everything else (oh and did I mention that Sebastien's nanny also started to get sick?).

It's now Saturday again, after several sleepless nights trying to console 2 inconsolable children, after my own sleepless night last night and prescription of anti-biotics and a bucket full of medicines for everyone else, I've concluded that this is the start of many many many more episodes to come in a household with more than one child. There is nothing you can do to stop the spread, these things are airborne anyway (which reminds we even aired the flat to no avail). You just have to ride the wave. Good hygiene and handwashing are still good practice, as for stopping the spread of anything..? you just have to accept there is nothing you can do and know that this time next weekend we will back to our routine of playgroups and school where a whole host of new viruses are awaiting our arrival with open arms.