baybeasts

We seem to have had more than our fair share of respiratory disease in this house for babies that aren’t in childcare and are copiously breastfed. Loey’s had three colds, one hideous (couldn’t even feed because he couldn’t breathe through his nose). Huey’s caught two of these colds and last week he came down with something like croup. It was an upper respiratory tract infection that left him almost unable to breathe one night (the scariest night of my life), with a temperature for two days, and a horrible, painful, rattly cough. Worst of all it’s made him miserable - it’s been so strange and sad to see our normally cheerful smallest beast be sad and grizzly. (Although, the grizzly thing may also be something to do with being five months old, when one’s desires are thwarted by one’s lack of motor skills. I remember Loey going through the same stage - we googled ‘grizzly baby’ and the number one hit? ‘My five month old baby is so grizzly.’)

We can’t help but wonder if living on a main road has something to do with it. Bean googled ‘main road children respiratory disease’ and it was so scary that she told me not to look. But we’re kind of stuck here - the joy of having our two children close together is that we can stay home together, but the drawback is that our financial position is precarious to say the least. Moving would be a serious stretch and require some creative thinking. It would also be sad to leave this house. Despite the awful location there are things about it we love - north sun through the living room windows on cold days, a big garden full of fruit trees and herbs, proximity to an amazing support network of friends.

Do any of you more experienced parents than us know whether this is a normal amount of sickness for babies like ours? Are we worrying for no reason? Or do we need to urgently protect their health and find a way out of here?