Well this can be a tricky one because you are going to find some VERY different views about this, here's mine and it's long!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
It must be impossibly difficult not to want to shelter and protect your child from anything that might harm them or shorten their lives, especially when you take their CF into consideration.
It makes complete sense for parents to want to stay home with their children-I for one hope that I am able to do that someday, but I WILL be taking my children to play goups, daycare or other acivities to get them out of the house, so I can relate to wanting to stay home.
AND...
You can protect your child from germs in daycare by keeping them home,
you can protect your child from germs in elementary, JR high and High School my doing Home school
BUT.........
You CANNOT protect your child from germs in college because you can not provide them with their college education. If college is their first real exposure/close encounter germs with people outisde of their immediate family, that poor little immune system is going to be in for such a shock, that their body might not be able to handle it-honestly.
You CANNOT protect your child from the germs of someone they grow to love. Again, if this is the first real exposure to germs they can damage their body very badly because it is such a shock after being shelted for so long.
I understand you may not be considering going so far as to home school them and such, but they are important things to consider.
Two Scenarios:
Child A starts daycare at a young age and is sick for most of the first 6 months (we all know CFers hang onto illnesses longer than the rest of us) they are there. After those first 6 months, illness/infections subside-they still occur but are very infrequent and mostly mild. Child A starts kindergarden and is ill for the first few weeks due to exposure to brand new germs. After those first few weeks, the illness/infections subside and child A is actively involved in kindergarden, playing with kids at recess, playing with friends from school on weekends and after school, participating in school sponsored events.....
Child B doesn't got to daycare, mom or dad stays home and child has minimal to no contact with a daycare setting/play group, child B is hardley ever ill or hasn't had many infections. Child B starts Kindergarden and is sick for the first 6-9 months, misses out on a good majority of what they need to learn in order to progress to first grade. Child B might be held back to complete what they missed-this can be a huge setback in the life of a child who simply wants to be "normal". Child B might miss out on building school relationships because they have been absent so often. They may not have too many friends to play with at recess because they didn't estabish relationships due to their absences (kids can be really mean and unforgiving to other kids).
Of course, these are two scenarios with two extreme sides, but it really is something to consider. As hard as it might be, the earlier you get their bodies exposed and use to the germs, the faster their body is going to build a tolerance. The older they get without the constant exposure will just make it that much harder on their bodies and that much worse when they are finally exposed-because it's going to happen sometime.
And since my post is already a novel, I might as well continue <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">
My husband was put into daycare at about 4 months when his mom went back to work. His father left so she didn't have much choice other than to put both her boys in daycare and work her butt off. Mark was sick a lot for that first year (as she recalls), but after a while the colds and infections seemed to dissapate (sp?). He has been sick a few times in his life since those early daycare years. Ironically enough he was told at his diagnosis that he would live to be five, surely not any longer than 10 and that he would be in and out of the hospital on IV medications, oxygen, feeding tubes for the rest of his short life....To this day, the only IV medications my hsuband has ever been on were trial medications, he has never been on oxygen and has never had a feeding tube. He believes this is partly because of his early exposure to an array of germs and next because of his mothers encouragement for him to always be active and normal just as everyone else. He played soccer all through elementary, JR. high and High school, he has been very active in the gym with weight lifting since he was about 15 and continues to be very active. I've often asked him if he ever thought his moms choice to put him in daycare harmed his health (usually when this daycare topic comes up) and he always tells me absolutely not. It taught him young how to take care of himself, wash his hands, do his medications and keep himself busy. He also formed some great friendships that carried him through elementary.
It's a tough thing to do, but early exposure really is the best because it's going to happen sometime!
