In the ER Again...

LD has been sick literally since the end of July. I swear. Continuously sick. Sure he has some good days when I think he's better, but overall he really has been sick since a week or so after his two year appointment. Am I blaming the shots? I dunno. Maybe. We spaced things out and he still isn't completely vaxed, but he's only missing a Hep vax and his flu shot at this point so he's practically completely vaxed. I do think his immune system was not in tip top shape after the shots in July and that's how he ended up sick in the first place, and then he kept getting more and more sicknesses. Back to back. I just can't even wrap my head around a kid being sick this much. Really. Especially a kid who doesn't go to daycare, preschool, playplaces at malls/restaurants...where the hell is he getting these germs? Seriously. Anyway on Friday he woke up from nap gasping and coughing. He couldn't breathe at all. Of course DH, who travels often for work, was gone on a work trip. My grandma and her boyfriend were visiting so thankfully I wasn't alone. I was freaking out. Since we went to the ER in January I knew exactly where to go after trying to get a hold of my insurance company to get pre-auth to go to the ER I decided I didn't give a damn if I had it and I needed to get there and help my son breathe. We quickly loaded into the car and headed out. Of course it was 4:30pm on a Friday afternoon in one of the worst traffic areas in the country. Thankfully we made it within 15 minutes. The admitting person immediately identified it as croup as we walked in and LD did his cough as he was still gasping for air. Two hours later we were walking out with a kid who was back to his self again. Thank goodness for steroids. Fast forward two days later and it all went to hell again. The steroids wore off and he was breathing fast and miserable. I spent the day yesterday agonizing over whether to take him back to Urgent Care or wait it out. I hate the ER and urgent care because it's full of sick people. You're exposing yourself to more germs and in our case since he's been sick for months the last thing I wanted to do was expose him to more germs. We followed up with our ped today and he's doing much, much better. We have a steroid to give him in case it gets bad again, but for now I think we're past the peak of the croup. I'm planning to build him a bubble to help keep him away from all the germs that have been making him sick, or maybe I'll send him out to play in some dirt, stop washing his hands before eating, and let him lick shopping carts. Not sure what will help at this point. We do weekly playgroups so he is exposed to other kids germs, but they never get sick. He always does. I need his immune system to get stronger because when the baby comes home I don't want to worry about the newborn getting sick too. Any good tips or tricks you use to keep your kids healthy???