That’s my Benjamin. I thought if we kept him in the church nursery, MOPS nursery, Bible study nursery… his immune system would be better for it. But every other week he’d have another runny nose. Fever. Cough. MOPS and Bible study are over and we’ve stopped putting him in the nursery for church.
Last weekend we spent the night at a hotel, visiting family for a graduation. He came home sick. Runny nose, fever, cough, the whole she-bang.
Over-exposure: check.
Under-exposure: check.
What now?
Is there something I can add to his diet that will help build and booster his immune system? Vitamin C is the common answer, but that’s normally found in high-sugar foods and sugar actually weakens the immune system. Flintstone’s vitamins? Don’t get me started on my theories on the multivitamin… I’d rather give him a whole food that naturally provides immunities.
Do you know of any?
Is there anything else we can do? We don’t use anti-bacterial anythingin our house. I do wipe down the shopping cart. And the inside of the Car Carts (love Kroger’s). (Mostly, I try to choose a cart towards the back of the cart corral in the parking lot on a sunny day. The sun beats Lysol any day.) All that to say, I don’t think we’ve stunted his immune system that way.
We don’t eat junk food. I mean, yeah, we use refined sugars in our half-whole wheat muffins. But they have to get their Cheetoh fix at other people’s houses.
I briefly considered food allergies, but it’s always been so easy to correlate his sicknesses with recent possible exposures. The day after MOPS. The day after we get back from Chicago.
So I turn to you. The all-knowing Internet. Enlighten me. How can I keep my boy healthy?
Lots of patience. My daughter did the same for a long time, but now, in 1st grade, she has had only one cold the entire school year. First year of preschool was pretty miserable with all the colds, second only a little better, kindergarten better yet, and now this year with only the one.
My son is 4, and due to her exposing him to a lot of bugs already I’m hoping he’ll have less trouble with getting sick at school.
It was a bit of a joke among the experienced moms at my daughter’s preschool and kindergarten that all the kids would get sick right around the end of the second week of school from the exposure to the unfamiliar germs of the other kids. It held pretty true.
I’m all-too familiar with that experience… having been a preschool teacher! I had to go through it myself to build up my OWN immunities.
But I’m hoping to homeschool. He’ll still get exposure, he won’t be sheltered, but it won’t be the same. :-\
We have this antioxidant rich tablet called Moducare that my husband takes. Maybe you get something similar in the States?
what about chewable vitamin C tablets? Are they bad too? My mom always had me take those when I was younger. Not sure if they have the sugar like Vitamin C foods.
I am curious to hear more answers too! My daughter 19 months old seems to have the same issue. Every Monday after church nursery she has a new cold!
Hi Beth, we use Super Kids vitamins from Super Mom Health and Wellness, and when I am diligent about giving it, they hardly ever get sick. It also seems to lessen the severity of the illness (I make sure they take them at the first sign of sniffles). They are in liquid form. Have a great day! 🙂
With Cody I’ve been using Yummi Bears from hero Nutritionals with Cody. It says it’s wholefood fruits and veggies so I’m taking their word for it since I haven’t researched that particular vitamin yet. He also only gets one a day instead of the recommended 3. (Garden of Life also has a whole food kids vitamin but it’s pricier than the ones I bought)
Until I ran out last week I also had him on a kids probiotic. Can’t remember the brand but they were bear chewables.
I also make sure he gets yogurt of kefir a few times a week.
And I try and be diligent and have him either wash his hands or if we’re out use antibiotic wipes, before he eats. I’m not always the best at that though. Most of the time he eats dirt with his food. 🙂
If he’s ever been on antibiotics you may have your work cut out for you. It seems to take so long to recover from that.
Taking fish oil or cod liver oil can help, many people swear by it. Although, I tried the liquid stuff for the first time and *shudder*. Don’t ever take it plain, always put it in a smoothie or something.
Cutting out all sugar and refined breads for just a couple weeks can help boost the good bacteria in his gut which helps the immune system.
Eating more veggies than fruits will help too. Cause like you said, fruits have lots of natural sugars in them.
Other than that, homemade bone broth and extra garlic help as well. (garlic actually has some antibacterial properties to it. Although mostly when it’s raw)
Hope you find something that helps him! Being sick is no fun!
a pitcher of water with slices of lemon added, garlic added to food as much as your kids will stand, lots of plain yogurt (add maple syrup to taste, did you know that the gut is part of the immune system?), how’s his iron level? maybe try green smoothies to boost the minerals he consumes, people say dairy causes mucus (it’s my sons’ best protein source right now, so I can’t avoid it during colds, but it is worth a try).
just a few stream of conscious thoughts, hope something works!
Wow, thanks, everyone for the suggestions on vitamins and foods. We do try to limit his milk while he’s sick, Trisha, but I’m with you – it’s his main source of protein and healthy fat, PLUS he pretty much demands at least one glass at every meal. He likes his milk.
I was wondering if yogurt may help – I knew it was good for digestion and had probiotics which helped when taking antibiotics, but I wasn’t sure the details of how it worked – whether it would help during the common cold. I’ve been making him smoothies the past few days (breaking the no-milk-while-sick rule, just in case it would help. I’ll try to make that a regular part of his diet, even when healthy! And I’ll have to look into green smoothies – anyone have a favorite recipe?
this is my first time to comment on your site. i am an avid follower. my 2nd child has the same issue as benjamin. for the first year of her life, i am pretty sure she had a cold/illness every single month. she is 2 now and that has slowed down. to provide my girls with vitamin c i give them strawberries. it is a staple here year around(yes, even in the winter when they are $4). 1 cup of strawberries has more vitamin c than an orange. i also don’t give my children milk, ever. i do know, that during a cold, milk products cause more mucous. since they don’t drink milk, they get their protein from black beans(almost everyday) almonds(great fat), avocado/guac, eggs.
Here’s one thing we do
http://adustyframe.com/2009/02/18/vitamin-c-for-the-yuckies/
Also, James takes chewable acidophilus every night whether he’s sick or not.
You can also give your children a spoonful of flax oil every day when they’re ill–it tastes nutty–not too bad.
Also, I just found this that we’ve used a few times–works!
http://jacquedixon.com/?p=28
Thought I’d let you know since I saw them at the health food store today, the pobiotic Cody was taking were Buddy Bear brand.
And 80% of the immune system is in your digestive track. If you don’t have enough GOOD bacteria in there to kill the yucky stuff, the BAD bacteria get to live and multiply causing sickness! (and refined sugars and flours actually kill off the good bacteria)
Have you checked out Dr. Sears’ site? He’s got a three-step way to fight the germs, mostly common sense, but I like his nutritional ideas.
I think there are a lot of great suggestions here (especially the one about strawberries, though kiwis have even MORE vitamin C than any other fruit), but I am concerned about the probiotics everyone is using…
What I’ve read is that they should only be used when you think there is an imbalance in the flora of your gut, like when taking antibiotics. I can speak from my own experience that when I was taking them on a daily basis, as maintenance, that if I went a few days and forgot, my belly didn’t feel so well.
I’m not sure if one can become dependent on it, but I don’t know that it is the best thing to take them every day, just because. KWIM?
I’ve been on a green smoothie kick as of late. I posted here. I use whatever I have in the house to make the smoothies, usually to the tune of 1/3 green to 2/3 fruit. For example, this morning’s smoothie was 2 kale leaves, a little (2/3 C?) OJ, 3 mini-bananas, and one apple with peel. This came out a little thick, so I’ll need to add milk or water or yogurt to thin it some. This smoothie is enough for 2-3 meals- really filling.
Like I said, I use whatever I have on hand- the “green” has been normal lettuce, romaine, kale, baby spinach. The fruit has been canned peaches, applesauce, fruit juice, whole apples, bananas. Whatever I have. My goal now is to start keeping both greens and fruit in the house at the same time (something I don’t typically do!) so I can have supplies on hand more often.
Beth, this is just a theory of mine and I have no medical expertise to back it up, but isn’t the point of exposing your child to an enviroment that hasn’t been sanitized to allow your child to boost their immune system by getting sick while the mom can still wait on them and nurse them back to health. You purpose to not over-protect him from germs and then wonder why he gets sick. You can’t build your immune system without illness. Antibodies are created by the body fighting off those viruses and bacteria. Just a thought.
Even though you said you don’t use anti-bac anything in your house, I would highly, highly recommend buying a bunch of hand sanitizer.
My kids kept getting sick every time they went in the church nursery, too… Finally, I started making them do “cup hands” (make a cup with your hands & pour in the sanitizer) the second they got in the van after church, playdates, school, etc.
It really helped. The kids have not been sick all that much since then.
I also make sure I use the hand sanitizer, too. I’ve found that a lot of their sickness actually comes from my germs on my hands, touching pacifiers, passing out cups, etc.
Hi Beth—
I guess I wanted to throw in the medical perspective to these comments. I think the kiwi and strawberry idea for the vitamin C is good. A multivitamin is fine, but it doesn’t help with immunity.
I am not a fan of probiotics as a medical professional. You need that normal flora in your gut or you will end up with increased diarrhea and gas production—occasional use is fine, but i would not use on a daily basis.
I think you are doing fine. Do not over bleach and sanatize things. I completely agree with a couple people that commented about exposure to germs builds immunity. This is what needs to happen…I promise you that Benjamin must have a technically healthy immune system, otherwise your family practitioner would have seen it in the blood work. He might just like putting the toys from church in his mouth more than your daughter did!
Heather
I don’t know how long he’s been getting sick, but I know that as soon as I stopped nursing my son started catching colds fairly frequently.
I say be vigilant about washing hands every time you come back in the house and certainly before eating, make sure he gets a variety of fruits and veggies, enough sleep, etc. And know that eventually it will pass.
My favorite green smoothie recipe is spinach (baby spinach, or strip the stems of regular spinach), a banana, frozen blueberries, and yogurt. Milk as needed for consistency. I don’t like green smoothies without bananas, as I find the flavor is off-putting. Blueberries make the smoothie purple and not green. (Know that using only strawberries makes it brown, which is kinda gross.)
My husband always got sick after a stressful event and as soon as it was over he would be sick and I never was. I realized his body fights off (or hides sickness very well) when he is stressed or under pressure and as soon as it is over and he is on vacation or relaxing his bodys immune system would relax and he would get sick. Maybe Benjamin is stressed during these different events and the result after is he gets sick. It may just take time (years) for him to handle stress better even if he may seem like he handles it fine. Just an idea, but you are not alone and my kids are sick all the time-thankfully summer is almost here and we should get a little break!
I really can’t think of anything you can do to help this. It is very frustrating watching them suffer. I think some kids immune systems just take longer to build up than others. I don’t think keeping him unexposed is helpful to him. The way a body builds up immunities is through exposure. Wash his hands frequently. Give him a healthy diet. Love on him when he’s sick. These are the best things I can think of.
I’m of the opinion, some kids are just that way. The good Lord made them more susceptible, and who knows why.
My son has had probably about 8 sinus infections, 4 ear infections, and gets every single thing that goes around. He also has asthma now.
We’ve had him in daycare since 9 months, I breastfed for a year, we don’t keep our home overly sanitized (in keeping with the “a little dirt is good” theory), I feed him whole and organic foods…
But he’s still this way.
I’m all about the holistic/homeopathic so I do allergen avoidance, we have a cool-mist vaporizer, and I give him saline nose drops a couple times a day. I’m also going to start taking him to my acupuncturist (who does acupressure for the little ones) about his allergies and to boost his overall wellness. She helped me hugely and my constant infections are gone, as is my need for an epi-pen and inhaler.
It’s just a bit expensive at $65/visit.
It could be worse I suppose…a veterinary practitioner runs $120/visit.
Sugar is the culprit. I have a 3 1/2 year old son and I watch pre-school kids part-time. We went through the first two winters catching every single cold. Last winter, I’d had enough and decided to try something different. We skipped Halloween completely, and then only had sugar goodies ON Thanksgiving and ON Christmas Eve and Christmas (instead of all month long), and likewise with the rest of the “sugar holidays” (Valentine’s, Easter, etc.). My son did not catch ONE cold all winter long – and that was with watching and playing with other sick kids. I also use (for me) zinc picolinate. That worked great for me, and I did not have one serious cold all winter long. Hope that helps.
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