so let me know what you think.... - Page 2

[aniT]

What is she feeding him besides the formula? If she listens to her doc., he should probably be mostly eating solids and on milk by now. A poor diet can cause problems as well as vaccines.

[luvbeingamama]

DS attends the preshool where I work and has not been vaccinated and was nursed just untill recently (27 mos).
He has never had an ear infection.. but he does catch a cold probably once a month (only during the school year though). I think being around other kids has alot to do with it.

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It's still daycare. Even if it's all of the above, kids get sick in daycare, or sunday school, or the McDonald's playland.

Kids get sick, because other parents send their child to daycare (sunday school mcdonald's) with a cough, or fever, or anything else they decide isn't important enough to keep them home for.

Parents tell me all the time "She's just teething". One parent told me "it's her four year molars" (she's 18 months old)

Kids catch things from other kids. But, the advantage to catching it while they are little is usually their immunities are built up by school age and they don't get sick as often as a kid who has never been sick.

My best friend's child was vaccinated. He was never breast fed. He was in my daycare from four weeks on, he ate a HORRIBLE diet. He literally ate hotdogs every night for four years. Yet, he was never sick. He never missed school because of illness. (i'm very jealous of him)

My own kid, was and still is the sickest child I have ever seen. She has had even bizarre illnesses that make the doctors go and bring in other doctors. She's had West Nile virus, and menengitis, and had her tonsils out at 9 months old.. she is just a very sickly kid.

The only thing I can think of is the MMR. She was fine until the MMR. I don't fully understand it yet. But, that is the only thing I can remember that stands out in my mind as being a turning point.

I want to know what happened, I really do, but nobody seems to know why she's so sick all the time. I wish I could go back and re-do everything.

[rabrog]

I can't tell you, honestly, because my two kids are like night and day. DD is in preschool three mornings a week, karate twice a week. I've been a SAHM since she was born (4.5y). DS is 10 months old and on his second nasty cold in less than two months. No daycare, no vaccines for either kid, DD breastfed for 10 months, DS still BFIng. So who knows?

Jenn

[Peony]

Originally Posted by rabrog

I can't tell you, honestly, because my two kids are like night and day. DD is in preschool three mornings a week, karate twice a week. I've been a SAHM since she was born (4.5y). DS is 10 months old and on his second nasty cold in less than two months. No daycare, no vaccines for either kid, DD breastfed for 10 months, DS still BFIng. So who knows?

Jenn

Same with us. My DD1 gets sick here and there, no big deal. My DD2 is always ill, the child just does not go longer then 1.5 weeks between illnesses, I call her my walking petri dish.

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Originally Posted by Peony

My DD2 is always ill, the child just does not go longer then 1.5 weeks between illnesses, I call her my walking petri dish.

I know this is SO wrong for me to think...

But, I am glad someone else has a child like this. My dd is 16 and it hasn't gotten any better. It just feels good to know that other's have a walking petri dish.

Misery loves company.:

[Ruthla]

It's a combination of factors- the no longer breastfeeding, the vaccines, the antibiotic use, the daycare/exposure to more germs, plus his own innate tendencies.

Even when you "do everything right" some kids just get sick more than others. There are FF, fully vaxed kids who never get sick, and there are EBF, unvaccinated, unmedicated babies who catch everything that goes around. You can do everything in your power to strengthen your children's immune systems and make them the healthiest they can be, but there are no guarantees.

In general, the more you strengthen the child's immune system, the less that child will get sick and the less serious any illnesses will be- but again the "reduced illnesses" is going to be a different number for different kids.

[anewmama]

I think try as people like to create a formula for the healthy kid (no vaccines, stay at home, breastfed, organic food, etc) the bottom line is health can be unpredictable and not always easy to manage or control.

I was formula fed, SAH, and vaccinated (according to the schedule 43 years ago). Same for my brother and sister. I used to refuse to eat veggies and was never sick. My brother and sister ate much better but were alway sick. Three siblings all with different eating habits, eating the same stuff, treated the same (formula and at home) but all with very different health histories.

[KLM99]

Originally Posted by xmasbaby7

So it isn't really daycare, it is all of those things that could have attributed to a sickly child. Not passing strong gut flora onto a baby during birth, not exclusively breastfeeding from the start, getting vaccines, taking antibiotics, stuffing a child with rice cereal too early...all of these things are going to inhibit the growth of gut flora and the foundation of a persons diverse bacteria, the base of the immune system.

daycare will expose a child to many viruses more quickly, but the child who has a strong immune system won't fall with every virus that passes through the group.

I don't think that's entirely fair. I breastfed my now 16MO exclusively until 7/8 months, when we gradually began baby-led weaning (never did cereal or "baby food"), still breastfeed her at least a few times a day and at night. She is not vaccinated, has never had antibiotics. She takes SA and cod liver oil almost every day and has never had any sweets, not even a bite, in her entire life. She rarely eats meat, and eats tons of veggies and fruit and whole grains, and most of it is organic.

She never had a single illness for her first year when she stayed with Grandma when I was at work, not even a little cold. She started daycare fulltime at 13 months and since then she's been sick every two to three weeks. It's always just colds or little fevers, but she still gets sick pretty often and stays sick for about a week each time. Kids in daycare just get sick sometimes, no matter what you've done to help their immune system.

[KLM99]

Originally Posted by xmasbaby7

Read my later post when I had more time to type. What factors may have weakened your daughter's gut flora? Did you take anti-biotics during pregnancy and did you have them during birth? Has she ever had antibiotics since birth? Was she vaginally birthed?

There are so many ways for children to have something interfere with their immune system's development...

I just wonder when public health and pediatricians will realize what isn't working and how we contributed to a generation of immunocompromised children.

And to follow on to my last post (just saw this one) - I did not take any medication at all during my pregnancy or labor or in the 2-3 years preceeding or since she was born and breastfeeding (I mean no antibiotics, no Advil, no nothing). My DD has never had antibiotics and she was vaginally birthed at home.

I do agree that all those things could have an effect, but even without any of them (as in my case), my DD, who is in a large daycare, still gets sick every 2-3 weeks. Sometimes it's just daycare, even though parents make the best choices, so please don't just assume that the parents could have tried harder.

[k9sarchik]

I haven't read all the posts here, but my 2 cents is that it's a combo of things. But regarding the illnesses the OP specified:

The child probably gets lots of ear infections due to milk consumption or possibly other allergy. If the child stops dairy there is a good chance the ear infections will clear up.
Diarrhea illnesses are common particularly in daycare settings.

[xmasbaby7]

Originally Posted by KLM99

Sometimes it's just daycare, even though parents make the best choices, so please don't just assume that the parents could have tried harder.

I don't think parents need to try harder...I think the MEDICAL SYSTEM needs to try harder at understanding wellness and aiming for it with our children.

[anewmama]

nevermind

thanks for posting KLM99

[wallacesmum]

I don't think there is a blanket answer to the OP. There are differences within families, even, and I think we adapt to healthier or less healthy lifestyles. So, I can stay with my IL for a week, where I feel like I weigh 400 lbs and am constipated and dehydrated, while they feel fine eating the mid-Atlantic "normal" version of a balanced diet. And my FIL can come here and barely pick at his food for three days until my MIL finally makes him something with condensed cream of mushroom soup in it. But both dh and I grew up eating like that, so what changed?

Now, I don't think that constant illness is the preferred state of any organism that is functioning properly, and I always look to nutrition first as the culprit, but that can mean so many different things. And psyche is a factor in health, too - I remember reading something about environments that cause higher histamine/stress responses, such that kids are always slightly immuno-suppressed, and thus vulnerable to illness. For instance, maybe a very gregarious, independent, social child goes to daycare for 8 hours a day and loves it, but an introverted and parent-dependent child finds the experience traumatic and stressful. He might appear to adapt, but maybe he gets sick all the time. There are thousands of hypotheticals that fit that bill, I'm sure.

For me, being the family nutritionist is an opportunity to learn and grow, not a path to accepting "blame" for "failures." If something isn't working, I just try something new. I don't think it means one is a failed parent if everyone isn't always perfectly healthy!

[KLM99]

Originally Posted by wallacesmum

I don't think it means one is a failed parent if everyone isn't always perfectly healthy!

: This is basically what I was trying to say with my two earlier posts. Please don't just assume - "Well if they're sick all the time, the parents must not have [fill in the blank]." Sometimes parents DO do all the "right" things and kids in large daycares still get sick.

[Heavenly]

I think it can depend on the child. It is very easy to point the finger at others and blame their parenting practices for their child's illness but it may not be as simple as that. My youngest child was breastfed (still is breastfeeding at almost 3), has never received a vaccination and has never been in daycare. Yet she is also allergic to EVERYTHING and gets sick all the time. So even though I did everything "right" I still got a sick child. To the OP - you might end up with a child with problems someday despite doing everything "right" and I hope no one points the finger at you.