Immune deficiency and being a toddler...how do you balance it?

[AllyRae]

Our little one has Selective IgA Deficiency and I'm having a bit of a hard time balancing things. I need to let her be a toddler--go to playgroups and the library and the children's museums, etc. I try to take precautions--sanitizing our hands after we're done, only going during off-hours when it's not likely to be crowded, etc. But no matter what I do, 2-4 days after any outing she will spike a fever or show some other signs if illness...every single time without fail. She's still breastfeeding, she eats a healthy organic diet with a ton of veggies, she takes probiotics and a daily vitamin (and I take vitamins, a megadose of probiotics, and fish oil so she gets it through my milk). We sanitize our hands after touching things in public and my son will sanitize his hands after school.

What else can we do? I don't want her to keep getting sick every week, but I also don't want to keep her in a bubble. We already have two children with social-related special nees (one with autism and another with PDD-NOS and RAD), so it's really important to me that I make sure DD2 gets a ton of social opportunities around typically developing children. But she gets sick every.single.time.

So, how do you balance it? Other people apparently think it's just fine to let their germy sick kids go out in public and spread the 'wealth'....(oh, and DD2 isn't vaccinated except for one hib and one polio vax, which she had severe reactions to and can't be vaxed any more, so we are already really cautious about things with her)

[2boyzmama]

nak

well, our situation is probably different (t-cell deficit), but i can tell you what we do. connor has a partial immune system, and in order for it to mature, it has to be used. we have been advised that he needs to get sick, we just have to try to control it. and since he's breastfeeding right now, he has a leg up for getting through illnesses. so exposing him now is kind of a good thing. it takes him several exposures before he holds immunity, but each illness brings him closer to a more fully functioning immune system.

so we go about our normal routine in most cases. we avoid knowingly sick people when possible, but we don't really avoid crowds. if he is already sick, then we stay home just so he doesn't get another illness. if he has a surgery coming up then we are more careful. if we have something else important (a trip, a party, a school outing) then we're more careful just so he can be healthy to enjoy himself.

his infectious disease dr said it this way "don't feel like you have to put him in a bubble, let him be a toddler, just know that he will be sick more often but each illness 'teaches' his immune system."

i don't know if this pertains to you at all or not. in connor's case his immune system can "learn" how to function. so we have to expose him.