Tips on building toddler's immune system?

[peachespoe]

I have a 16 month old little girl who has been sick almost constantly since before Christmas. It started with the Croup. She was better for about five days when she got another cold, although more mild this time. She was finally getting better from that one after almost two weeks and then she started having a runny nose and slight cough which went on for four days and has finally turned into a bad cough, incredibly runny nose, and ear infection (with fever).

She was at daycare once a week and was supposed to start twice a week this week, but she won't be able to start until she is much better.

We feed her only whole foods (mostly organic), give her probiotics, a "green foods" multivitamin, and fish oil a few times a week. She gets lots of exercise outside and I don't use toxic chemicals in our cleaning or bath/body products. I am going to try to cut out dairy for a while and replace it with goat's milk. I picked up some vit c gummy bears and a children's wellness tincture to add to this regime.

She is a very oral baby and is ALWAYS putting things in her mouth which I am sure doesn't help the matter. And she is weaned, so she no longer gets Mama's good stuff.

Anyhoo, I was hoping to get some more tips to help me build up her immune system. I know kids this age get sick a lot, but this has been ridiculous!

[nycmom18]

the only things i can think of are:

-enough sleep?
-stress-free environment?
-any allergies or intolerances?
-vit. d3 supp?

it sounds like you're doing a lot of really great things, im sure her being weaned is just her immune system working on its own now...i would cut out all dairy and sugar if she has any. even with fruit, just lower the amount and up veggies.

if you want some other supplements, natures sunshine has a great kids line called sunshine heroes with whole food antioxidants, vitamin d, multi, omega, probiotic, enzymes etc.

HTH!

[tanyalynn]

It's easiest to work on vitamin D first, if there's any doubt that you're not already at a good spot. Sorta slow to change, but easy to supplement.

You give probiotics, but how would you say her digestion is?

http://www.enzymestuff.com/rtstools.htm

Here's a good page on trouble-shooting poop. I've found it useful.

You may want to work on digestion-related stuff--a food intolerance (I'd do all dairy, not just cow dairy, to see if that's part of the issue, if you do an elimination diet), a stronger probiotic, or for us, we make kimchee at home, it's really tasty, and has been noticeably good for my DD's digestion.

At 16 mos old, it may not be significant, if the mouthing continues to be more than other kids her age, consider either zinc or iron deficiency. Excessive mouthing was one of the few signs that DD needed more zinc, and zinc's a biggie in immune function.

http://mothering.com/discussions/sho...d.php?t=406983

Here's a sticky from the Vaccination archives, it's long, yes, but there are gems of knowledge strewn throughout.

[kjbrown92]

Also if you're checking to see if dairy is a problem, don't use goat's milk either.

[Violet2]

Make sure the vitamin has a decent amount of zinc as that has a natural antibiotic action and boosts the immune system.

Vitamin D3 as someone else suggested. For active illness you'll want a liquid supplement that has 1000 to 2000 ius, not the 400 iu daily supplement. Something like this.. Here's more info on D3 as a cold/flu medicine, including pediatric doses for D3.

I've also been looking at this honey elderberry syrup too for DD as she's been buggy for about a month now too. Honey has lots of good health enzymes and stuff in it.

V

[peachespoe]

Thank you!!
These are all really good tips. I didn't realize I shouldn't use goat's milk instead of cow's milk if I want to cut out dairy. Why is this?

[tanyalynn]

Many people who are sensitive to cow's dairy are also sensitive to goat dairy, the proteins are relatively similar--not exact, but fairly close. Not everyone is, but if you're going to go through the effort of an ED, I think it's best to be sure. Some people eventually figure out that cultured/fermented dairy is okay but straight milk/ice cream isn't, or unpasteurized dairy is okay but pasteurized isn't, it's really an individual process. Look for hidden dairy too, lots of things have dairy in them that really don't need it (bread, crackers, occasionally lunch meat, really weird stuff).