Talk to me about a baby's immune system, please!

[lellian]

A friend offered so kindly to watch my 13 week old next week while I have to be at work. She has three kids, ages 7, 6, and 4. They always, always seem to have a bug, a cold, something, so I'm hesitant to send my baby to her house. DD hasn't had even so much as a cold yet. Am I being silly? Will it "help" DD if she catches something? She's been soooo healthy that I'm really not interested in dealing with even a cold right now as we have a lot of travel ahead of us, and an ear infection would be torture on us both.

If it doesn't show, I'm new at this, and might be being too protective. Apologies in advance.

BTW, we are a non-vaxing family. Not sure if that would affect your answers.

Thanks!

[cristeen]

At 13 weeks, babies don't have much of an immune system at all. Pretty much they're relying on BM for their immunities. So how is your immune system? If you have a healthy immune system and have had the full range of colds and flus then you'd probably be fine to leave her.

However, I completely understand the hesitation, and I probably wouldn't leave my LO in that instance, regardless of the fact that he's only been mildly sick once in almost 7 mos. And that's just being a mama-bear.

[lellian]

She's ebf, and we've yet to even have a cold, so I guess my immune system is pretty good. I haven't had so much as a runny nose all winter. I think I'll have to pass on taking DD to her house. It would have been helpful, but I would have been worried about catching something the entire time I was away, and then worry more the next few days after. . .rats!

[emamum]

the way i understand it, and i may be wrong obviously is that to build up immunity you have to be introduced to the illness, you bosy produces the antibodies and thats what makes you immune..

[tzs]

we're stay at home so for me, and in my opinion, the more exposure the better. i just don;t want her to be one of those sick-all-the-time 4 year olds who catch everything because they've never built up immunity. my babe is around her snot nosed cousins and friends all the time, i don't make a point of keeping her away, and she can gum their germy toys all she wants.

i am vaxing but i would think the only difference would be that you might be more careful around a pertussis outbreak or maybe those mumps that are going around. but you should know if somebody has something like that. i mean, a cold is a cold whether you;re vaxing or not.

that said, if i were travelling and feared ear infection that might be enough to keep my babe home temporarily if one of the other kids were sick.

interestingly enough, after the last dinner party with a 3 year old sneeezing all over everything both hubby and i got pretty sick but the babe escaped scot free. she's had only one minor cold in 7 months and i have to assume my immune system isn;t the best since i eat like crap when i even get a meal, drink caffeine all day, and have popped a vitamin probably 3 times since she's been born.

[kismetbaby]

We also have not vaxed, my LO has had two mild colds and is 6 months old. I'd say he and I are both very health in that regard.

Here's my thought: I wouldn't intentionally expose my babe to anything! But then again, I don't believe in trying to keep them in a sterile environment and wiping down every toy with antibacterial wipes etc. I was much more careful about who/what he was around/put in his mouth until he was about 4 months old. IMO, you don't want to over-expose them when they are still tiny. But now, we go places, places with kids (any of whom could be sick and I might not even know it!), we let him put a lot of things in his mouth (I mean anything he picks up goes in his mouth! but we use our common sense of course), BUT if one of his friends is sick then we avoid the play date.

So I avoid the sicknesses that I know about, but also realize and assume that he is getting plenty of immune-building exposure from our normal lives. When they do get sick, you can't be sure where they got it anyway. And I have found that my LO has recovered from his colds very quickly, which I like to chalk up to not vaxing and BFing!

[YayJennie]

My attitude is to expose my son to as much sickness as possible so he can build up immunity, but he's a year old now. At 13 weeks, your babe is depending completely on your BM for immunities. So in that case, I would only expose a babe to colds/flus that you are also exposed to (so you build up the immunities and give them to him in BM). So personally, I wouldn't leave my babe someplace that I was worried about exposure. If I was going someplace, that would be different, but for a babysitting gig where you're going to be gone, I'd play it safe. And I'm the type that wants to expose my kid to as many germs as possible! It's hard when they're that little though, because sickness takes more of a toll, and it's easy to build their little immune systems without them ever getting sick (by breast feeding), so obviously that's preferable! Good luck.

[Norasmomma]

I'd probably leave my baby there, but I'm not a huge germaphobe. Kids get sick plain and simple. FWIW my DD had a fever of oh about 102 when DS was a week old, a WEEK! She was pretty darn sick and here we are with a brand new baby, thank goodness he didn't get anything. I would be careful though with any outbreaks due to the non-vaxing, but I am a selective vaxer. My DH's family is huge and so for me it's normal to have at least one kid in the family sick. DS has had 3 colds this winter our whole family had them, I guess for me I'd be happy to have a baby sitter in an environment that sounds like a decent one.