So what can I do better to prevent illness in kids?

[Crazybean]

My oldest just started pre-K this year.  Out of the 10 weeks he has been in school, he has been sick probably 8 times.  Before he went to school, he was a stay at home kid BUT we played at shopping malls regularly, played with neighborhood kids, played at a huge national amusement park (right down the road and season passes) ect.  He had the ability to pick up germs from all of these places before school but magically didn't.  THIS year has been his first year he has been on antibiotics because his cough turned into pneumonia.  So now, I wonder, what can I do better to prevent so many colds?

He eats mostly organic fruits and veggies and beans.  He is not a big meat eater and hates dairy.  I refuse to make "processed" foods and do everything from basic ingredients at HOME.  At the first sign of a cold, I start him on elderberry syrup and sodium ascorbate.  Do you keep yours on SA all year round?  We also wash hands before meals and as soon as we come in the door to the house.  

This is nuts and he just came home with another cough!  

We live in FL so we have plenty of sunshine and play outside about 2-3 hrs per day with no sunscreen at this time of year and during non-peak hours.  He only drinks water and we limit "junk" food (organic cookies or pretzels) to after dinner only.

My youngest is 1 and has been picking up a lot from his brother.

The child in pre-K is also a talented nose-picker....

Suggestions?

[LynnS6]

Try to find a way to get him to stop picking his nose? Strictly enforce handwashing when he goes to preschool (our daycare asked that everyone entering the classroom washed their hands before playing), and when he gets home.

Wait for him to get immunity? When my kids were in daycare (starting about age 2), they had what felt like constant viruses for the first year or 2. By the time they hit first grade, we were down to about 1-2 illnesses a school year. Ds is now 10 and is down to about 1 per year. Really, kids in close contact share more germs. Teachers suffer the same fate. The first few years they teach, they come down with every bug known to human kind (or so it seems). After 5 years or so, they're pretty immune to most stuff.

Edited by LynnS6 - 10/27/11 at 2:32pm

[falling horse]

Are the children dressed appropriately for the weather?   When I get chilled as an adult I know I am taxing my bodies reseserves.  MY husband who is rarely ill, he got chilled last weekend and this week he had the flu.   I try to let my son make as many decisions as possible but i must insist that he dress warmly in the cold, or stay inside, his choice. Otherwise he may fall ill and I have to care for him which costs extra money. His friend has been ill almost every week since school started two months ago and this child never has a coat even with her let alone on and zipped.  Its cold here.  The child gets cold and i put warm clothes on him but why dont the parents "work" with the child to address the importance of winter clothing.  This child has asthma and a high sugar diet, sometimes it seems neglectful to me that at six she has not learned the importance of caring for the human frame.

[BellinghamCrunchie]

I have to agree with LynnS6 in that it just takes time to build immunity.

The "unnatural" environment is when 6, or 12, or 25 children from all parts of town, each with their own exposures to their families that have siblings exposed to their own classrooms and parents exposed to workplaces and they are in a small space indoors for hours at a time. Our bodies just weren't made to accommodate that kind of exposure to that many viruses. Our bodies seem to be best suited for small tribes, where everyone knows each other and has grown up with each other, with exposures to new viruses from outside sources occuring rarely, and spending much of the day outdoors, and when indoors, its generally with family members, not with a large unrelated group.

Handwashing and sanitizing surfaces really doesn't seem to help. There's just too many surfaces and no way to avoid those airborne particles.

There's nothing wrong with your immune systems. It just seems that as the world's population grows and density increases, we get sick more often. With my DD (who is in first grade) preschool was just one virus after another. We were sick more than we were not. Nothing we did seemed to help - not taking C to bowel tolerance, not elderberry syrup, not grounding our feet on the bare earth, not taking CLO daily, not drinking raw milk, not anything. Kindergarten wasn't as bad, and so far, first grade has been better than kindergarten.

[es1967]

Glad I found this thread.  My DS started preschool last year.  He was sick alot the first year  This year he has probably been sick over half of the time.  I am at my wits end.  We also live in south florida. 

Maybe we go to the same preschool?  Ha ha.  what is so bothersome to me is that like the pp's I too do everything!!- from elderberry, SA,vit d, cell salts, juicing, coconut oil, greens, raw milk, organic everything, no vaccines etc etc etc. Also, it seems my son is sick more often than the other kids.  Or maybe its just b/c I keep him at home when he is sick.  It is so frustrating.  Yesterday, I listened to this interview online about kids and vit d. I'm thinking maybe he is deficient.  I tested at 19 last year and now am only 29 after spending lots of time in the pool this summer.  I'm thinking maybe b/c I was so low that he might very well be too.  So I am going to get him tested.  They talk about respiratory illness's being a problem w kids being vit d deficient.  Here is the link for anyone interested.

http://www.healthychild.com/immune-system-support/vitamin-d-deficiency-in-pregnancy-babies-children/

Thanks Bellinghamcruchie-your post made me laugh!

Wanted to mention that the problem w DS is that he gets super high fevers- 105 plus.  At 104 he is usually playing still.

Scary but it sjust the way his body reacts.  so I really don't mind the coughs and colds its the fevers the stress me out the most.

My Ds does touch everything which drives me crazy.