re how often do kids fall sick etc in article ashwin may leo gatech edu ashwin agatech edu ashwin ram writes our month son has started falling sick quite often every since he started going to day care he was at home for the first year and he did not fall sick even once now it seems like he has some sort of cold or flu pretty much once a month most of the time the cold leads to an ear infection as well with the result that he ends up being on antibiotics weeks out of i know kids in day care fall sick more often but we are beginning to wonder how often more often really is whether our son is more susceptible or has lower immunity than average are there any studies that can help answer some of these questions when kids stayed in the home until kindergarden or st grade infection incidence was much lower because exposure was lower some studies suggest that early exposure to various infectious diseases is probably beneficial because exposure as an adult carries much more risk of morbitity and mortality mumps measles etc how often do kids in their first second and third years fall sick how often do they get colds flus ear infections is there any data on home care vs day care daycare will always carry a higher exposure risk than home care does being sick build immunity leading to less illness later does it make kids weaker leading to more illness later or does it not have any long term effect exposure to infectious organisms does build immunity but many viruses mutate and reexposure to the new strain requires another immune response new antibody production in addition antibody levels tend to decline with time and re innoculation is needed to keep the antibody levels high chronic overstimulation of the immune response can lead to immunosupression but this is rare and very unlikely to occur in children does taking antibiotics on a regular basis have any negative long term effects yes chronic use of antibiotics can have an adverse effect on the good bacteria that are supposed to be present in and on the body health effects of this depletion of the good bacteria is a very hotly debated topic in the medical community with most physicians seeming to discount any health effects of chronic antibiotic use a view that i do not support how does one tell if a child is more susceptible to illness than normal and what does one do about it chronic infection in an adult or a child needs to be worked up in my opinion but most physicians feel that chronic infection in a child is normal because of both exposure and lack of prior immunity to many infectious diseases i do not share this view and there are some physicians who also suspect that diet plays a big role in infection frequency and severity exposure to an infectious agent does not have to result in a severe infection a strong immune response can minimize the length of time needed to deal with the infection as well as the symptoms associated with the infection is there any way to build immunity and resistance there are five major nutrients that are responsible for a good strong immune response to infectious agents they are protein vitamin c vitamin a iron and zinc the american diet is not low in protein so this is rarely a problem but vitamin a vitamin c iron and zinc are often low and this lack of an adequate pool nutrient reserve can impair the immune response iron is know to be low in most kids as is vitamin a there are distinct biochemical tests that can be run to check the status of each of these nutrients in a patient who is having a problem with chronic severe infection serum ferritin for iron status dark adaptation for vitamin a status red blood cell zinc for zinc status and leckocyte ascorbate for vitamin c status i have attempted to work up posts on these five nutrients and their role in infection for this news group as well as the others that i participate in i can e mail you what i ve worked up so far but my best advice to you is to try to find a physician who recognizes the critical role that diet plays in the human immune response you may also be able to get help from a nutritionist anyone can call themselves a nutritionist so you have to be very carefull you want to find someone like myself who has had some formal training and education in nutrition many ph d programs in the u s now offer degrees in nutrition and that s what you need to look for some dieticians will also call themselves nutritionists but most dieticians have not had the biochemical training needed to run specialized nutritional assessment tests they are very good for getting general dietary advice from however any data information or advice relating to this would be much appreciated thanks a lot ashwin martin banschbach ph d graduate degree in biochemistry and nutrition from vpi and developer of a course on human nutrition for medical students
