re how often do kids fall sick etc in article ashwin may leo gatech edu ashwin cc gatech 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 sounds pretty familiar i posted similar cries about last september when caroline just entered daycare she was two then and have been with continuous colds since until last march as spring approaches her colds slowed down meanwhile we grew more and more relaxed about her colds only once did the doctor diagnosed an ear infection and only twice she had antibiotics the other time was due to sinus infection and i wished that i did not give her that awful septra are there any studies that can help answer some of these questions there are the net studies that is if you read this newsgroup often there will be a round of questions like this every month there might be formal studies like that but bear with my not so academic experience okay how often do kids in their first second and third years fall sick how often do they get colds flus ear infections gee i bet you ll hear cases in all these catagories is there any data on home care vs day care i am pretty sure an insulated child at home sicks less but that child still will face the world one day does being sick build immunity leading to less illness later that s what i believe and comfort myself with caroline will get more and more colds for sure before she learned not to stick her hand in other kid s mouth nor let other kids do the same cold virus mutate easily however i hope that her immune system will be stronger to fight these diseases so she would be less severely affected everytime she has a cold we make sure she blow her nose frequently and give her dorcol or dimetapp at night so she can have good rest thanks to some suggestions from the net that s about all the care she needs from us i try very hard to keep her off antibiotics twice her ped gave me choice to decide whether she would have antibiotics i waited just long enough days to see that she fought the illness off i do understand that you don t have much choice if the child is in pain and or high fever does it make kids weaker leading to more illness later or does it not have any long term effect if the child doesn t rely on antibiotics to fight off the sickness everytime then the child should be stronger does taking antibiotics on a regular basis have any negative long term effects i ll leave this to expert how does one tell if a child is more susceptible to illness than normal and what does one do about it if your child just entered daycare i m pretty sure the first months will be the hardest then you get more used to it boy do i hate to see me typing this sentence i recall when i read something like this last september i said to myself oh sure but i do get used to it now however i do hear people say that it does get better after a year or two i am looking forward to a healthier next winter as it gets warmer i hope you do get some break soon is there any way to build immunity and resistance eat well sleep well try not to use antibiotics if not absolutely necessary good luck wen lin
