Originally Published By Cleveland Clinic | HealthEssentials
You can help strengthen your child’s immune system by focusing on hand washing and staying up-to-date on their vaccines.
It’s just a fact of life that kids are germy … and that groups of kids are bound to bring (and spread) germs. Even at the cleanest of daycare centers, kids inevitably put dirty hands and toys in their mouths, and then they rub their eyes.
The next thing you know, they’ve caught any number of common “daycare diseases,” like:
- Colds and upper respiratory infections.
- Pink eye.
- Strep throat.
- Stomach flu.
- Hand, foot and mouth disease.
So, yeah, germs are a given. But is that reason to avoid daycare centers and keep your kids hygienically harbored at home?
No, says pediatrician Amy Sniderman, MD.
Dr. Sniderman weighs in on some of your most pressing questions about how to boost your kids’ immune systems and keep them healthy at daycare and beyond.
Why is my child always sick from daycare?
If you have a baby who goes to daycare and your best friend has a child of the same age who doesn’t, you probably can’t help but play the comparison game. Every time your kid comes home sick, you find yourself wondering: How come her baby always seems so healthy compared to mine?!
“It may feel that way, at least at first,” Dr. Sniderman says, “but most kids get the same germs at one time or another.” Your child just happens to be getting sick first — and your friend’s child’s time is likely to come soon.
According to a study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, kids in daycare do get sick more often than kids at home … right up until age 3, when infection rates even out. And in kindergarten and first grade, infection rates are actually higher in kids who didn’t attend daycare, as they’re often encountering certain germs for the first time.
>>CLICK HERE to Read the Full Article on Health.ClevelandClinic.org
