Colds

[lll111]

I take my son to a play group at the local school. This past month he has had a cold 3 times, which the doctor has said it is normal.
I have heard that if a child is in school or daycare early on then they will get sick more often because of the other children, but as when they are a little older they will not be as sick as often because they have already been exposed to these germs/bacteria. What I am trying to say is that kids that just start Jk/sk or gr1 will be sick more often then the kids that were in daycare, school early on when they were say 2 or 3 years old.

Have you found this to be true in your own experience?

[MrsSunshine]

i don't think so.
every freak school year... without fail.. my 19 year old gets a cold within in the first week.. then it continues right through until May.. no joke
as soon as one cold is nearly gone. BAM.. another one. its relentless. he was born healthy, on time. no issues as a baby. other than CONSTANT ear infections. (ie colds)..
guess it was meant to be LOL
he's now lost nearly 3/4 of his hearing from the constant infections.
i do think everyone is different.
thats just my experience.

oh and for the record .. my 18 year old RARELY gets sick. go figure.

[BeautyRoom]

I think there is some truth to this - they get exposed to the bugs early on and build up a resistance in later life. Our son used to get a lot of bugs and hardly gets anything now.

[mdutka]

i have a 7 year old and 5 year old, both very healthy babies. they both were in daycare since 12 months old but once they started school they were constantly sick. one year my 7 year old had bronchitis twice and pneumonia. I started giving them cod liver oil caplets a few times a week before bed (I think its supposed to boost their immune system) and it made a huge difference. since I started that they haven't had more than a few sniffles.

[Zonny]

I totally believe your theory is true. My DS was in daycare full time from when he was one until he started school. He constantly had a drippy nose and whatever else was going through the facility at the time. He's seven now, in grade 2, and rarely gets sick (hasn't been sick at all this school year).

I'm not a germaphobe at all, and don't go randomly washing my hands just to do it. But I've started a policy that when we get home at the end of the day, everyone goes and washes their hands with soap and water (we don't bother with hand sanitizer, I'm not a believer that this stuff helps anything). We ride the bus to and from work/school/etc., so I figure we're exposed to all kinds of stuff, touching the surfaces that hundreds of others have touched in the course of a day.

[i_forget]

Yes, totally believe it.....come cough on me....I would rather suffer now.

[vibrantflame]

In my experience, yes. My boys are 4 and 6. The 4 year old seems to get sick more frequently, although thankfully it is usually just the sniffles. When they both get sick though it is almost always the 4 year old who gets sick first and then passes it on to his big brother (sharing is caring lol)

[bargain_hunter_lola]

I agree with other posters who have posted they think it's true. DD started preschool when she was 2.5 and the first year was the worst. The second not so bad. Now she's in JK and hasn't been sick (at least to the point of missing school). I've been told it'll continue to get better each year. DS's first year in preschool (last year) he was sick quite a bit and so far this year just a few minor colds. Hopefully he'll continue to get better also, so that when he enters school his immunity will be strong enough to fend off most average bugs/colds.