4 year old ill AGAIN despite vitamins etc

[Grapefruitandcherry]

I’ve been giving him a multivitamin every morning and an elderberry syrup for an extra immune boost. He’s been wanting to eat lots of fruit and veg lately and I mean lots.

So I thought his immune system would be working at a higher rate than usual. However, he’s got yet another snotty cold with a cough!

All the things we’re told to do to help boost the immune system and they’ve done nothing 😕

People get coughs, colds and all kinds of nasties especially during winter months. Hand washing often is the best way to keep those type of bugs at bay, but his immune system will be dealing with his cold.
I’m not sure what you’re expecting to hear from anyone.

If he’s at nursery or school then sorry OP but your fighting a losing battle.

That's not really the way your immune system works though? They need to be exposed to a virus in order to recognise it and fight it?

Vitamins help keep you in peak form which means you can throw it off easier but I don't think they actually prevent illness

I dont think you understand how the immune system works. Shovelling vitamins down his neck when he is most likely getting sufficient dietary vitamins is a waste of time and money, there is a limit to what the body can absorb and use. Young children have developing immune systems, they get sick more often than adults. They also have poorer personal hygiene habits.

His Immune system is developing, If he is at nursery he will be getting bugs almost weekly, while his body learns to fight them by exposure, that's how it works.

Sounds normal to me.

I'm a teacher/tutor and I'm on my third nasty cold since September.

20+ years in the classroom and I've not felt this ill constantly since I was an NQT! I'd got to the point where I rarely got ill but that's all gone out the window this year.

There are just so many bugs and everyone's immune system was lowered/affected by locations and not catching illnesses. Not much we can do except keep good hygiene and ideally keep kids/people off school/work/out of public places when they are really contagious. Not always possible, I know.

Children always get viruses in nursery and more so after reduced socialisation of Covid....even adults are getting more. In the long run the more he gets now the healthier his immunity will become

You’ve misunderstood how the immune system works. Vitamins etc don’t provide protection against microbes they help prime the immune system so when it comes into contact with them it’s in better shape to deal with them.

Four year olds are basically swimming in viral soup most of the time. Ain’t no multivitamin which can stop that.

Shovelling vitamins down his neck when he is most likely getting sufficient dietary vitamins is a waste of time and money, there is a limit to what the body can absorb and use.
One multivitamin and a syrup is hardly shovelling down a child’s neck is it? And actually I do think a lot of children nowadays probably don’t get their full nutritional needs, not for the want of trying on their parents’ parts, but food isn’t the same as it was before- it’s farmed and processed differently, and parents have more obstacles and less time now for example

I hate to break it to you but he is going to have nasty colds almost constantly every winter for at least the next five years. This is how children develop their immune systems.

His immune system is working how it is supposed to, It's adapting and fighting to what it is exposed to, being 4 he is likely to get every bug going; that's how the body adapts to fighting them.
Unfortunately vitamins don't prevent illness.

He may have been even worse without them, it’s that time of year. Little ones’ immune systems suffered mightily during lockdown This too will pass.

I would keep doing what you’re doing. Add in scrupulous hand hygiene too…. Make sure those filthy germ covered hands are thoroughly and frequently washed.

It’s a tough one. So many people don’t keep their sick children off school when they should be at home and they bring them into school contagious and so it goes round and round.

Wishing your little one better .

He's meant to get bugs all the time, that's how his immune system builds up. Adults don't get a cold every two weeks because we got them all when we were 4.

Vitamins and good food will keep him healthier and let him fight the bugs off quicker, but you can't stop him getting ill. And if it's any consolation, this is the first week my three year old hasn't had a cold since early October.

That’s not how the immune system works. You can take all the vitamins you like but if your body hasn’t come into contact with a particular bacteria/virus before then they will still get ill.