Do you have a child who rarely gets a cold?

[2535and3]

Do you have a child who rarely gets a cold? You know, the one who can sit next to a sniffling classmate, survive winter, and somehow avoid bringing home every bug going around?

What are you doing differently?

Diet? Immunity boosting supplements? Superior genes? Force feed them garlic? What?

Have been enjoying fewer colds over the last couple of months and not wishing summer away but come the 2nd week in September and dc13 will guaranteed be down with a high temperature cough sniffles.

So whats your secret to autumn winter that aren't just cold after cold? My dc catches a viral fever cough every 5-6 weeks. Gets the flu nasal vaccine of course.

I do think that being too clean isn't good in general for health

Important too is getting outside a lot, hand washing, and a good ish diet

My two kids went to nursery from nine months, both sections, mostly formula fed.

Touch wood, rarely get colds

It is a mix of the body learning from exposure, lifestyle, genetics and luck with a heavy emphasis on the last two. If you generally look after yourself and avoid people who are sick there isn't anything else you can do despite claims otherwise. Having said that, my grandmother, from the old country, swore by eating garlic daily and ate it raw if she felt she was coming down with something. Despite the potential anti-viral properties of garlic I think she was one of the lucky ones. Garlic isn't a miracle cure.

A wide variety of fresh fruit & veg.

I was advised by my cancer nurse to eat 30 different fruit & veg per week, post cancer, to boost immune system and help prevent recurrence.

5 years on, I haven't has a cold or anything else since. Everyone in the office can be streaming and the worst I get is a vague prickly feeling on my tonsils for a few hours.

I prep all the food in our house so ds eats the same as me, and he doesn't get colds/flu either.

It's brilliant, & easy once you get into the swing.

Growing up my dsis literally never missed a day from school from aged 4 to 18. Got prizes, special mention etc. I, on the other hand, got everything going including pneumonia, septic throats regularly etc. Neither of us got vomiting bugs. We were both breastfed back in the 60s. The only difference l can think of is she was always outside playing. I was more of a reader and fond of indoors.

I’d say DS was average in that he’d get a cold in September when all the kids went back to school and then usually once more. It could be a coincidence but what worked for us was air purifiers in each bedroom

I definitely think a lot of it is luck and genetics. My mum and dad were never particularly ill people. I remember as a kid having all the normal childhood illnesses. Chicken pox, whooping cough, mumps etc. (But other than whooping cough I wasn’t particularly ill with any of them). I was breastfed for 6 months. And my mum was very much a “here’s a bucket and spade go play in the garden for hours and look for worms or something” when I was little. And I once remember complaining to my dad there was a bit of mould on my toast so he leaned over and broke that bit off and said “right it’s gone, now eat your breakfast”. 🤣 Germs were definitely not something that bothered my parents. As an adult I probably get one cold every few years on average despite working in a job that treats clients - many of whom turn up coughing and spluttering. I also have no allergies and zero health conditions at 48. But again, that’s likely both luck and genetics.

On the downside of luck and genetics, my “rarely get ill” parents both died before 70 of cancer. So in the long run it means nothing I guess.

Mine's become like this, but he didn't start out that way. He started out as one of those constantly snotty nosed kids in nursery, constant ear infections, on antibiotics probably once a month. Then he got grommets put in and his adenoids removed. He's been sick once in 6 months since his op. We've actually stopped all the probiotics, vitamins etc now, I'm not sure whether they were doing anything for him anyway.

We've gone from being told "of course he's always ill, he was formula fed / C section" to "what are you doing, when there's something going around he doesn't catch it"

Mine was breast fed for 3 years and still catches everything.

I suspect a portion of it is luck. There was study that came out recently about children starting nursery aged 1 having better immune systems.

DD is about to turn 6. She does get colds but not badly, more a runny nose being the issue not a sore throat or a cough. So far she has had one sickness bug aged 15 months.

We have dogs and she has always spent a lot of her life rolling around on the floor and cuddling them. I think I read years ago that dogs can help a stronger immune system develop.

We are also very strict on hand hygiene. Hands washed before eating anything (especially if you’ve been in the garden or touching the dogs) and hands washed once you get in from work/school.

I think my DC benefited from going to nursery from a young age in truth. They went through a hideous patch of being sick constantly as toddlers but now don’t often get sick. We get a stomach bug in the house maybe once every 2-3 years and that’s always awful because there’s 7 of us and it gets us all every time. We all probably get 2-3 colds a year, maybe one of those will make everyone actually feel really bad but the other 2 will just be annoying.

I assume luck. Nobody on our house is ever ill (DH, me and DS 16). I've had maybe 3 or 4 colds in 40+ years, have never had antibiotics, never had a sick bug in the house. The others are pretty much the same.
All formula fed, never eat ready meals, windows are open all day morning to night all year round, DS was at a childminder from 9 months but me and DH weren't.

Mine were never ill as children. We didn’t have a thermometer and our emergency bottle of calpol was thrown away unopened. The only days off school they had were the occasional duvet day I allowed. I have absolutely no idea why-I didn’t do anything different to my friends. I am very rarely ill myself- I can only assume they inherited my immune system. Just sheer luck.

Just to add-they ate their fair share of junk food and DS stopped eating fruit at 2 and hasn’t eaten any since. They are both fully vaccinated. Trying to think of any other variables- they were both physically active and spent a lot of time with animals. We live near the sea and they swam a lot- which to be honest nowadays probably wouldn’t be conducive to good health!

Lots of time outside and vit D

My son (12) very rarely gets colds or any other illness.
We don't do any specific- he has a good diet and eats all fruit/veg.
He is very active - a keen club swimmer plus football/basketball/athletics teams at school.
Plays out a lot.
We love the lake district and do a lot of walking when there.
I didn't breastfeed at all.

So, maybe because he is very active and has a good diet? Or maybe pot luck.

Mine was barely breastfed and is hardly ever ill

I have 2 that never get ill and 2 that do. All vegetarian from birth and 1 vegan so I guess they all have less chance of getting food poisoning or eating something "off"

The 2 that never get ill are young adults now and both autistic. They have never been very social and I genuinely think this has meant they haven't picked anything up like colds, nits etc. Didn't even get covid when everyone else in the house had it.

One of mine that is a social butterfly has picked up everything going!

Ironically, my outdoorsy, mud loving child is also the one who gets sick constantly(although much better now he’s a teen).
Older child (sick constantly from about 6 months to 12 years): breastfed, loves being outside playing in the mud, semi-healthy diet (better than uk average, but room for improvement, loves fruit though), very sporty, nursery from 6 months, not very social

younger child (literally never sick): breastfed, hates dirt and mud, super healthy diet (loves vegetables, refuses to eat stuff like ham, crisps, …), indoors sports only (loads of dance though, many hours a week), nursery from 6 months, super social

its just luck

Mine are rarely ill. Eldest dc in secondary school gets ‘tummy aches’ just from anxiety sometimes and school makes me come and get her midday. But apart from those times when school sends her home, I’d say mine are genuinely ill and miss school maybe 2-3 days a year.

I don’t think we do anything special. They are 8 & 13 now. Both in nursery from around 10 months, so had exposure to all the bugs early on (they were ill a lot those first few years in nursery but again just colds, so not so ill they stayed home). Only thing I can think of is that we spend a lot of time outdoors. Even in winter, we are out doing farm chores and playing and going on long walks and they are both very active. Older one trains in a competitive sport (she also has a job working with young children so she is exposed to a lot of germs) and younger one just outside every day after school. Both very social and older one especially.

I have cancer and am immunocompromised and I also rarely get ill. I do eat very well and take vitamin C and zinc at the first sign of a sniffle around me.

Actually, in our house, the only one who gets ill all the time is Dh. None of the rest of us will get it. He does have quite severe environmental allergies though and I think that makes him especially sensitive to everything, whereas the rest of us are just more robust.

although much better now he’s a teen

AIBU to hope that as dc is nearly done growing the immune system will be better?

Yes, we’re the same, 5 of us and not particularly ill with anything very often. I am also a bit of a fresh air fiend opening windows, and I’m not particularly worried about germs . Not constantly cleaning , in fact probably the opposite! My kids were always eating mud and stuff off the floor. But I’m not sure how much that really contributes.

@2535and3 for us, it got gradually better in year 5 or so, now we are at being properly ill 2-3 times a year (rather than every 4 weeks or so). He also recovers much more quickly!

My kids are now 23 and 28. They never had colds when they were younger,and were rarely off school with any illness.
I've worked as a childminder for 25+ years and never catch anything of the children.
Must have great immune systems!

Not many colds or viruses in our household (although we did all get Covid a few times during those years, but I'd say those were exceptional years?)

DC7 breastfed til 3.5 years, eats pescatarian, low UPFs, we cook from scratch, no anti bacterial products in the house, lots of ourdoor excercise, encouraged to get dirty. I'm imaging that all contributes to a good immune system.

Same as others - probably luck and genetics. I don’t really get ill, I had a chest infection once and I’m 49. DC are the same, however their dad has always got a stomach bug or a cold. We dont use much bleach, antibacterial stuff and are very outdoorsy. Animals also help build immunity, farmers don’t get ill much .