to think that being cold and wet does not make you ill?

[MaMight]

I have friends who often mention that their child is sick "because they got caught in the rain" or "because they came home from swimming with wet hair".

Surely you get ill because of a virus or bacteria?

These are well informed, sensible women.

I have expressed my doubts that damp socks can cause a snotty nose, but they say that all they know is that after getting cold and / or wet, their child unfailingly develops a cough / a snotty nose / a sore throat or similar.

I am starting to doubt myself.

getting cold on one occasion is not going to make you ill, bacteria make you ill - bein cold all the time is a sign you are possibly...
1)underfed
2)in a cold place (obviously) so your body has to work harder to make heat.
3)possibly ill already

all of which make for a lower immune response.

YEs Coughs and colds are spread by virus and bacteria but if you're run down then you're more likely to be susceptible. I always get ill when I'm tired. Its not the tirened taht causes teh illness but because my body is already struggling.

As the feet study showed

Can you tell I'm feeling extremely rough by my typing?

SIL drives me mad with this crap..If that is the case why haven't my two teens always got pneumonia because they both insist on not wearing coats whatever the weather!!!

I've always wondered at this. My mum used to have a fit if I attempted to leave the house with wet hair- it was akin to inviting consumption, or something! She also disapproved of what she called a "glad neck" (ie V-neck, no scarf)- that was really asking for it.

DH believes the whole "catch a chill" thing, although I don't really. But then he also thought I'd give us all some terrible illness by drying washing in the bedroom

Coughs, colds and flu are caused by viruses but telling your mother that you have totally recovered and going out to a teenage party in the wilds of Northumberland in March 1979 when the weather was still cold and snowy (deja vu anybody?) is one sure fire way to get pneumonia.

Of course it's rubbish. Getting cold and wet occasionally will do you the power of good. Great for your circulation, forces your body to burn calories etc. It's sedentary lives and recycled air from air-con that more likely to make you ill.

I quite agree with you OP but surely in extreme cases it can cause illness. Going out with a hat on a cold day won't do any harm but if you got dumped in a freezing river in January it would make you ill wouldn't it. Just from the sudden drop in temperature?

Well said BigWeeHag - I was waiting for someone to mention kidneys.

According to my DM because I go to bed with Wet Hair I will get kidney failure.

I have asthma attacks if I am walking outside when it is very cold and windy. That is a very common asthma trigger.

An American friend told me she doesn't take paracetamol when she has a cold or infection because paracetamol lowers your temperature and your body fights off illness less effectively at lower temperatures.

Well, it's true for me, being too cold & wet does me in!
I never blow dry my hair. But if I walk around outside with wet hair my sinuses really flair up (get swollen and painful & feel infected). It's a very obvious connection.

From Netdoctor:

Fever is part of the body's defence mechanism against viruses or bacteria. The body tries to create extra heat so that the foreign organism cannot survive. Having a temperature helps you fight illness.

So maybe viruses and bacteria do survive better in low temperatures.

True for me too - if I get cold I always catch a cold - wet hair would have me in bed for a week. I am a delicate lill thang. DD is the same. I think your body has to work harder to get you warm and this leaves you vulnerable.

PMSL @ babies only crying due to "windies"

I was aways told by my mother that if I went out with wet hair I would catch pneumonia.

She is a doctor

Obviously women like her have the "random handed down sayings generator" part of their brain which suppresses rational thought when in "mummying" mode!

I'm sure I read about a connection discovered between your nose/mucous membranes being cold and a virus being able to attack more effectively because of this.

In labour, in the hospital, a midwife told me off during a contraction for not wearing slippers. She said that it would lead to a bladder infection.

I growled at her.

Being cold and wet lowers your immune system so it does make it easier to catch a virus if it is present.

I think this all goes back to when if you did catch something it was far more serious than it is now. If a child got a fever 50 years ago the chances of it turning into something terrible were much higher.

I think we take stuff for granted a bit now.

My SILs are all advocates of wet hair = death, scrunching up your face at the wrong time and it will stay like that and a prolapsed womb is a natural and inevitable result of childbirth and all babies suffer from bloody stools (nothing to do with jar food at 6 weeks and carnation milk).

I have had some wonderful advice off them over the years.

Once or twice if I've got REALLY soaked and freezing for more than an hour, I get an upset stomach. My mum called it a 'chilly tum'. Was this a coincidence, or could being really cold have caused it?

I'm in germany and everyone believes this coswallop!! went to some new friends for a BBQ last september and after the sun went down it was a bit cooler than it had been before but warm enough that i was OK with no jacket on.

well the next week i had a cold and both the husband and wife seperately said "oh that must have been from you being cold on saturday night!!" these are educated biologists!!!

hence mothers here are obsessive about children wearing tights and trousers in the winter (even the boys) and snowsuits at the slightest hint of cold! saw a child last April at the playground - we hadnt lived here long and this child had a snowsuit on! it was 15 degrees!!!!! much dirty looks at my kids with their thin coats on!

and wet hair - you might as well report yourself to social services!

What you just described was my Italian upbringing canella .

To be honest DD is one of those kids you just have to wrap up or she just will get ill. I know that if she gets cold she will will get fu or whatever else is going around because, well, I bring her up. I think one rule is not the same for all people.

You get colds in cold weather because people are indoors together more which means the virus can spread easier.

Being cold and wet for a while won't give you a cold, but it's not good for you either. You might end up with an out of control temperature and the shivers.

I and most of my colleagues spend about six months of the year cold and wet. We're some of the healthiest people I know.

Being cold and wet occasionally is good for you.

Modern people are turning into wimps.

We are of the "suck it up sunshine" school of thought and are very rarely ill.

A little bit of challenge does a body good IMO.