10 mth old niece has a cold nearly all the time, advice needed for worried sister!

[alibo]

my niece is 10 months old, and for ages now, she has quite a bad cold all the time. for the last few months she only goes about a week to 10 days, before starting again. should she go to the doctors with her, or will they not be able to suggest anything. the only thing i can think of is perhaps trying some vitamin drops to bbost her up a bit. has anyone tried these??

sorry, that should be "boost" her up!!

alibo,

We went through a phase like this with our DD from about 6 months on. It seemed that no sooner did she get over one cold (always with a raging temperature) then she came down with another one. She was at nursery, and DH and I had to take it in turns to take time off work to look after her - about every other week at one point. We seemed to be juggling work etc all the time, and it was really stressful, and felt like it would never end.

The good news is - and please reassure your sister - that DD grew out of it, and now (at 4 y.o.) rarely gets ill at all. In fact she's a disgustingly healthy child. We reckon she's developed a cast iron immune system after all those colds etc! I can't remember when she stopped the colds, it seemed to go on a long time but I'm sure it didn't, and now it's all a dim and distant memory (nightmare...).

The doc probably won't say anything other than maybe some vitamins. The vitamins certainly won't do any harm. But your niece will grow out of it, just like my DD did, I'm sure.

what about probiotics, as she's having bouts of runny nappies too at the moment??

With both mine the first winter was the worst. dd was 8 months and dd 3 months when it started but the following year they seemed to have acquired a certain amount of immunity and didn't suffer nearly as much.(Both were still breastfed so I don't know how much worse it could have been had they not been) I don't think there is much a dr could recommend to combat the viruses but there may be some homeopathic suggestions which would limit the effect of these and help prevent secondary bacterial infections.

ditto to LiZs experience.