Constantly ill baby - advice please

[Eve]

Hi, I am calling upon your all for some advice and thoughts.

DS2 is now 10 months old and since November has had one illness after another. All minor illnesses, but lots of ear infections, D&V, viral infections, conjunctivitis, colds etc. The receptionists at the Doctors know us by 1st name now I am there so often with him and I have talked to the HV about all these illnesses. In fact he hasn't had his 3rd (16week) tripple jab yet as he has never had a spell of being well enough for me to inflict it on him.

The Doctors and Health Visitor have said that its winter, its a run of bad luck with him picking up things from older brother and other children, but I am beginning to wonder if there is an underlying problem.

He goes part-time to Nursery when I am at work, but isn't there very often as he is usually ill. The Nursery asked me yesterday if he might possibly have a food intolerence, to gluten or milk as he constantly has loose nappies. That has been a thought that has been in the back of my mind so we are taking him off diary and gluten for a week to see if it makes a difference. (I know you shouldn't do this with out Medical referral, but at least if we try for a week, will give me something to talk to the Doctor about).

I have asked for a referral to a consultant for him, but has anyone else had problems like this before? Thanks.

My ds had one thing after another after he started Nursery at 4mths. He caught his first cold from his cousin at 11 weeks. Then he was fine until Nursery. He had colds, terrible sickness and diarrhea (sp?)... then a chest infection, then conjunctivitis!!! I was told by my GP that this was building up his immune system and not to worry. Some kids have this run of bad health when they start school and start mixing with lots of kids.

Ds is now 21mths old and.... touchwood... hasn't hadn't anything more than a snuffle for months now, even though kids have been ill at Nursery. I think he has an immune system as solid as a rock now!!

It mayjust be he's prone to catching stuff just now coz he's so young, but with each illness he recovers from he's gaining more resistance.

I wouldn't start illiminating food groups unless it's in a controlled way with the GPs advice. At 10 mths he'll still be getting an awful lot of calories from milk etc etc. You might adversely reduce his resistance for a wee while.

I shouldn't worry too much though, like I said, my ds is as solid as a rock now!!!
I'm tempting fate by saying that.... he'll probably be struck down with a bad cold now and be off nursery for a week!!

HTH Good Luck.

Hi Eve

Both my ds's are gluten free (one is 3 and a half) and one is 14 months. My ds1 also has just started to enzymes to reduce a particular protein in milk.

IME GP's and dieticians can be pretty useless with the advice (although having said that my son's diet is for a fairly specific and unusual need- don;t think the NHS has quite caught up yet. )

You may need to keep him off gluten in particular for longer than a week to see a difference- it can take a while to leave the body- changes due to milk are often seen faster than this.

If he has a mucus problem suspect milk- and ear infections can be a milk problem as well- the allergies can cause inflammation. was reading a research aticle about this only last week.

So yes definitely worth a go. gluten free is a pain in the neck- although getting easier.

If you decide to stick with it and want any bread recipes/flour suppliers or whatver I can pass them on.

Definitely think you were wise to postpone dtp etc.

Eve, both my children have been the same this Winter. I don't know what's in the air, but they have been constantly bouncing colds/tummy bugs and chest infections between them. Our house is littered with tissue boxes and I spend all day wiping runny noses and administering calpol! I really think you should hang on a while before testing for allergies. These days its too easy to blame allergies for perfectly natural conditions. If this was happening in the summer then it would be more strange, but really an older sibling, crossed with nursery and winter bugs is a crap combination!!

Like Mum2by I think you need to keep your son well fed and cutting out dairy is not a good idea so young. Why not boost the immune system with vitamins and supplements instead?

good luck...its a bugger!

Eve, this winter has been a breeding ground for all sorts of bugs etc, it has to do with the weather, although it has been cold sometimes, the air has been very heavy, then it would rain and it was very mild. We have had terrible problems with our cattle and pnuemonia, in fact we lost several of them, as the strain we had and most of our region attacks the lungs and is not noticed until the final stages, the calves had a cough, but nothing you would really take any notice of, then they popped their clogs. It wasn't until we had a post-morten done on some of them that the strain of infection was found.

There was an article recently, can't remember wher though (brain seems to be going a bit slow), by some of those delightful research people saying that children now have little or no immunity because they don't get dirty!. Good grief my 2 spend their life looking as if they have been rolling about in the gitters, but this article said that many children come home from school and get changed and then either watch tv or play on the computer. Where do these people get their stats from?

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Just to let you know I went with my insticts on this one and got a referral to a immunology (??spelling) consultant. DS2 has been diagonised with a below par immune system.

He is well at present and putting on weight again, so we are not doing anything with him, but once the bugs start again in the Autumn then we go back to the hospital to see how he copes.

Also no danger my 2 being too clean, favourite actvity is digging flower beds!

HI,
My ds is now 4 and from a few months old was exactly like you described your ds to be. After not being taken seriously by the gp and my dp insisting he be referred to the hospital for allergies did we find out he had a low immune system. Did they tell you much about it? We were told that 3 different antibodies were lower than the norm and that some of his immunizations hadn't worked i.e he doesn't produce the antibodies for them. We are due to go back tomorrow. I would be interested to know more about your ds as i am actually quite worried about it ( nothing new there though!)

Try some Thymic Protein A to boost their immune systems. This is an all natural TOTALLY SAFE product. We use it and have NO colds, ear infections, flus, etc. The kids in school do not get what the other kids are passing around...It only helps the body defend against virus by helping it to produce more T-Killer cells.

www.proboostmed.com

you can buy it here.

www.longevity-science.net/