Is it good for my child to catch a cold?
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RealAge answered:No parents want their kids to be sick, but getting sick occasionally helps teach children’s bodies to fend off infections. So the next time your child has a miserable cold or flu, try to remember that it’s helping to build his young immune system. That’s why it’s perfectly okay -- even beneficial -- for youngsters to get sick a few times a year. In fact, the average child gets five to nine colds a year. (And you thought it was just your child.)
Young kids who catch fewer colds may pay the price later on. One study found that children who went to day-care centers (which are chock-full of germs because they’re chock-full of kids) initially got sick more often than children who didn’t go to day care -- but they also had stronger immune systems by the time they started school. Children who didn’t go to day care got sick more often during the first few years of elementary school. It would be interesting to follow up with these children in seventy years or so; I wonder who will have the last cough.
From The Smart Parent's Guide: Getting Your Kids Through Checkups, Illnesses, and Accidents by Jennifer Trachtenberg.
Find out more about this book: The Smart Parent's Guide: Getting Your Kids Through Checkups, Illnesses, an...
No parents want their kids to be sick, but getting sick occasionally helps teach children’s bodies to fend off infections. So the next time your child has a miserable cold or flu, try to remember that it’s helping to build his young... More
