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Date: | Sun, 25 Mar 2001 17:14:47 -0600 |
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>Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2001 08:09:27 -0500
>From: Patrica Young <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Daycare germs
>Dear Catharine, but something must be going on in the immune system re:
>colds. Most kids have lots of colds in Kdg and 1st grade, then they
>kind of mellow out and in the middle grades I don't see them as often. And
>older sibs get a cold, bring it home and baby gets the cold plus an ear
>ache (gets the cold harder or worse). In day care I think it is the
>close, continual exposure to very young babies and children.
Yes, your point is well taken. However... To what degree is this due to
the normal, developmental maturation of the child's immune system?
Children's immune systems do a great deal of development over the first 6-7
years.
I'm sure that actually being exposed to illness does play a role in this
development (ie: the eat germs thread), but the initial poster referred to
some moms who were implying that it was a *great* thing for daycare kids to
be sick all the time b/c somehow that would make them healthier in the long
run. That they wouldn't get sick b/c they'd already be 'immune' to
everything. This is not true.
This is NOT intended to be a slam on daycare (my own older daughter goes
once a week) but I heartily agree that children in daycare who are lucky
enough to be breastfed are very blessed. They are ill less often than their
artificially fed peers. Does anyone here think that those healthier
breastfed infants are really going to wind up with weaker immune systems and
more illness later in life b/c they didn't get sick a lot as
infants/toddlers? That's what this theory of 'more colds now, healthier
later' would imply.
It seems sometimes that it has become accepted that small children are going
to be sick all the time and that that is the norm, even good for them. I
see a lot of patients who hold this view about their childrens' health.
They expect their kids to be sick all the time. We who promote
breastfeeding know that children *could* be healthier.
Catharine C. Decker, MD
Family Medicine/Urgent Care
Luther-Midelfort Clinic
Mayo Health System
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