How Do You Build Your Child's Immunity

[luvsJack]

I thought maybe someone here had dealt with this before and could offer some adivce.

DD had mono last year. Up until last year, she was rarely sick. She was sick most of the year. I felt so bad for her because she missed so much. She ended up quitting dance and band for the year because of needing to get caught up in school and because she just didn't have the energy for them.

Now she seems to get sick more often and to pick up every little virus that comes around. How do I build her immunity back up?

I have been giving her a vitamin and and extra vitamin C every day. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Mermaid02]

My cousins daughter has had the same problem since having mono 3 years ago. Every time we see her she is still sick and sleeps a lot. I'm not sure what the answer is. What has the doctor said?

 

[HeatherC]

Lots of fruits and vegetables. Seriously....put them in everything she eats.
If she is having a bowl of cereal, add banana. Sliced apple with peanut butter for a snack. Fruit smoothies, etc.

Also maybe have her Vitamin D levels checked. Vitamin D is supposed to help boost immunity. Since I started taking vitamin D in addition to my regular vitamin, I rarely get sick.

Best of luck to you both!

 

[mhsjax]

I don't have any advise really. I think time is about the only thing you can do with Mono. I had this almost 30 years ago. It took me a very long time to get over it. ( I will try real hard not to get on my mono bandwagon) It is a horrible illness that wipes you out for possibly years, it darn near killed me literally and complications from it did kill a friend of mine.

I am so sorry your DD had to go through this. I would just say have her eat as healthy as she can and get more than the required rest, and don't let her over do. I had to adjust my whole college life after this, it caused me to start 1 year later than I should have. it was a mess.

 

[luvsJack]

Mostly they keep telling me that there are 3 billion (well, I don't remember the exact number they keep saying) viruses and in a life time a person will get them all. Ok, but does she have to get them all right now?

I think I will call and see if I can go in and talk to the dr. without dd or just talk to the nurse on the phone. They have told her to make sure she eats well and gets enough sleep. She gets plenty of sleep and eats good for the most part. I have to be careful though because we have weeks that are crazy around here and we end up eating a lot of fast food. I try to make sure there is always a lot of fruit around for good snacks and that she has a really well balanced breakfast to help with those fast food suppers. She eats lunch at school but maybe I need to start packing that to make sure it is more nutrious.

Anyone have a example of what their 12 year old girl eats on a normal day?

 

[luvsJack]

Lots of fruits and vegetables. Seriously....put them in everything she eats.
If she is having a bowl of cereal, add banana. Sliced apple with peanut butter for a snack. Fruit smoothies, etc.

Also maybe have her Vitamin D levels checked. Vitamin D is supposed to help boost immunity. Since I started taking vitamin D in addition to my regular vitamin, I rarely get sick.

Best of luck to you both!

thanks. I was posting at the same time you were so didn't see your advice about the fruits and veggies. And I hadn't thought about the D. We will definitly try it.

 

[mhsjax]

thanks. I was posting at the same time you were so didn't see your advice about the fruits and veggies. And I hadn't thought about the D. We will definitly try it.

My Dr told me that they are seeing a huge amount of people that are severely
Vitamin D deficient and told me to get on a D supplement.

 

[HeatherC]

Had another thought...maybe you can keep a box of those high protein/high fiber nutrition bars on hand and in the car for those fast food nights. My car is stocked with nuts, raisins, fiber plus bars, etc..

Maybe even a bottle of Ensure once day for those crazy busy days?

I hate when kids are sick. Hope she is feeling stronger soon!

 

[luvsJack]

I don't have any advise really. I think time is about the only thing you can do with Mono. I had this almost 30 years ago. It took me a very long time to get over it. ( I will try real hard not to get on my mono bandwagon) It is a horrible illness that wipes you out for possibly years, it darn near killed me literally and complications from it did kill a friend of mine.

I am so sorry your DD had to go through this. I would just say have her eat as healthy as she can and get more than the required rest, and don't let her over do. I had to adjust my whole college life after this, it caused me to start 1 year later than I should have. it was a mess.

oh, wow. That's terrible! So sorry about your friend! I guess this could really be coming more from the mono than I was thinking. hmmm. that gives me a lot to think about. I did a lot of readjusting her schedule last year for her to get more rest. Maybe I haven't given it enough time and need to go back to that. Last year, her bedtime was pretty early and Sunday afternoons was total rest time--lay on the couch and watch movies or nap. She even took time in the afternoons after school to rest and maybe even catch a cat nap. We may very well be doing a lot of that again, especially since she has started back into her other activities. She won't want to give them up again.

 

[Acklander]

When I had been sick with MRSA's I was on a zillion antibiotics which screwed with my immune system. What I did while trying to rebuild it was fruits, veggies, yogurt (the kind with the "good" bacteria in it) and time. It took a couple of years, but I got there.

 

[Ar1el]

I hope your daughter starts to feel better soon but I do know what you are going through. My son age 4 now, at the age of 1 had mono, then at the age of 2 had pneumonia and just this past Friday was in the hospital with pneumonia again. He oxygen levels were way down in the 80's. In between all mono and pneumonia, he catches anything that flies in the wind. He eats a ton of yogurt and fruits but not so keen on the veggies. He takes a vitamin everyday but I think his immune system was given a very rough start.
Good luck with your daughter.

 

[loveysbydesign]

Probiotics can help. My 3 y.o. was sick alot when he was a baby and 1 y.o. When he was 2 he atrted drinking a DanActiv yogurt every day and now he is hardly sick. We also take Esberitox to support our immune system when needed. I get it on soap.com as it's the cheapes there!

 

[mjkacmom]

My kids rarely get sick anymore - because they were alway sick when they were babies, toddlers, and preschoolers (especially the younger ones, who got sick earlier, thanks to their siblings, but stopped getting sick earlier). The way you boost your immunity is by getting sick.

 

[HM]

The only thing I really do for my kids, is make sure they get enough sleep. They are in high school and have 10pm bedtime. They get up just after 6am M-F. My parents did the same thing for me and I was very healthy.

 

[barkley]

if she tends to chew gum or eat sugary candies (like hard candies) get her to break the habit.

i'm one of the types that if something is going around i'll catch it and it always lands in my ears and throat (i've had too many cases of strep to count, and my eardrums are quite scarred from repeated infections). years ago i read an article about a study where it was found that gum chewers and hard candy eaters were more likely to catch a virus vs. their peers who were gum/hard candy free. the reasoning was that by eating this stuff they made a sticky environment in their mouths where those viruses could attach more easily. i gave up gum and saw the number of viruses i caught (was working with the public at the time) plummett.

i agree that healthy eating helps as well, and if you have to do fast food regularly then just steer her towards the healthier options-skinless chicken sandwiches, salads...as for stuff to have available to eat at home, when my brother had polio back in the day and his immunities were compromised the doctor advised encouraging bananas, oranges and peanut butter. the protean in the peanut butter gave his body energy to fight off infection, and the bananas and oranges provided vitamins that helped as well.

 

[Micca]

I suggest the immunity idol. Those people on Survivor never get thrown off the island when they have it.

 

[hentob]

Two cups of live-culture yogurt daily will do the trick!

 

[m&m's mom]

I think a lot of just pure genetics. My DD's who are 14 and 11 have never had a non-well visit and the 14 year old was born at 1 pound (yes, not a typo).
No ear infection etc. The neighborhood joke is my kids could swim in a vat of the H1N1 virus and still not get it.
On the other hand, both of my brothers kids are "sickly". They get everyting that comes down the pike.
My DH and I never get sick either but I get bizarre virus type stuff (Impetigo, cold sores shingles etc). I say I would prefer some of the "normal" colds and flus to the weird stuff I get.
One thing we do is if any of us start to tell that first little tingle that we could be getting sick, we either suck on Zinc lozenges or swig some Airborne and it stops it 100% right in its tracks.

 

[indimom]

I agree with mhsjax regarding mono being the most likely culprit. I had a "MILD" case of mono my freshman year of college and it still kicked my butt. I noticed for a year or two after that I seemed to catch every cold and have a stronger reaction than normal to the bugs. My glands would get huge and very painful, fever, nasty chest cold, etc. It took a couple years, but it did settle down. And I am back to be a very healthy person. (I probably would have rebounded quicker, but no one was pushing me to eat right and take it easy. I was at college, and living like most college students.)

My son had a nasty bout of pnuemonia and a blood infection when he was 1. We had followup visits for 9 months afterward, and you could see on the results of the blood tests and x-rays that he was still in recovery/not recovered yet despite the fact that life had gone back to normal: he was in day care, we were back to work, life was going on as normal. His medical tests showed the truth of the matter: his lungs were not fully healed but looked a little bit better month by month, his white counts were still way off but steadily reverting to normal.

When you get a particularly nasty bug, it does take some time for your body to rebound.

All the advice you have gotten sounds great: fresh fruits and veggies, a quality multivitamin on top of that, yogurt, Ensure, rest, rest, rest, vitamin D and sunshine (if you can get any this time of year). Pretty much all the things you would do if she was currently sick. It sounds like overkill, but just treat her like she is still sick or in recovery for a while. She really is.

 

[castleview]

Vaccinations and trying to encourage healthy eating. I had mono in high school and it knocked me out for about a month and then I had to be careful for another five months. I do wonder about people who get knocked out for "years" since it falls at an age where kids will use it as an excuse.