The fewer children there are, the more often they get sick. This is not a law of meanness, but a law of physiology, as a person’s immunity is formed gradually. Nevertheless, parents of babies who constantly catch colds find it hard to accept this fact.
How much sickness is normal for children, how to understand when the limit is exceeded, and most importantly, how to reduce the number of colds, Dr. Marina Savenkova, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Pediatric Department of the Clinical Functional Diagnostics Department of the Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education “Russian National Research Medical University named after N.I. Pirogov” of the Ministry of Health of Russia, explained.
For children, immunity is still weak and physiologically immature (especially regarding the local immunity of mucous membranes), and the synthesis of their own protective proteins interferons is insufficient. This is why children under three years old catch colds more often than others.
Let’s Count
However, meticulously counting the number of illnesses is not the most important thing; it is essential to pay attention to how the illnesses progress. Many children get sick frequently but lightly, which is not the biggest problem. However, constantly recurring infections like laryngitis, pharyngitis, sinusitis, and others may indicate that the child’s immune system needs help. But this does not mean buying immunomodulators, vitamins, food supplements, and so forth.
“If a child has recurring infections often (more than 8-13 times a year), or all colds are complicated by bacterial infections, one should first look for the causes, that is, find the focus of infection,” says Savenkova. “An immunologist will not help the child in this case, and taking immunomodulators will not solve the problem. Vaccination (especially against the flu, which should be done annually for all children from 6 months) will help protect the child from bacterial complications.
However, for most acute respiratory viral infections (ARVIs), over two hundred in number, there are no vaccines. Therefore, they remain uncontrollable infections. According to the expert, to strengthen a child’s immunity, they need a healthy and active lifestyle, proper nutrition, adequate sleep, outdoor walks, compliance with sanitary and hygiene measures (regular handwashing is very important). But there are also medicinal ways to influence immunity and help the body produce interferon protective proteins, the synthesis of which is insufficient in children, especially young ones.
Boosting Immunity
“Pure intravenous interferons (used, for example, for hepatitis C and other diseases) are not prescribed for children with respiratory viral infections,” says Savenkova. “However, interferon inductors, which stimulate the production of the body’s own protective proteins, have indeed shown their effectiveness. They support a child’s immature immunity during illness, and by the 5th day of their intake, 60% of the disease’s symptoms disappear.”
According to the expert, the critical period in the course of ARVIs is days 2-5 of the illness. Therefore, if the illness starts to decline by day 3-4, it can be said that the child is having a mild illness, and complications are unlikely. However, if there is a re-rise of temperature, worsening of symptoms (cough, runny nose, sore throat), this indicates that bacterial complications are developing. In this case, self-treatment should be avoided, a doctor should be called, and the need for antibiotic use should be determined.
To help the illness pass quickly and cause minimal harm to the child’s health, along with symptomatic medications (antipyretics, decongestants, cough suppressants), bacterial lysates, and other medications, it is necessary to start taking interferon inductors (such as Kagocel, Ergoferon, Nobazit, Rafamin, etc.). The key is to start taking them as early as possible, ideally from the first day of the illness.