All this week is #HealthyBackToSchool series.   It is only a matter of days before the online parent groups are full of despair at suddenly finding their young child out of school – just days after starting – with illnesses.  “Is there something going around?”  This is inevitably followed by loads of advice on how to prevent it  or opinions on how all those germs are somehow good for them. And should we mention all the products marketed:   Some of it is “immune boosting yogurts” or in social media: “DM me – after I started [product X] with my own child s/he hasn’t missed a day of school!”  Before you splash out the cash – what should you know?

 So, can you prevent all this recurrent illness in children?

The short answer is: No.

And I really empathise with this one. C. seemed to spend his first year in school in an unending cycle of runny noses, breathlessness episodes, numerous rounds of covid testing, trips to ED, regular use of his panda spacer for his Ventolin… I heard a GP dub it “crechitis”  – I hadn’t heard it called “crechitis” before – but I do love the term.

So, let’s break this down: what is going on?  It seems that a child barely gets over viral infection and then they have caught another. It’s not your imagination, nor is it unusual.  **You should expect your under-6 year old to have up to 12 viral infections a year, and it generally will be mostly during autumn/winter, and can commonly be one right after another.**

Which leads to the constant question in mammy groups “is there something going around?”

What is going around right now? Yes, Covid is in the community and the latest omicron subvariant is going around. We also have measles and whooping cough outbreaks (which should be preventable).

And as we enter autumn, we can also expect parainfluenza viruses and RSV. Rhinoviruses usually make up 50% of “colds” and young children can also pick up adenoviruses, which can cause almost any symptoms. Common tummy bugs include norovirus “winter vomiting bug”. Hand-Foot-Mouth disease is an enterovirus. In addition, vaccine preventable diseases from mumps, chicken pox, rotavirus unfortunately still make regular appearances despite being vaccine-preventable  – and all of these can start out with symptoms like a cold. Influenza starts to really get circulating in November.

How to stay healthy?

It’s impossible for your child to avoid it all, but let’s talk about how to help.

• A healthy diet that includes adequate Vitamin D.

• Make sure your child gets their daily needed amount of physical activity.

•  Sleep is key!

• For all ages, but teens especially, manage that stress.  We’ll be talking more on that later this week!

• Good hygiene that including cleaning hands and good cough/sneeze etiquette .

• Make sure childhood vaccines** are up-to-date — including getting this year’s free nasal spray flu vaccine when it is rolled out (This will be in October, and it’s best to get it before Halloween.  I’ll be posting more on this in October but you can check out previous post on flu vaccine for kids for more facts.   Having a new baby arriving next month? For the first time, immunisation is available for RSV!  It’s an antibody, not a vaccine. Read More.

Worried? Talk to your GP.   The symptoms of many viruses can include stuffy/runny nose, cough, mild fever, sore throat, fussiness/poor appetite, non-specific rashes, ear aches. Adenoviruses can also cause tummy upset or conjunctivitis. But in many of these viruses, cough is often the symptom that lasts the longest, lingering up to 14 days (even up to 21 days with bronchiolitis) after the other symptoms have eased.

Antibiotics don’t treat viruses. However, some children get a bacterial infection on top of the virus, so may need a course of antibiotics. This might require more than one visit with your GP.

There will be many children who will have their first asthma symptoms this autumn/winter triggered by a virus. If a virus has triggered asthma symptoms in your child, they may continue to have wheeze or cough, especially worse at night, until the asthma is controlled. There can be a lot of trial and error in controlling asthma symptoms. Cough – or cough worse at night – may be a symptom of uncontrolled asthma, even without wheeze.  Yes, you may be back and forth to the GP alot this winter.  It’s okay.

You are your child’s voice when accessing healthcare.  They deserve qualified expert advice. Don’t substitute crowd-sourced social media opinion.***

What’s your sick day plan?  It isn’t convenient.  It isn’t fair.  It isn’t easy.  But your child will get sick this year and have to stay home from school — and children (actually, all of us!) deserve to get rest and recover.  Make your sick day plan before you need it because you will need it.

What doesn’t work?

It shouldn’t surprise that this has led to a huge market for cures, “immune boosting” and prevention. Here is an non-exhaustive list of things that have not been shown to prevent or treat your child’s respiratory viruses or “boost immunity” (and if you are thinking there should be better consumer protection on the marketing of these things, you’re not alone):

• cough bottles

• salt therapies of any sort

• homeopathy

• herbal supplements

• “immune tonics”

• chiropractic or osteopathic manipulation

• elderberry anything

• probiotics

• prebiotics

• antihistamines

• anything marketed to you after replying to someone saying “DM me” in the comments

• exclusion diets (the only recognised qualification for advising child nutrition is INDI/CORU registration)

• anything that includes chopping up a vegetable and placing it in socks/radiators… (a fascinating folk practice that has persisted in many cultures since the time of the Black Death)  Note:  garlic directly on a child’s sensitive skin can cause burns

If you missed it, we’ve debunked every one of these before. And with household budgets tight, families deserve to make fact-based and informed decisions on where to spend the money.

**If you are vaccine hesitant, make an appointment to get information from trusted source, such as your PHN or GP.  You can also search this Blog for previous posts for suggested expert reading on being informed on vaccination.