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Home Articles REAL Health Cold & Flu About Colds & Flus
About Colds & Flus Print E-mail
Written by Susan McCreadie, MD   
Moms always ask how they can better protect their children from the winter bugs. Winter is no different than summer; you keep your family healthy all year long the EXACT same way. The answer? Focus your time, effort, energy (and money) on strengthening your child's immune system.
 

The "Winter" Bugs.
The common cold (nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat, cough and/or fever) is caused by a number of viruses. Usually each virus causes a child to be ill only once, after which they become immune to that virus. But there's a problem. There are so many different types of viruses that children may have multiple colds each year! Colds are spread directly by touching a surface or person with the virus or inhaling droplets containing the virus. Anyone sneezed around you lately? Most cold symptoms improve within 10 days and do not cause complications such as ear infections, sinusitis, wheezing, or pneumonia.

Influenza (commonly called the flu) is also caused by a number of viruses, categorized as swine, avian, and seasonal flu. Flu symptoms include common cold symptoms, and some children may also experience headache, muscle aches and fatigue. 

One noted difference between the common cold and the flu is fever. A fever caused by non-flu viruses usually resolves within 48 hours, whereas most flu viruses cause a fever for two to five days.  If your child develops a fever after the first few days of cold symptoms, common cold complications (ear infection, sinusitis, or pneumonia) may be to blame, and you'll want to have your child evaluated for those. Remember fever is your child's friend, not enemy.  Fever is one way our immune system reacts to help us fight infections. See Fever - Treat or Not to Treat for more information. 

Your Immune System. The immune system is our body’s way of protecting us from disease by identifying and killing pathogens [viruses, bacteria, parasites] and tumor cells. It is the system that distinguishes us [our own healthy cells and tissues] from them [pathogens and tumor cells]. Most people think of the immune system as the body's army, our own microscopic soldiers defending us from microscopic invaders.This is a great way to explain the immune system to kids. 

What most people don't realize is that the immune system army can go haywire. Our immune system can become hypersensitive or over reactive and create allergies and/or autoimmune disease. With allergies [including asthma, eczema, hay fever, and food allergies], the immune system overreacts to an environmental allergen that sets off a cascade of reactions in the body and results in inflammation (wheezing, skin rash, stuffy nose, etc.). With autoimmune diseases, the immune system attacks normal healthy cells and tissues as if they were foreign organisms.  Examples of autoimmune diseases include, celiac disease, diabetes type 1, lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroiditis, inflammatory bowel disease, and more.

Supporting our child's immune system is key. It is the way to ward off winter sniffles and better yet, prevent allergies and autoimmune diseases. 

Common Cold & Flu Therapies. Many parents use pharmaceuticals marketed to treat cold symptoms: antihistamines, decongestants, cough medicines, and expectorants. We do NOT recommend these products. There are no studies that prove any benefit of these products in infants or children, and these medications can cause dangerous side effects. In fact, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel has recommended against the use of these medications in children younger than six for that reason.

There are anti-viral pharmaceuticals available to treat the flu. For most, treatment of influenza with antiviral therapy shortens the duration of illness by approximately one day, if started within 48 hours of the first flu symptom. As mentioned above, it is difficult to tell a cold from a flu within those first 48 hours, since both can cause the exact same symptoms. Standard anti-viral therapy is 5 days. Remember, that's to shorten the illness by 1 day! For children with chronic disease, anti-viral therapy has NOT shown this benefit, but may decrease the risk of influenza complications and/or need for hospitalization. Resistance to these anti-viral therapies is rising. Not surprising. Nature is very smart! Many parents choose to "protect" their children annually from the flu with the flu vaccine. See why we recommend making an informed decision when choosing to vaccinate or not vaccinate your child. 

How Best to Avoid Colds & Flus. Focus your time, effort, energy (and money) on strengthening your child's immune system.  Did you know that 70 percent of your child's immune system is in his gut?  The best way to build your child's army, is by first paying attention to their digestive system. Amazing, but true. See Cold & Flu Solutions.

  
Susan McCreadie, MD is a Holistic Pediatrician and co-founder of nourishMD. She shows parents how to find REAL health for their child, so they can stop treating their child's symptoms and instead find solutions that help their child heal from the inside out.