Are there long-term consequences if babies get sick frequently?

[Anonymous]

I think it depends. Repeat ear infections could hurt hearing, which could slow language acquisition. If a kid isn't sleeping or eating because of illness that could have negative consequences. But severely limited public contact, of the type needed to keep a young kid totally healthy, can also hurt development.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is how it is for every kid except the first/only.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DB is 10 months old, at home, and his brother just started kindergarten. He brings home all these germs and passes them to all of us including the baby. Poor kid constantly has a cold, occasionally light fevers. He is usually very active but sometimes he just wants to be held. It’s hard on all of us but luckily we have a lot of help so we can do things like hold him upright while he sleeps so he can breathe. But I wonder if there are long-term consequences to being sick so often at an early age. His brother did not go through this since there was no older sibling. I don’t want to keep the siblings apart.

Yup, there are definitely long-term consequences -- a strong immune system.

+1

[Anonymous]

I think we don’t know what we don’t know when it comes to this, OP. My personal goal is a *moderate* amount of exposure while young. So not isolating newborns and little kids or over-sanitizing but not perpetual group care and tons of flying. We want to build immunity but we also know that viruses can lead to unpredictable dynamics later, from blood clotting disorders that may never be detected to more serious illnesses. Also agree that if a child needs repeated steroids or antibiotics we need to shift strategy.

It also is true that most academics and medical professionals have kids in group care. I’m not sure how this plays out in what they choose to study or recommend. I do worry that sometimes we don’t get the best guidance because group care from infancy is the default assumption.

At the end of the day I would focus on nutrition, sleep and emotional regulation since those are things we have more control over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're not going to get a straight answer about this because academia and medicine are filled with the parents of kids who are in daycare. I don't think it is good for them. It is known prenatal viral exposure is bad. Why would being out of mom magically reduce the damage?

On the flip side, we are seeing the consequences of NOT catching respiratory viruses over a period of years- kids getting severe rsv infections all at the same time. Immunology is very complicated and immunologists would be the first ones to admit that there is a lot we don’t know.

Good article today in nytimes

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/28/opinion/winter-rsv-covid-flu.html