Hi- OP. I promise you it will get better. Just think about it this way... with every cold he gets, he's building immunity to that bug and similar ones. He won't get it again. Cross one more virus off the list!

DS #1 was sick CONSTANTLY his first 3 years of life... just one thing after another. He would wheeze with some colds, which scared the hell out of me. Any time a child coughed/sneezed in his vicinity, I would feel my heart beating out of my chest with anxiety. I kept him home from certain activities out of fear. Now, at 4 1/2, he has really built up his system. He's only had 1 cold this school year and it was mild.

FYI- We use a probiotic, daily vitamin, immune-boosting vitamins and Umcka Cold Care at the first sign of a cold.

I know that this won't work for everyone, but our child's preschool teacher recommended that we consider eliminating gluten (child was already intolerant to several foods) and it made a huge difference. That said, we also went through a period where DC got four different illnesses all at once (cold, staph, ear infection, and UTI) -- it was a week's worth of misery for poor DC and for those of us who kept her home. Good luck -- it does get better a they get older.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone recommend a probiotic for kids.

Whole Foods has a whole section. There are powders and pills. We use the powder and my preschooler has only had one mild cold so far.

OP here. I will check it out. Thanks for responding.

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone recommend a probiotic for kids.

Whole Foods has a whole section. There are powders and pills. We use the powder and my preschooler has only had one mild cold so far.

Anonymous wrote:I'd reconsider that flu shot idea.....New Study: Vaccinated Children Have 2 to 5 Times More Diseases and Disorders Than Unvaccinated Children

http://healthfreedoms.org/2011/10/14/big-study-vaccinated-kids-2-5-more-diseases-than-unvaccinated/

+1

OP here. Thanks for everyone's responses. As a new mom, I guess I'm learning how to handle it all "on the job". I hate that my son's missing so many days of school though. I guess I just need to relax.

If anyone knows of a good probiotic for children, please share.

I taught elementary school for a year- was never sicker in my life. Had a staph infection, numerous colds, and strep throat twice. The staph infection pain rivaled labor pains, no joke.

Anyway, kids ALWAYS have runny noses-- sometimes it's allergy, sometimes it's from having outdoor recess on a cold day, sometimes it's a cold, and sometimes it's a lingering sinus infection. I was so frustrated by being sick all the time, but I knew that if parents kept their runny-nosed kids home all the time, they'd never got to work. And as a teacher, I only got 10 sick days a year, so I imagined many of them were in similarly inflexible positions with their jobs.

Now sending a kid to school who is vomiting or has diarrhea- that I consider highly problematic. But the common cold that turns into other things like ear infections and bronchitis... eh, it's just unavoidable.

Ugh, this is us too. 3 yr old DS had croup and was off for a whole week. He is usually pretty healthy and has a good diet, but he doesn't nap at preschool and I think this has affected his immune system.

I bought some elderberry (Sambucus?) extract as it's supposed to be a good anti-viral. I took it when DS and DH had really bad colds and I didn't get sick. I think you're supposed to take it at the first sign of a cold otherwise it doesn't work. There are some published papers about its effectiveness.

Echoing other posters who state that it will get better. This will be a long winter but not every winter will be like this. Our first year was awful -- she caught EVERYTHING. Second, not as often. This year we've only had mild sniffles for a day.

When I taught preschool I got sick a lot. I used to want to blame the parents who send their sick children to school. But the truth was when people are the most contagious is when they first get sick and have barely started developing symptoms. So the child who has had a cough for a week and a runny nose is not the one infecting everyone it is the one in the corner that is about to crash that is spreading more sick germs. So you can see how it is a vicious cycle. Sanitize the toys on a regular, work with your DC on better hand washing like you said, and covering coughs and sneezes with elbows!
Good luck it will get better, it might take a year to build up DC'S immunity (it took me much longer as an adult working in that setting!)