School-age children and preteens average five or six illnesses annually; teens and adults may have two to three colds or illnesses per year.
Frequent illness is a normal part of childhood – in fact, it's perfectly normal for your child to come down with respiratory and/or stomach bugs six to eight times each year!
Minor illnesses, such as colds and intestinal disturbances, are common, especially in the early years: According to the 1980 National Health Interview Survey, children from age 1 to 3 years experience six to nine illnesses per year. From age 4 to 10 years, children develop, on average, four to six illnesses per year.
The main reason your child is getting all those infections is that he or she is being exposed to new viruses all the time. The viruses are everywhere no matter how much you sanitize and clean. There are at least 200 different cold viruses and they're constantly getting tricky, mutating all the time.
Young children have immature immune systems and have not yet developed immunity to a wide variety of common germs. On top of that, babies, toddlers and young children are extremely physically engaged in their environment.
It is very common for toddlers and pre-school-aged children to have as many as 8 to 12 colds, respiratory infections and/or stomach bugs a year. School-age children and preteens average five or six illnesses annually; teens and adults may have two to three colds or illnesses per year.
The main reason your child is getting all those infections is that he or she is being exposed to new viruses all the time. The viruses are everywhere no matter how much you sanitize and clean. There are at least 200 different cold viruses and they're getting tricky, mutating all the time.
Cyclic vomiting syndrome is a disorder that causes episodes of vomiting and nausea. It can occur over a period of hours, days, or sometimes weeks. CVS is more common in children than in adults. CVS is diagnosed mainly by ruling out other diseases that have similar symptoms.
The reason parents get sick more often is that they are regularly caring for sick children. A study in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases revealed that parents are 28% more likely to get sick than those without any children.
Young children get a lot of colds because they haven't had a chance to build up immunity to the many viruses that cause colds. As your child gets older, they'll gradually build up immunity and get fewer colds. Colds are also called upper respiratory tract infections.
You're not imagining things — if it seems like your baby or toddler is often sick since starting day care, that's because he probably is. During their first year of day care, babies are likely to be under the weather an average of eight to 12 times.
The first thing doctors stress when it comes to viruses is there's a wide range of normal for how often an individual can get colds and other ailments, and still be considered healthy. On average, adults get two or three a year, according to the CDC, and children, even more.
A new study done by scientists at the University of the Utah School of Medicine shows that the more kids you have, the “sicker” you become. As if being a parent wasn't tough enough this yearlong study revealed that having kids guaranteed more viruses are brought into the home.
If your child is repeatedly sick since starting school, you may be experiencing what many parents refer to as the "back-to-school plague." Colds, coughs, stomach bugs and pink eye (conjunctivitis) are among the most common viruses spread at school.
Tips for Avoiding Infections
Most importantly, understand that frequent infections are very common in the first year or two of daycare and are usually not a cause for concern. If and when your child gets sick, call your pediatrician to figure out the best course of action.
Take some time to examine your lifestyle for clues, but if you find that you keep getting sick every month and there's no reason you can suss out, it could be a signal that something else is going on with your body, so don't hesitate to speak with a doctor.
The average baby, toddler and child can get around 7 to 8 colds every year, at any time of year, not just in winter. By the time they reach school age that should reduce to around 5 to 6 times a year and when they become teenagers they reach the adult level of around 4 colds a year.
Anything from car sickness to indigestion can cause your child to be sick. Even coughing can trigger this reflex. So you may see quite a bit of vomiting in your child's first few years! In toddlers and young children, it's usually a tummy bug (gastroenteritis) that causes a sudden bout of vomiting .
Frequent Infections: Recurrent and frequent respiratory infections such as cold and flu. Delayed Healing: Mild wounds take too long to heal when the immune system is weak. Failure To Gain Weight: Poor growth and underweight status can be red signals pointing to poor immunity.
Your child's immune system can be temporarily weakened by certain drugs, such as chemotherapy or other drugs used to treat cancer, or medication to prevent organ rejection following transplant. Also, infections like the flu virus, mononucleosis (mono) and measles can weaken the immune system for a brief time.