[Ariah_Zada]

Anybody have kiddos that are sick ALL the time? Like, they get every single bug going around and seemingly have no immune system? How do you deal with this?

[melissa_bear003]

Ramp up on the fresh fruits and veggies, and water intake. I'd give them a vitamin supplement too. Also echinacea helps too, and hand washing, hand washing, hand washing.

A lot of times a poor immune system is due to poor nutrition, and stress.

[ALfostermom]

my last placements were this way. i was very close to having them moved b/c my job isn't very understanding about sick foster children. but a relative got approved and they left me anyway. i think it is mainly due to the kids we get have not come from such ideal surroundings- smoke exposure and what ever else. These girls had never been in daycare and caught everything that went around. in 3 months we were at the dr office 7 times. i don't know what to reccommend -- just good luck.

[meshsgrl]

Vitamin c and Echinecia work wonders in building up a kids immune system

[blubutterflies03]

I would like to say the vitamins and eating healthy. My 6 and 7 yr older always have their hands in their mouths. I am constantly telling them to take them out! The boy always forgets to wash after he goes to the bathroom. The girl has called me at least 6 times since school started and said she was "sick" but it was emotional and no one saw her throw up. My 6yr older test low on iron and was malnutritioned. He loves junk food.

[Mom2blessings]

Originally Posted by Ariah_Zada

Anybody have kiddos that are sick ALL the time? Like, they get every single bug going around and seemingly have no immune system? How do you deal with this?

YES, YES, YES! I'm hom from church AGAIN because my son had a fever of 103.5 this morning...again! I've not had a single week without at LEAST 2 children having a fever sometime during the week since my foster kids came in May! I'm santizing EVERYTHING and it's still not working. My mom keeps telling me, "You CAN over sanitize and then the kids can't build up their immune system. They NEED germs." Well, if exposure germs is what causes immune systems to build, they should take blood samples of us and then make vaccinations serums from it.

I was faithful with the vitamins for a month and then I kept forgetting it. So now I've bought probiotics to give to the family. I'm going to see if that helps in conjunction with the probiotics.

They told us in IMPACT classes to expect kids to get sick when they are moved to your home because the stress effects their immune system but after 5 months of this...come on! This is ridiculous! The kids are very adjusted to our home now, so I don't think that's it at all.

[shycar]

LOL Im always telling my dh and my ds that they are carriers. They never ever get sick and if they do its just the sniffle for one day and then the next they are fine. Now my dd and I get anything under the sun and we get it bad, lasting days with high fevers. We all take vitamins and clean and clean and clean, but we (dd and I) always get sick. I think some have stronger immune system then others. Punky my fd is turning out to be like dh and ds--actually I dont think she has ever been sick since she arrived.

One thing to keep in mind is that many foster kids are under a lot of emotional stress. This lowers their immune system, thus getting sick more often.

[greenrobin]

When you come from a background where you didn't get good nutrition, enough rest, may not have had a firm and loving attachment, were exposed to drugs, etc, etc, you aren't exactly starting on level ground, healthwise.

And they do get sick from new exposures to germs as well as from stress.

5 or 6 months seems like a long time to all of us, but the kids are living with stress every day. They know this situation isn't permanent and that causes stress. They see their families and that causes stress. They learn to love us and still love their bio families, and that causes emotional conflict which causes stress. They're often dealing with really big stuff in therapy, and that causes stress. Even happy feelings cause stress because of the guilt they may be experiencing for feeling happy.

The bottom line is that our kids are going to process their stress and that will include being sick. Our diagnostician calls it somatic events--tummy aches, headaches, vomitting, exhaustion--with no known physical cause.

Vitamins, healthy food, and medicine helps, for sure. But so do rocking, cuddling, and talking about feelings sometimes.

[Ariah_Zada]

Thanks for the replies. I'd like a whole month of being healthy! I think everyone at the physician's office knows us by name and I have we've had every antibiotic created. We do take vitamins, and handwashing all the time. I blame daycare!!

[suzyq18]

Out little buddy is a walking germ! Pediatrician says that kids in daycare get at least ten bugs a year... we are right on track with that. We are all about hand washing... eating as healthy as possible.
He's been really sick... strep throat... upper resp infections and has passed along to us.
We just give him tons of TLC and keep the Purell in every room

[onhazier]

I'll answer from a personal perspective. I'm immuno-compromised and unable to fight bacteria due to a rare, genetic condition. Cue the upper respiratory infections, annual bout with strep, etc. I went through 2 years of tests before getting my diagnosis and learned a HUGE amount about the immune system in the process.

What other posters have said about stress depressing the immune system is correct. However, one thing to keep in mind is that our immune system also has a cycle. It tends to vary over the course of months and years. This means you can spend years with a great immune system. Then, over the course of a couple of months, it can get weaker and weaker. Most people will find that every decade or so, they have a year to two where they just seemed to get sick more often or more severely than they normally do. So, take this normal cycle and mix with stress and the child's body can take MUCH longer than you'd think to heal because the normal cycle can be greatly disrupted.

While your immune system is down, bacteria can bloom and cause all sorts of lovely problems. For example, many ulcers are not caused by too much acid in our stomachs from too much stress or worry. They are actually a result of too much of a particular bacteria in our stomachs growing in number and our immune systems not being able to bring them back into control. It is kind of like when you're on antibiotics you may need probiotics to help you stay well balanced internally.

So, how to help protect the children and other family members when their immune systems are down? Here's a short list of some of the steps I take for myself which have kept me away from most infections since my diagnosis. In the last year, I've had antibiotics once and that was to fight Strep.

My steps to prevent infections:
1. Keep left overs no more than 72 hours total. It may look, taste and smell ok, but bacteria is building in that leftover batch of soup from Friday.

2. Use soap, not just water, to wash your vegis.

3. Don't eat anything that has dropped on the floor. There is no such thing as a 5 second rule.

4. Promote proper handwashing. This is hard with children. I've seen how R "washes" his hands. It usually involves turning on cold water and waving his hands at it. So, we gently remind him to use soap and warm water. You can also ask that they sing happy birthday to themselves as they lather up. Times to wash: before a meal, after the potty, after a sneeze or other similar event.

5. When using public transportation, elevators and escalators, minimize what you must touch. Wash your hands as soon as you can afterwards. Elevator buttons and escalator handles are some of the dirtiest things you might touch around. Purel helps, but hand washing is best.

6. Speaking of dirty places, the bottom of a woman's purse is insanely dirty and germy because we toss them all over the place. In a restaurant, we may place them on the floor. Just be aware of where you're putting it in your house (on the dinner table? on the kitchen counter?) and what cross contamenation you might be doing. I've switched to just leather which I regularly wipe down. I also now use purse caddies to keep my purse off the floor when we eat out.

Mostly, common sense really comes into play. Plenty of rest, hugs and great food help so much.