Toddler down with cold every month this year

J

joyofliving

Registered User
Hi mums,
My 26 month old has been constantly sick with a cold and cough almost every month since Oct last year. Its quite bad actually and she needs medication for 5- 7 days before she gets better. But I am so stressed about her feeling miserable and pumping medicines in to her all the time. Has your child also been more sick lately? Please advise what can I do to help her? Thanks.
 
I totally sympathise because my son (14 months) has been sick a lot lately too! Since the beginning of the year, he has had a fever almost every month - but thankfully most of the time, except one, it has always been a low grade one. My pediatrician told me that there is just a lot of viruses floating around. I'm not sure what to do or if anything can be done! Any advice from anyone would be great!
 
There is a traditional Chinese way of preventing coughing and strengthening the health of children - Orange Theraphy:

1) Cut the upper part of the orange (approx. 1/5 of orange)
2) Put a little bit of salt on the orange
3) Steam the orange for 10-15 mins
4) Peel off the skin and cut it into small parts and feed your child

I have not tried yet since my baby is still small, I'm planning to start when he reaches 2 yrs old coz I am afraid he may face lots of bacteria when he starts to join playgroup and kindergarten.

It doesn't cost a lot and it is not medicine (taking too many medicine may cause dental problem).

However it is not a quick cure, it may take months before you could see the effect.

No harm to try I guess.
 
not too sure what you can do with a sick child...all i do with my daughter is to use alcohol to wipe down her hands after she has been playing outside, and am constantly washing her hands...can't really keep her at home all day!

on a side note... there's something called "probiotics" that you should give your child after taking the medication (you can mix it with yoghurt / into the food as it's a powder and doesn't taste- it's meant to restore/ replace the good cells (or something along those lines) that get removed together with the bad ones when you take antibiotics...
 
lesliefu I give her probiotics just recently finished after 2 month course. She has a good diet, drinks milk regularly. She does not eat Oranges unfortunately, Fisona where did you read about this eating medicines = dental problem? We maintain very good hygeine, washing hands all the time. Not germaphobes but yes very clean indeed.
Yes her doctor says the same thing lots of viruses floating around, but does that mean our kids will be sick forever?
 
We had the same problem when my son started nursery. Have you tried Cod Liver Oil? It helped build his immunity and he rarely got sick once we started.
 
Geomum, it happens to my own nephew when he was little.

My sister was a very nervous mum and she brought him to see doctor everytime she "suspected" my nephew was going to be sick. Sometimes it was just a little coughing.

My nephew's teeth got decay when he was about 3-4 yrs old. We suspected that it was because he took too much medicine and the sweetness of the fluid caused the decay. He had not been eating sweets by that age yet so there was no other reason to explain.

Have you heard of Kawaii Kanyu Drop? It is a Japanese brand and good for children. But I am not sure if it fits a 26 months old baby.

Hope your little one will get better soon.
 
i have never, ever, ever heard that medicine causes dental problems....i highly suspect that it does NOT.

perhaps, there was tooth decay because of not brushing the teeth properly or something lacking in the diet. i would think THAT would be more likely the cause.


as for kids getting sick... yep, happens a lot when they are little, it's how they build up their immunity.

i'm lucky, this past winter, my kids have only been sick a couple of times (although my son was VERY sick for quite a while. he only went to school for 2 days in all of march!... 3 sets of antibiotics before he was better!)

i, on the other hand, have suffered from bronchitis 4 times in the past 6 months. (i've got it now, AGAIN!)
 
yes, i have also heard that medicine causes dental problems. in my nephew's case, not teeth decay but little black thing sticking on teeth and according to his dentist, is caused by too much medicine.
 
Medicine could cause tooth decay if used excessively. It is very high in sugar so it's probably a good idea to a) give a drink of water afterwards to rinse the mouth, b) don't give the medicine right before bed (same thing for other sugary drinks), and c) brush teeth AFTER giving medicine.

If you just give medicine once every couple of months it's not going to be a big deal - but I'm pretty sure if a kid was having medicine daily, it would probably start to cause problems (and likely other problems too, not just dental problems!)

Probiotics and vitamins never hurt anyone, I don't think. As well as a healthy diet and getting enough sleep. It's easier to get sick when your immune system is run down - so help them to look after their little bodies and you'll be preventing a whole range of sicknesses :) But I also think that some kids are more prone to getting sick than others too...
 
Nope never seen them at Watson's/ Mannings. I buy from a health shop on Lyndhurst Terrace, sorry can't remember the name, its next to Cafe Siam. The brand I use is Udo's choice.
 
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Most people in HK don't drink milk or eat cheese/ yogurt, lack of calcium in diet can be a major cause of tooth decay. Accompanied by poor dental hygeine of course.
 
I've seen infant probiotics in 360 (Landmark) in the section at the back where they stock vitamins and such products.
 
Antibiotics can also cause dental problems, mainly yellow teeth.
As for the colds... it seems there is a bug going on right now, as many kids (including mine) are sick around us. I don't do much, apart from giving him some Panadol when he has got fever, clean his hands, clean his nose and we just stay home making sure he's got a good sleep. Good luck !
 
Speaking of viruses...

My son, also 26mths now, never once got sick before he turned two. Then when he turned 25mths, I decided to get the seasonal flu jab for him coz he was attending a lot more playgroups etc. and since then, he's been sick three times with UTI. It's probably just super coincidental but it's something to think about. His paed says it's got nothing to do with it but some friends mentioned that the jab may have lowered his natural immunity.

Yes, we try to keep everything clean and wash his hands but sometimes its hard to keep track of what they touch and when the other kids cough and sneeze.
 
It is totally normal for kids to have colds up to 10-12 times a year. I remember my niece having been through the same when she was a toddler. Even my sister had a cold every month and I know many other moms who are in the same situation. I guess you can help you little one's immune system by giving him/ her fruits every day and a well balanced diet, enough water to drink, and take her/ him outside. But I suppose all kids have to go through this in order to strengthen their immune system. Is just very annoying I can imagine if you child is sick all the time. And also, the weather is very mean on the health, outside too hot and inside too cold :(

Hope your little one gets well soon.
 
I forgot...I kind of feel that nowadays kids get sick more often. I don't remember this being such a problem when I was a child, in KG or at school. Is it because we have become more sterile these days? I mean I run around with hand sanitizer and try to keep my son's hands clean. Yet, nobody ever worried about that when we were kids, not even a few years ago. I feel that all this sterilization makes everybody weak rather than strong.
 
once my son entered tutor time at around 13 months, his colds definitely increased from the exposure to other children etc....Obviously, not ideal, but necessary in terms of just building up their own immune system. I do believe there is such a thing as over-sterilization where parents walk around with wipes, antibacterial this and that. My brother-in-law's wife was like that and her son was at the A & E at least once a month b/c of some sickness / cold / fever. I really believe it was because she was wiping down EVERYTHING before he touched it.

Of course, I carry wipes too and I never let my son eat from a public restaurant table, but I also know that my son's going to get dirty. He goes to structured playgroups, goes to friends' houses and is in the playground daily....Now when he gets sick, I either let him ride it out (depending on severity), give Dimetaap or I have cough medicine, He is fine after a couple of days. We give him now a multi-vitamin too.

The only time I worry and take him into the doctor is usually when I see an allergic reaction like he had at the start of the month to a few mozzy bites.
 
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