Preventing a Cold

A big concern many parents have is that their children often suffer from a lot of cold through the growing up years.

There are many reasons that could cause your child to catch a cold and children are highly prone to it. During the preschool years, children are prone to catch a cold at least six to eight times a year. For children who go to a day care, the number will be higher.

Cold and your child’s immunity

Every time your child catches the cold, the immunity levels get stronger and your child gets immune to that particular cold virus. But there are still a host of other viruses in the body that can cause a cold, which have not affected your child yet.

As your child grows, he or she will get more strength and immunity towards these viruses, and the occurrence of cold will slowly go down. Also, those children who get a lot of cold in the early years of life will not suffer from so much cold any more.

How to prevent a cold

There are no fool proof methods to preventing a cold in your child, but here are a few things you could try:

1. Make sure your child knows the basic hygiene habits such as cleaning hands when coming home from the outdoors. If your child is old enough to use a hand sanitizer, get one that is age appropriate. There are lots of herbal hand sanitizers your child can use in the absence of clean water.
2. If your child is unwell and has the slightest cold, do not send him or her to school. Your child’s immunity will be low and he or she will be more prone to catch any infection that other kids might be carrying, and can also pass on the cold to other kids.
3. Make your child eat a balanced diet with lots of fresh green vegetables and fruits. Also, it is important that your child drinks a lot of water and fluids through the day.
4. One mistake that most parents make is to keep their children inside the house if they have the slightest signs of a cold. This can actually have a negative effect on your child’s health, as the virus that caused the infection will spread more easily in a closed space.

Some children also get signs of cold due to stress, so make sure you keep a stress-free environment at home.