“I didn’t get sick, I didn’t get sick at home, but in the garden - how it broke, ARI for ARI!” This problem is familiar to every parent who sends their child to kindergarten. Indeed, there children get sick more often: up to 9-12 times in the first year of visiting the garden and up to 6-9 times in subsequent years. This is due to a combination of a number of factors, some of which we can influence, and some of which are beyond our control.
Why do kids get sick when they start kindergarten?
This question is familiar to all parents, but it especially torments mothers - until now, predominantly women now and then have to take sick leave to sit with a sick child. It would seem that they waited for the garden - you can exhale and go to work. But it was not there! From one acute respiratory disease to another - for many, the whole first year goes like this. Why does a child who has not been sick at home suddenly begin to catch infections all in a row? Here are a number of factors that are beyond our control.
More viruses and bacteria baby starts to come into contact with
This isn't just for kids. Even adults start to get sick more often when changing work teams: remember how often you yourself caught a cold when you entered a new job!
New team, new viruses and bacteria - and until all members of the team "exchange" "their" microflora, the child will get sick more often than usual.
Immature baby immune system
If adults get sick 1-3 times when changing teams, and that's it, then a small child can get sick every 2-3 weeks. The thing is that an adult has a well-developed local surface immunity in the nasopharynx, but in children it is fully formed only closer to 5-7 years.
Stress associated with a change in the rhythm of life, new acquaintances, new food, etc
This item needs no comment. With the beginning of attending a kindergarten, everything changes dramatically in a child: sleep and wakefulness; diet and menu; time to spend with family and new friends; toys; habits … All this is stress, which in itself is an additional burden on the nervous system.
What to do to reduce infections when starting kindergarten
- Wash hands with soap and wash every time a child comes into the room from the street (when they just came to the garden, when they returned from a walk, when they came home from the garden). This washes away dust particles and numerous microorganisms from the skin.
- Teaching a child (and other children in the group!) to sneeze and cough into the elbow, not into the palm, so that later, with sneezed palms, not to transmit viruses and bacteria to everyone around.
- Use all opportunities to reduce stress levels and soft adaptation of the child to kindergarten: short-term stay groups, joint stay in the garden with mom in the first weeks, etc.
- Take care of vaccinations against pneumococcus, Haemophilus influenzae, whooping cough, meningococcus in advance. This will not reduce the number of viral infections, but it will protect the baby from bacterial complications.
- Do not load the child's body with additional medicines: multivitamins, immunomodulators, herbal preparations, etc. The benefits of these drugs have not been proven, but they are definitely a burden on the liver and kidneys, as well as potential allergens.