Keeping well
Now that I'm a mum, I am thinking of purchasing one of those head-to-toe protective suits that scientists wear when working with super-germs. After all, who has time to get sick? I suppose that in the next five years, my husband and I will battle everything from coughs and colds to stomach bugs - all of which will originate from our innocent children.
If your child's in daycare or you belong to a playgroup, there's only so much you can do to protect him from catching whatever's going around. Our good friends now have four children and of course whenever we call to catch up at least one of the six has something infectious. Just recently two of the school-aged kids had nits. I involuntarily started itching my head while just talking to them on the phone. Hubby was also down with some tummy bug and the boys have just recovered from another cold.
I read that researchers were trying to find the cause of childhood leukaemia and one fact came out clearly. They found that the one common denominator in childhood leukaemia is that the children who develop leukaemia were NOT daycare kids. Apparently this disease develops when there is a deficient immune system in a child. And daycare kids develop very advanced immune systems. Well there must be some benefit to all the misery!
And it's a sign of the times. As we sterilise our hands and feed our babies healthy foods in an attempt to avoid illness, our parents sent us to 'chicken pox' parties. How bizarre! In Australia the chicken pox vaccine is part of the regular immunisation programme. It is still optional here in New Zealand and you do have to pay the small fee for it. My husband whisked our son to get his at 9 months (I am such a softy!) because he said that if there is no reason for him to come down with the illness then why put him through the illness.
There are many ways to try to keep the evil bugs away and the easiest way is to keep your immunity up as that puts you ahead of the game. Beyond that, taking steps to control the infection at the onset can actually up your odds of staying well. Or you can always try and find a protective space suit for each member of the family.