Boosting a toddler's immune system

Just wanting to know if there's anything I can do to help boost Sam's immune system. He does one day per week of daycare, and on week 3 is already pretty unwell (I've only narrowly avoided needing to leave work early to collect him). His paed suggested pentavite and giving him a bath as soon as we get home. We haven't done the bath thing yet as he's been too tired when we get home and has just gone straight to sleep.

Is there anything I can give him?

I know when I need to give my immune system a bit of a helping hand I take a chinese herbal supplement that it astragalus and a few others... But there's no way a toddler can swallow those tablets, and the only other form I've seen it in is an alcohol-based solution... which makes me feel woozy so I'm NOT giving it to my toddler!

Anyone have any ideas? I think we need to help him get over the current bug first and then work on helping him avoid future bugs.

BW

i give my DD a metagenics supplement called 'immune care for kids' It is from a naturopath and i think it's great. :)

ETA- I don't actually give it to her all the time, although you can ( i just tend to forget!), i give it to her if she's coming down with something and i find it really helps her recovery time.

Ironically the best way to strengthen a child's immune system is to have it attacked ;) Just nurse him through it... keep his temp constant, no extremes (less work for the body), lots of fluids, rest, maybe offer a broth style soup. There's not much you can do to avoid it if he is an otherwise healthy child. Once he is over this bout just maintain a healthy diet... I find that limiting sugar really helps... bugs LOVE nice sweet systems.... lots to feed off.

Hey BW

Have you ever tried HYPOL? You can buy it from the chemists and you used to be able to get it from Coles too. It's got Omega-3, Zinc, Astragalus, Cod liver oil, Vit-A, D3, Calcium, Magnesium..It's in liquid form and kids need just a teaspoon or so.
My kids love it!!

I have the Metagenics flora care for Kids as well and it's pretty good. I don't give it all the time, usually just when they are a little low because that is usually when they will get sick and I use it if they have diahhroea. You can also get inner health plus for kids, but not sure what age they can have that.

The daycare-illness merrygoround is a killer BW. Hope he's better soon and stay well!

BW, totally personl choice here- but io found the mstr 1.5) ( at the time) was gettign sick too form care. thais winter was a shocker for us. so i used the formula with the probiotic stuff. i fould it helped him so much. so just used the can of it, caue cows milk would seem to make him really chesty and he wasnt eating much.

now thoug i use innner heath and a chewable multi vitn

marcellus I so agree :(
Bath- yeah now though he fights them off in a day or 2

We tried a Daycare Defence (30 day thing) and Pentavite and in reality it didn't stop anything, we started after DD's second bout of Croup, which was only a fortnight after the first, and she got another 7 respiratory infections over the rest of the year and numerous colds, so I don't hink for us it made any difference, so we are just going with the fact that she should have a better immune system this year :D

Are you washing his hands before you leave the centre? Then the bath when you get home, it's a really good way to prevent germs. Other than that the probiotics are great, and in time the immune system gets used to the onslaught and starts to cope better.

beema - sounds exactly like us- this year was a shocker...
lets both hope for a better year!!

BW- i hope little same gets stronger!

Vitaminc C.
The best thing out for preventing illness and boosting ones natural defences. You can get liquid squirts you can pop straight into his mouth or mix with his bottles or foods, or of course straight chewable tablets if you think he can handle them.

And like Bath said, the only way he will build an immune system is to have it attacked.

I'm curious though, about the 'attacking the immune system' theory... Does that really hold when they're so young and their immune systems are so immature? Is there really enough there to build a defence?

In 12 weeks at daycare DS had 2 viral infections (spotty type things), 2 colds and a flu-type thing... was last winter particularly bad? Maybe we could try again this year but I'm really wary.

Marcellus: yes, their immune systems are not as developed and strong as adults but from what I have read it does seem that there is a connection to strong immunity and mild and regular "attack". Hence the reporting of the theory that many Western homes are too clean... that our love of sterile conditions are doing our immune systems no favours. Check out the thread about the benefits of letting your kids play in the dirt for example. Antibodies are created in our bodies (young and old) as a response to invading microbes. No microbes no response. White blood cells (these are the ones that basically "swallow and destroy" germs) need to be built up by a mild and regular attack. If a strong and sudden attack by a nasty bug arrives on the scene then an immune system that is used to being sheilded by sterile conditions is caught unprepared then the child will probably get much sicker than if the system was used to fighting lesser attacks. Does this make sense?

Hmmm, ok. I'm not sure our daycare experience would count as mild... regular certainly.
Our house is far from sterile, so I don't think we need to worry on that score.