After the second week, a handful of Covid tests, and one fever, we took her to the doctor and asked why this cold was lasting so long.
Our pediatrician was like “not cold, colds. She probably had 3-4 viruses back-to-back.”
I had no idea this was a thing - he called them “daycare viruses.”
Probably your kid has by the time you started supplementing just gone through the typically circulating virus strains and thus the viral loads in your kid don't replicate to levels that almost guarantee you being infected when interacting with them (like cuddling, comforting when they cry, etc.).
As I said I sometimes get sick every few years but one day is typically the maximum. Consider me convinced.
Do children who attend daycare eventually develop a much stronger immune system? (No idea how this could be scientifically measured.) I also wonder about doctor's who work in the emergency room. How are they not constantly sick with some kind of common cold / flu / bronchitis? They must have the immune system of a super hero.
I have many siblings (more than 9). All of us grew up on an active farm except the youngest one. None have had any food allergies except from my youngest brother.
> I also wonder about doctor's who work in the emergency room. How are they not constantly sick with some kind of common cold / flu / bronchitis?
A colleague of mine told me his wife would eat anything that had expired best before date etc while she was in training, just to build her defenses.
I cannot vouch for this theory but maybe someone else can tell if it is a common tactic.
(I think it sounds weird.)
I lived for 5 years in a college dorm sharing bathroom/toilet and a communal kitchen with 14 other students. I am not quite sure it built up my immune system. I managed to get the swine flu back then, too.
This reminds me of another dorm story, a friend of a roommate always washed his hands when he came of the bus and visited. And I distinctly remember how we all felt that this was somewhat weird, obsessional, when in retrospect it just feels prudent and I don't really think he showed signs of pathological obsession. Its interesting how standards change.
As to eating stuff past expiry date: my wife tends to stockpile yogurt and dairy products in our fridge, not that uncommon that they were past their date. Turns out, since they are pasteurised they are often still good weeks after their best-before date. I actually don't think there is much in them to train your immune system (unless they are spoiled and I don't think fungal toxins is something you voluntarily want to put in your body).
> Contrary to popular impression, the current system of food product dating isn’t really designed to help us figure out when something from the fridge has passed the line from edible to inedible.
> For now, food companies are not required to use a uniform system to determine which type of date to list on their food product, how to determine the date to list or even if they need to list a date on their product at all. [1]
[1] https://theconversation.com/how-do-food-manufacturers-pick-t...
[1] https://www.webmd.com/allergies/news/20180716/can-dogs-keep-...
I would say so, yes. Your body remembers what viruses it's already fought, and will remain primed (for a significant time) to fight it again. Kids exposed to lots of illnesses when young, should end up with a more robust immune system in adulthood.
This is why chicken pox parties are a thing.
First few months of daycare, constant colds. Then COVID hit and we took the kids out of daycare, no colds for months. Back at daycare, colds started right away.
It has mostly stopped for my five year old. She gets a normal amount of colds now (a few per year), but our two year old is still a constant cold machine.
Did the doctor's test for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)? I only learned about that illness recently. Interestingly, there have been multiple, failed attempts to build a vaccine. It is one of the last statistically significant childhood viral illnesses without a vaccine in highly developed nations. I wonder if an mRNA solution can be found after the COVID crisis is over. I sincerely hope so.
Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respiratory_syncytial_virus
So yeah, this wouldn't be a cure for common cold. Maybe it could be a pill people could take with a 10-20% chance of curing it, if they're lucky.
> Pfizer is keeping schtum about the detail of the lab tests it has completed but says it has demonstrated “potent in vitro antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2”, as well as activity against other coronaviruses, raising the prospect of a cure for the common cold as well as future pandemic threats.
The common cold is a tricky one because it's about 200 different viruses, including rhinoviruses, coronaviruses, RSV and parainfluenza. And a bunch more that haven't been identified yet.