Understanding your child’s immune system and how to support it
To keep your child well this winter, establish a basic understanding of the immune system and what might be compromising your child’s immunity. Nutritionist, Sarah Appleford, will also share 10 essential tips you can implement to start supporting your child’s immunity.
Building a robust immune system right from the beginning can help to prevent many health problems. As the temperature cools and with the current health climate worldwide, ensuring we can support our family’s immune system is vital.
Not only can a strong immune system help reduce the number of colds and flu your child experiences, but it can also help improve your child’s ability to recover from illness. That means fewer days with snotty noses and time off school or childcare!
Getting sick isn’t necessarily a bad thing
Children are continually exposed to many viruses and bacteria, especially if they’re at childcare or school. While commercials and brands promoting anti-bacterial sprays and wipes may lead you to believe this is a bad thing, it can actually be healthy for your child’s immune system.
This is because the immune system develops by being exposed to a variety of germs and dealing with illnesses such as the common cold. During an illness, you can help support your child’s immune system by supporting its ability to handle and overcome the infection rather than suppressing the symptoms, like fever, with medication.
One of the main jobs of the immune system is to keep the body is a continual state of balance between the beneficial and pathogenic microbes. When out of balance, your child can be more vulnerable to colds and flu or more serious illnesses.
If your child gets sick occasionally with the common cold, remember this is a normal process of immune development and focus on support their immune system. It’s when your child gets frequently sick or struggles to recover from a cold that your child may have weakened immunity.
Concerned about your child’s immunity?
If you’re concerned about your child’s immunity or sick of snotty noses, coughs and days off school. Book a complimentary wellness call to see if we can support your child’s health.
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How your child’s immune system develops
At birth, your baby’s immune system is immature and underdeveloped. Its ability to grow into a robust and well-functioning immune system depends on a variety of factors including:
Maternal health
Pregnancy health
Maternal antibodies
Birth method
Colostrum introduction
Breastfeeding duration
Environment
The immune system is a complex system of the body consisting of two main branches: the innate immune system and the adaptive immune system.
Innate Immune System
The innate immune system is formed when your child is young and is the first line of defence against germs or injury attaching particles that are foreign to the body.
The Adaptive Immune System
The adaptive immune system develops over time as our children grow and become exposed to different bacteria and pathogens. It is the second responder to a foreign particle such as a pathogenic virus.
For example, your child catches a common cold. The innate immune system kicks into gear to respond to the infection through a variety of different mechanisms. If the innate immune system can’t control the infection, the adaptive immune system helps to produce immune cells and antibodies. You can consider this process like educating the immune system.
Next time your child comes down with the virus, their immune system knows what to do to overcome it. They may only be under the weather for a short period of time or have lesser symptoms. Over time as the immune system develops, they may not show any symptoms at all!
Factors that compromise the immune system
There are various factors that can negatively affect the immune system. Some of these you have control over and some we don’t. Some of the key factors that will affect the development of your child’s immune system include:
Diet
To build a robust immune system, your child’s diet needs to be nutrient-rich. A diet of processed foods, sugar and overall lacking of nutritional value can lead to suppression of the immune system and a weakened defence against infections.
Environment
The environment your child grows up indirectly relates to the number and types of different microbes they are exposed to.
Gut health
70-80% of our immune function happens in your child’s gut so it’s no wonder that the diversity of your child’s gut microbiome is critical to immunity. Diet, environment, maternal health, birth method, sickness, and antibiotic use are just a few of the many factors that can compromise or alter the gut microbiome.
Lifestyle
Your child’s sleep, physical activity, time in the sunshine, and exposure to nature will all impact the ability the performance of their immune system.
Hygiene
The high use of anti-everything cleaning and personal care products has led to what’s referred to as the “hygiene hypothesis”. The constant need to be clean and remove any trace of microbes does affect our child’s exposure to germs and in turn, our gut health and immunity.
Toxic exposure
Frequent exposure to toxic chemicals can compromise and potentially weaken the immune system. Toxins are everywhere in our home and external environment. While we can’t avoid all of them, we can reduce our exposure by making considered choices.
Stress
Stress is a big factor in the cases of many illnesses and ongoing, stress can lead to the over-stimulation or suppression of the immune system. Children experience all sorts of stressors from big life changes, excessive noises, social/social pressure, overactivity and triggers like news events (yep, the current pandemic is contributing to a lot of mental health issues among little ones).
How can you support your child’s immune system?
Supporting your child’s immune system comes down to getting back to basics and the foundations of a healthy lifestyle in place.
Supplements are helpful, but you can’t out supplement a poor diet or unhealthy lifestyle. I cringe when I hear people ask for what’s the best probiotic when their children rely on a diet of chicken nuggets and sugary treats (extreme fussy eating behaviour aside).
So where to start to help your child build a robust immune system?
Begin to add more whole foods into their diet to crowd out the processed foods. Think fresh fruits, vegetables and quality sources of protein.
Reduce products high in refined sugars such as biscuits, cakes, lollies, muesli bars.
Ditch commercial juices, cordials, flavoured milks and soft drinks for water only.
Introduce nutrient-dense immune-supporting foods into the diet. Take a look at my favourite foods for kid’s immunity here.
Incorporate gut-loving foods in their diets such as probiotics, prebiotics and foods like broths and gummies.
Encourage your children to play outside when the sun is shining.
Provide opportunities for rest and quiet time – maybe have a night off extracurricular activities?
Implement a sleep routine. Limit screens 1 hour before bedtime, enjoy quiet activities, encourage mindfulness and ensure they’re getting enough quality sleep to recover and restore.
Make non-toxic swaps where possible. Switch to natural cleaning and personal care products, avoid garden pesticides, swap plastic food containers for glass….
Let your children get dirty!
When you have these pillars of health in place, you can then work on filling in the gaps or supporting your child further when they're sick. I’ll talk about immune-supporting supplements and key nutrients in an upcoming post.
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