Babies and children, until they reach an age close to 4 to 6 years, have an amazing ability to catch any virus that is in the environment. We parents are very clear because, from the moment you have a baby, you see yourself going to the pharmacy so many times and for so many different things, that you tend to feel like grandparents, who have small pharmacies at home.
There are times when it is so desperate (and when you have more than one, that they are becoming infected, I do not even tell you), that parents come to think what they could do to get their immune systems to shake a little and not get so sick. They try syrups, vitamins and rare things and some even consider the possibility of point them to nursery school to get immunized before all illnesses and not pass them later. However, this is so? Does it really happen?
A few years ago it was said yes
I can't say the number, because I don't remember it, but a few years ago the pediatricians (I don't know if everyone, but at least the ones I knew), said something like that children, in their childhood, have to take about 100 virus (I make it up) before passing the barrier after which they don't get so bad anymore.
They said that and then they explained, reassuring the mothers, that every time they got bad the counter lowered a number and that consequently they were closer to starting to be almost always healthy.
Following these premises, many parents (and pediatricians) they came to consider it beneficial for young children to go to kindergarten because that way the counter started to go down immediately, and the sooner it went down, the sooner would come the moment when parents would forget about so much medicine and so much doctor. Total, if it did not happen the illnesses of small would happen them of majors equally, it was said.
However, as you can imagine, this is no longer valid. It does not work like that. There is no disease counter and now I explain why.
Not all viruses and bacteria behave the same way
It can't be true because bacteria and viruses don't all behave the same way. There are viruses, such as chicken pox or measles, that you take once and no longer repeat. Never more. But there are other viruses that do, they repeat as many times as they can or that they are changing, like those of the cold or the flu, that every year are different.
Similarly, bacteria do not care that you have already won on occasion. If they can repeat and repeat. If you don't ask women with a tendency to make urine infections, how many times have they had Escherichia Coli.
The immune system of children does not work like that of adults
And it's not just a matter of viruses and bacteria that repeat as much as they want, it's that the immune system of children and that of adults work differently.
When a pathogen enters a person's body, their immune system starts up. T lymphocytes are put to work to defeat the virus or bacteria and as a result leaves the so-called in the body memory T lymphocytes, some cells that live for months and years by our organism, prepared in case in the future we would suffer an infection by the same pathogen. It is the mechanism used by vaccines, which try to create memory lymphocytes by exposure to attenuated pathogens that do not cause infection, so that in case the true pathogen reaches the body, there is a defense.
Well, babies, young children, have a very immature immune system, so much so that the body's response to an infection is very poor at the memory level. That is, when a pathogen affects a young child, their immune system goes into action to fight the disease, but not able to leave enough memory lymphocytes for future occasions. That is why vaccines have a limited response and that is why the doses have to be repeated several times.
Aiming the child before will only make him sick before
So aiming a child for kindergarten will soon only make start catching diseases before. He will take the viruses that run around (diarrhea, bronchitis, colds, otitis, etc.), and will catch them again in months and years afterwards because his immune system will still be immature.
It is possible that then, at 3-4 years, while in school, he will get a little less sick than a 3-4 year old child who has always been at home and has not just taken diseases, because he is almost not in contact with other children, but in the final counter, whoever goes to a place full of children before will add more infections, drugs and days in the Malite home than the other.
So no, if the idea was to point the child to nursery school to get immunized earlier, as if being with the other children was a vaccine, the idea is not entirely good. A few days ago a mother asked me because at home they were not sure what to do and I had to tell her the truth: no, what you will get is to start getting bad before, and probably take more things. If you wait a year, your immune system will be more mature and the diseases, which will come the same, will be cured earlier, will be less severe and will have saved you a year of viruses and bacteria. Obviously, I don't say you have to have the child in a bubble, can and should play with other children, but it doesn't have to be in a nursery school and with the intention of preventing anything.
