Freakish immune system
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April 11th, 2006
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After this weekend’s events I’m starting to wonder what’s going on with my son. He has so far in his two year life shown an unbelievably strong immune system. We’re used to him fighting off disease frequently but this weekend was remarkable. And I’ve been thinking, what secret ingredient did my wife have in those huge boobs during breastfeeding?
Daniel has been at daycare during the past seven months and as you all know that environment is full of nasty germs, bacteria, viruses, and of course also sick kids. During these seven months we have only missed a few days and those were mostly because we took extra precaution and kept Daniel at home even though he wasn’t required too. On Friday last week he suddenly started coughing. It came suddenly and out of nowhere. On Saturday he had a deep nasty cough and we could hear there was stuff stuck deep inside his body. We were indoors but very active in the morning and he was still doing well. Towards the afternoon he got a fever and slowed down. Even when Daniel gets sick, he’s still happy and with lots of energy. But now he was just sitting down not wanting to move.
Towards the evening he was clearly suffering and had 39 degrees Centigrade fever (102.5 F). We gave him some over the counter medicine to combat the fever and got him ready for bed. The medicine, Alvedon, is very effective and usually decreases fever rapidly. After Daniel fell asleep I sneaked in and checked his temperature a few times and it was now even higher, approaching 40 degrees (104 F). Illness is unusual for us and high fever is very rare. I was worried since the temperature was rising so quickly even though we had given him medicine. Since I’m boring and like to be prepared, I packed Daniel’s bag with all necessities needed for a possible hospital visit during the night. Car keys and garage card were on the table and his clothing was hanging next to the entrance. I was ready for anything. Suddenly I heard Daniel’s panicked screams from his bedroom and as I reached his bed I saw why. He was puking. A lot. I got him out on the floor where he puked more but calmed down fairly quickly. After half an hour of cleaning up and calming down he was back asleep again. I’m rarely concerned about his health but I was now. I double checked his bag again and thought that a hospital visit was likely.
But then something weird happened. He was suddenly cured. The deep cough was almost gone and he slept the rest of the night. He went from fever and coughing every minute to sleeping relaxed and coughing once an hour. He woke up on Sunday with a huge smile on his face and bouncing on the bed. Me and Sandra looked at each other and shook our heads. What was going on? Where did the cough go? After a good breakfast Daniel was out on his tricycle in the morning and showed no signs of illness. The rest of the day continued along those lines. No coughing, good meals, happy as usual, and tons of energy. As evening neared we wondered what had happened to our son. Did someone inject some kind of miracle drug into his body?
My only conclusion to his good health is that we did breastfeed the recommended twelve months here in Sweden. That can be difficult sometimes because of personal preferences, physical abilities, and work issues but I’m starting to believe that’s the secret to our success so far. If everything goes well our daughter will be born in early August and we plan on breastfeeding twelve months again. It’s definitely no guarantee for good health but we are keeping our fingers crossed and are hoping we will once again be lucky.
knock on wood Both our girls are also remarkably healthy. Sure they get the occasional sniffle but neither has ever had anything like an ear infection that required antibiotics (unlike every other kid we know).
And wouldn’t you know it, they were both breast feed for about thirteen months.
Like they say man Breast is Best.
I truly think that all the synthetic crap we put into our bodies has to be bad for you. Good on you guys for sticking with it and keeping it natural.
I plan on nursing for 12 months too - but when did you all start introducting solids? I want to maximize the nursing goodness so I don’t know when a good time to start baby food is. We’ve tried a little bit but she HATES it.
And she’s not been sick yet and has been at daycare since January. She’s had some allergy issues, but she gets that from my husband.
Yup, You’re right, breastfeeding is sooo good for them! It does make them really healthy and more likely to fight off viruses, etc.(in my experience, too)
First off, I am glad that Daniel got well so quickly. I do want to put in my two cents however. Neither of my children were breastfed. They had soy formula and ate very healthy food. They both are on a very healthy diet. That said, my girls are never sick (let’s put it this way–my 14 month old has had one ear infection, my 3 year old, just a couple. My older daughter was in daycare full time for the first 2 1/2 years of her life. When all the other kids got sick, she didn’t. Yet I have friends who have breastfed and their children are allergic to a lot of things, have chronic ear infections, and are constantly on medication for this or that. Don’t get me wrong–I am pro-breastfeeding if that is what someone wants to do–most of my friends did. While I would have loved to have breast fed my first daughter, my milk never came in. The second time I decided to do the soy formula again. Sometimes I wonder if the coupling of two certain people’s genes play a larger role in our kids (good or bad.)
I’m actually the wife of AD, and I do agree that breastfeeding is great, but to be even more strict about it….. there is some research that goes even further than this nurturing time. Apparently for your kids to have good health not only what you eat during pregnancy and during breast feeding period is very important, but also what your mom ate during your pregnancy. So maybe for those who wonder why their non-breast feeding baby is so healthy might have to do with that too. And I think that if you are one of these lucky ones, then KUDOS for you!!! enjoy it and thank your mom for it too. (I’m sorry if I don’t provide the link to the research, but I’m not as organized as my husband, I know I read it somewhere of good reputation. And if you really want maybe AD could even look it up for you… )