Immunity Boosters For Children - Myth or Reality?

“Why does your child fall sick so often?”, “Your child’s immunity is weak. You need to feed them better”, “Give your child immunity-boosting foods to make them stronger” These are some of the statements all parents are bound to hear at some point in their parenting journey. Kids are prone to fall sick and catch some illness more frequently than you would like, and there are people ready to pounce on you with advice and suggestions.

How Does Immune System in Children Work?

The immune system is a complicated network of tissues, organs, cells, and proteins that come together to protect the body against foreign invaders. When bacteria, fungi, viruses, or any toxins affect the child’s body, the immune system responds by fighting it. The immune system can be classified into two parts:

1. Innate Immune System

This is the first responder when the body is invaded by any foreign substances. This is the body’s immediate response system which is inherited and is present from the time of birth.

These cells of the immune system called the phagocytes will react as soon as they sense an invader in the child’s body. They will engulf the invading particles and kill them, thus effectively fighting off the infection and protecting the child.

2. Acquired/Adaptive Immune System

This is developed over the life of the child as and when they get exposed to microbes and infections. This part of the immune system produces antibodies specific to the infection that affects the body. The cells called the B lymphocytes, produce the antibodies based on the exposure.

The time frame for these antibodies to develop differs from infection to infection. Some antibodies take weeks while some can be produced in days.

Once the antibodies are developed, they will stay in the immune system as a memory. When the body is invaded again by the same infection, the immune system will effectively fight it and protect the body.

This acquired immunity keeps changing throughout the life of the child. It keeps developing as each exposure happens. The vaccines and immunizations your child receives also help in training the immune system in producing the right antibodies to protect the body against harmful infections.

Can Your Child’s Immune System be Strengthened?

The immune system is made up of many parts of the body. It is a system that functions well when it is in balance. There is no quick way to improve the immune system like improving the performance of some products.

When you want to improve the performance of your car, there are multiple factors you look into. You will check the engine power, the fuel used, the way all parts function together, etc. The body’s immune system can also be strengthened only if everything around is improved and maintained well.

Your child’s immune system can be improved if their overall health and lifestyle are improved. You cannot isolate the immune system and improve that alone, leaving out the rest. There is no shortcut to just improving the immunity when there is a pandemic or some illness doing the rounds in schools and among children. It is a slow and continuous process that needs to be taken care of systematically.

9 Simple Tips to Contribute to Healthy Immune System in Children

The first step is to instil good healthy values that can help their immune system function better and more efficiently. Some values to instil in your child to help their immunity are:

Eat Healthy: A well-balanced nutrient-rich diet rather than the crash diets and excess intake of supplements to make up for all the nutrients lost in those diets.
Avoid Smoking: Smoking disturbs the balance of your immune system and reduces its ability to fight disease.
Regular Exercise: Moderate exercise rather than excessive workouts to bulk up or lean down when they are adolescents (usually inspired by media and peers).
Maintain a Healthy Weight: Teach them the importance of “healthy” weight so that they do not get carried away by the societal norms of “perfect weight”.
Stay away from alcohol: Avoid alcohol or consume in moderation only (applicable to young adults and parents as they are role models). Alcohol reduces the ability of your immune system to fight diseases and increases the risk of contracting diseases such as UTI
Sleep Well: Adequate quality sleep.
Hygiene Practices: Washing hands, clean environment and surroundings, clean food thoroughly before cooking, etc.
Reduce Stress: Encourage them to have a hobby that can help with stress as they grow up.
Vaccinations: Never skip vaccinations and regular health check-ups.

[Read : Toddler Vaccinations]

How Can You Protect Your Child’s Immune System?

The immune system cannot be improved drastically. However, it can be protected. Immune response decreases as you age. So, the older you get, the lesser is your immune response to infections and diseases. While some people age healthily, some people seem to suffer more as they age. This is because their immune system has not been taken care of when they were young. So, as a parent, how can you protect your child’s immune system – now and as they grow up?

Here are a few values you can teach and instil in them:

1. Avoid Junk

This cannot be avoided completely as they grow older. Teach them to not eat too much junk. The body can manage anything in moderation.

2. Avoid Late Nights

As kids grow up, they tend to stay up for fun, to study, to complete homework, etc. Do not encourage this as it will have a severe impact on their sleep cycle as they grow up.

3. Outside Food

Teach your kids the value of fresh home-cooked food. Eating out once in a while is perfectly fine and a lot of fun too. However, they should not adopt this as a way of life. This can cause severe damages in the long run. When the damages do surface, it can be too late to recover completely.

4. Damaging Habits

Teach them to avoid damaging habits such as drugs, smoking, excessive drinking, etc. These can get addictive and damage the immune system beyond repair, in a very short time.

Children can be controlled and taught only up to a certain age. They learn by watching the adults around them, especially the parents and siblings. Parents practising good values that can protect the immune system can be indirect lessons that can go a long way for the children. It is said, “children do not often listen to your words, but always follow your actions.”

[Read : Top 12 Most Unhealthy Foods For Kids]

How to Keep Your Child From Getting Sick?

This can be very tricky. Kids get sick. It is very natural and this is the way their bodies and the immune system learn to fight off invaders. This exposure is what strengthens their immune system and its memory.

Every parent wants to prevent their child from getting sick, but in reality, it is not possible. When kids go to school or mingle with others, their immature immune system will be attacked. They will fall sick and the immune system will fight the illness on its own or with a little help from medicines.

Here are some helpful tips to probably reduce the frequency of your child falling sick:

Practice good hygiene
Eat a well-balanced meal
Follow an active lifestyle
Do not skip immunizations
Reduce stress

Myths and Facts

Myth 1: Fruits and Vegetables Keep Your Child’s Immune System Strong

Fact Check – True

Fruits and vegetables are a great source of vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients. Eating a well-balanced meal with a lot of raw fruits and vegetables can help the body derive a lot of essential nutrients for both growth and good immunity.

So, what fruits and vegetables can you give your child? Well, give them everything! They are young and their digestive systems can digest almost anything. It will not struggle like those of adults.

An important point to remember is to not get carried away with all the fad and diets that are doing the rounds on social media. Many people follow social media and publications from other countries and start feeding their children “exotic” fruits and vegetables.

It is always a good idea to stick to natively available food items. These fruits and vegetables grow in your environment as it is conducive to them. Feeding your child something that is not locally available may not really benefit them. Nature has a way of working and going against it may not be a great idea in the long run.

[Read : 10 Ways To Encourage Your Child To Eat Fruits And Vegetables]

Myth 2: Not Getting Enough Sleep Has No Effect on Your Immune System

Fact Check – Not True

Sleep is extremely important for the immune system. The lesser sleep you get, the less effective will the immune system be. Sleep deprivation can cause serious damages to the immune system. This can have a severe impact in the way it fights and protects the body against foreign invaders such as microbes and infections.

When there is an invader in the body, be it small or big, the immune system responds immediately. It triggers a response such as pain, redness, inflammation, fever, or fatigue. This immediate reaction can happen only if the immune system is healthy and well-balanced.

Sleep and Immunity – The Relation

So, what exactly happens to the immune system when you sleep?

Good quality sleep every night will help rev up certain components of the immune system.
When the body does not get enough sleep for a prolonged period, the production of cytokines comes down. This in turn affects the way the body reacts to infections.
Sleep can help strengthen the immune system’s memory, thus helping it fight infections more effectively.
Increased sleep during an illness helps in promoting the immune system’s defense, this is why doctors suggest sleep and adequate rest for a child who is suffering from mild infections.
Production of cytokines which helps fight infection is at its peak at the beginning of a sleep cycle.
Improves the T-cell functioning.
There is an increase in prolactin and growth hormone levels (Growth hormone is needed for the skeletal and muscular growth of every child. It is said, if you do not sleep, you do not grow!).
Reduces cortisol and catecholamine concentrations.
Increases antibody titres and antigen-specific TH cells which help in building the immune system’s memory.

What Happens When Children Have a Lack of Sleep?

The lack of sleep affects the immune system’s delicate balance and throws it off. Sleep contributes to the effective functioning of both innate, as well as acquired immunities. Prolonged sleep deprivation can cause chronic low-grade inflammations that are associated with diseases like diabetes, neurodegeneration, and atherosclerosis.

Staying awake for long periods can also cause leakage of T-cells from the blood vessel into tissues and also affect their redistribution to the lymph nodes. It also affects the way the immune system responds to an infection or an invasion. The response time is slower; this, in turn, gives the invader more time to affect the body; this, in turn, requires the immune system to fight harder for the body to recover from the infection.

It is cyclical and lack of quality sleep can set this negative cycle in motion. When the body receives sufficient sleep every night, the immune system is alert and active. It is prepared to fight off any infection and also develops its memory. The lack of sleep can tamper with all this, resulting in severe health issues.

So, when your child does not get sufficient good quality sleep every night:

Their T-cell does not function effectively to attach themselves to the infections and kill them.
The immunological memory is not strong and does not develop well.
Causes inflammations in the body that can lead to several other diseases.
Cytokines production comes down, thus reducing the effectiveness of the immune system.
Increases stress hormones.
Increases the risk of obesity, diabetes, and heart ailments.

Myth 3: Kids Need Supplements to Build a Healthy Immune System

Fact Check – Not True!

Step into a grocery store and head to the children’s section. You are bound to see a variety of products promising to promote your child’s immune system. Can you actually do this? Can some product off the shelf actually help improve your child’s immune system which is a complex network?

The immune system has a number of cells that respond in different ways to different infections. How is it possible to boost these cells? Which cells will be improved and which cells will be left out? There is no scientific explanation or answer to this.

Pumping something into the body to increase the production of blood cells and immune cells may not be a good idea. It can disturb the delicate balance and cause damages rather than help the child.

Why Supplements May Not be a Good Idea?

The supplements do carry a number of minerals and vitamins that are essential for a child. These are readily available and the body can absorb it all from the supplements. Then why don’t doctors recommend it?

The body learns to absorb the required nutrients from the foods we consume. It digests the food and extracts the vitamins and minerals from food sources. This absorption capacity reduces as we age. This is why supplements are more common among the older population.

When we give such supplements to kids, we are preventing their bodies from learning to absorb the nutrients from the various food sources. When all the required micronutrients, vitamins, minerals, etc. are readily given to the body on a timely basis, there is no need for it to work to get the nutrients.

Over a period of time, this becomes the body’s way of functioning, thus effectively stopping it from extracting and absorbing the nutrients it requires. So, you are training your child’s body to be lazy in the process of making it stronger.

When are Supplements Necessary?

This does not mean all vitamin supplements are unnecessary. There are some vitamins the body can make and some need to be provided externally. Pediatricians generally suggest these vitamins for babies and kids. However, they prescribe them only for a short period, so that the body does not get overly dependent on them.

Immunity boosters for children may not be as effective as they promise on media. Most often, these are marketing tactics and laying too much emphasis on these marketed products may be counter-productive. The immune system cannot be trained by external supplements. A balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle are the best immune boosters for your child.

FAQ’s

1. Should I Give My Child Supplements to Improve Immunity Against Covid-19?

Ask your pediatrician. They have a better idea about your child’s case history and immunity. Adopting a healthy lifestyle and a balanced diet can strengthen immunity. Supplements are unlikely to provide any protection against covid-19.

2. Can Immunity-Boosting Milk Additives Help My Child?

No, these are just marketing tactics. These do not really help your child. Try to include whole foods and encourage a balanced diet to help the immunity.

3. Do Immunity Boosters Actually Prevent Illness?

No, they do not. They might increase the level of certain vitamins or minerals in your blood. They cannot teach your immune system to fight infections.

4. Can Exercising Build Immunity?

Yes, it can. Maintaining an active lifestyle will keep the body become active, healthy, and get all hormones in balance. This is essential for the functioning of your immune system.

Immunity Boosters For Children – Myth or Reality?