Do You Have to Get Sick to Develop an Immune System?

Here's my experience.

My mom was a kindergarten teacher her whole career. She would come to our house when I had kids who were vomiting and sick, and never catch whatever we had. She'd seen it all and been exposed to just about everything.

What is interesting - I have a sibling who was not the most fastidious shall we say about hand washing or house cleaning, etc. Her kids were never sick growing up. They had pets galore and the kids were exposed to all kinds of germs.

Another one of my siblings is a germaphobe. She bleaches everything. Her kids went to the pediatrician's regularly - almost had a standing appointment every 1-2 weeks with some ear infection or other. They caught every single bug out there.

I don't know - we're somewhere in the middle. My kids went to daycare, were sick a lot during those years, then by the time school hit, rarely caught anything.

I hope your friend's child recovers well.

Pretty much yes - you get sick and train up your immune system
Often kids will catch every little thing for about 2 years when ever they start going to daycare (or when I was growing up when we started kindergarten).
Then things usually settle down quite a bit.

Can she fight the flu off?
Hard for anyone but her doctor to say - and sometimes they can't tell either.
Flu can vary quite a bit depending on the strain.
For some it's no big deal but for others it can be life threatening.
Anti viral medications can only do so much - but often it's a secondary bacterial infection that's more dangerous - but antibiotics can help with that.
Hope your friends daughter gets better soon.

Our son had RSV and pneumonia at 14 months old.
It was hard keeping up with the meds and nebulizer but I stayed with it and kept him out of the hospital.
Doctor said I saved his life.
Ever since then we've all got our flu shots every year and kept up with pneumococcal shots too.

Additional:
When my sister and I were kids we stayed home until kindergarten.
Once in school we got sick with everything that went around for about 2 years.
I can remember going to the nurses office and throwing up all the way down the hall.
After those first 2 years it settled down to getting sick only a few times per years.

When our son was born he started day care at 3 months old - and for about 2 years he got sick with everything that was going around - and then it settled down to only a few times per year.

It's just an observation - but it seems like it takes 2 years from when kids begin a more public exposure to germs before their immune system can really start fighting off catching colds all the time.
Any time you start a new job - or start working around kids - like in a daycare or school - new employees have a few months where they are a little more sick than usual.
In the office I worked in we had a guy whose job it was to go around and apply updates to all the desk top computers.
Every time he did it - touching all those keyboards - he got sick for a week.

If she was diagnosed, then she is under a doctor’s care. I’m sure the doctor has this under control.

You are born with an immune system. As a person is exposed to things, it creates an immunity memory and that memory allows the person's immune system to exposed to that thing faster the next time. That's why kids get sick more when they are little (when they first go to daycare or school), and then are less likely to get sick as they get older - their immune memory stops viruses very quickly, before they even know they were exposed. So your immunity is better over time, because it's got more stuff in it's memory. However, your immune system is functional at birth. So yes, your friend's baby does have an immune system and it will fight the virus. But influenza A is a serious illness for a baby (and adults too), dehydration is a worry if her fever is high for an extended time, and your friends should keep a close eye on her, stay in close contact with the pediatrician, and take her to the ER if they get concerned (pediatrician should be able to give them a list of symptoms to look for that warrant a visit to the ER).

that 2 year old thing sounds pretty bogus. i'm no doctor but my guess is that our immune systems keep on working and improving (and sometimes failing) all the way through our lives.

there's a reason kids new to day care and kindergarten get sick more often, and by high school they don't.

the flu in a year old baby is certainly miserable, and yes, cause for concern. but not handwringing. she probably doesn't have those particular antibodies yet, and yes, it's a rough strain, but remember most people DON'T die of the flu. sensible support and treatment of symptoms will almost certainly result in a healthy recovered little girl.

you want to be vigilant. you don't want to be paranoid.
khairete
S.

No need to worry be proactive make sure she drinks plenty of water, give her some chicken broth and make sure she gets plenty of rest. You may build her immune system with good water, nutrition and good sleep. If you would like to learn more. Visit www.nikken.com/na