When it comes to protecting children’s immune systems, two parental philosophies prevail: those who follow the 5-second rule* when a piece of food falls to the ground and those who don’t! If you follow the 5-second rule, you’re relying on the strength of your child’s immune system to keep them healthy. On the other hand, if you’re constantly protecting your kids from bacteria, it’s not necessarily a good thing either.
To ensure that your child develops a strong immune system, the key is finding a balance between protecting them from bacteria and exposing them to microorganisms in the environment.
What shapes your child’s immune system?
Initially, your child gets passive immunity from their mother who passes on the antibodies through the placenta during the last three months of pregnancy. At birth and after birth, the newborn is exposed to the mother’s intestinal microflora, hence their skin and gut microbiome* are similar to their mother’s. Breastfeeding is the second mode of transferring immunity. It stimulates the baby’s immune system providing long-lasting protection against various infections and diseases. As your child grows, the immune system is shaped by the microorganisms they encounter in their environments, by diet and medicinal use.
How to strengthen your child’s immune system:
1. Take care of their gut
The lymphoid tissue in the gastrointestinal (GI) system (the organs from the mouth to the anus) represents almost 70% of the entire immune system. The GI tract is also the home of the gut microbiome, the community of trillions of microbes (healthy bacteria and fungi) that inhabit the gastrointestinal tract, and has a major influence on the immune system. Here is how to keep your child’s gut microbiome balanced:
• Serve up fibre-rich foods, as it feeds the gut microbiome. The gut bacteria digests prebiotics, a type of fibre that human cells don’t digest. Fibre can be found in garlic, banana, beans, crunchy vegetables and wholegrains.
• Give them probiotics to boost healthy bacteria. Probiotics are live bacteria found in certain foods such as yogurts with live cultures, kefir, or other fermented food.
• Offer a variety of fruit and vegetables that are in season. This leads to a more diverse microbiome as the type of fibre and the microbes differ.
• Limit their intake of sugar and sweeteners. Sugar causes an imbalance in gut microbes and can increase inflammation.
• Reduce the amount of snacking your child does throughout the day, and give the microbes time to rest.
Use antibiotics only when necessary, since they disrupt the balance of the gut bacteria, sometimes even up to six months after use. Overuse of antibiotics can lead to antibiotic resistance.
2. Make time to get grounded…outside…in the sun
• Children should interact with each other, get dirty, and get in touch with “old friends”, the bacteria and parasites commonly found in the natural environment. Natural environments provide biologically and genetically diverse microbes, and the immune system is strengthened by this biodiversity. A study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health last year (2021), reported that there is strong evidence that limited gut microbial diversity leads to a higher prevalence of chronic inflammatory conditions (such as inflammatory bowel diseases) and increases the risk of developing asthma, allergies or other hypersensitivity diseases.
• When your child spends time outdoors, the vitamin D that we get from sunshine is not only essential for bone health, but also for modulating innate and adaptive immune responses.
3. Ensure that your child gets enough sleep
Sleep plays a fundamental role in a child’s physical, mental, and emotional health. Children need sleep so that their immune defenses can fight infection and inflammation. If your child is constantly sleep deprived, it increases their risk of infections and cardiometabolic, autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases.
4. Keep your child away from secondary smoke
In South Africa, pneumonia is the most common reason for hospital admission and cause of death (post-neonatal) in children aged 5 and under; the risk doubles for children exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). ETS inhaled by children and pregnant women, as well as tertiary smoking (the residue found on clothes, furniture and other objects) affects the respiratory tracts of children.
5. Manage their stress
A study published in the Journal of Immunology showed that psychological stress not only affects the physical and psychological well-being of a child, but may also have an influence on immune suppression. They found that the consequences on the immune system are generally adaptive in the short run, but can be damaging when stress becomes chronic. Of all the background variables included in the study, children of single parents were found to be highly stressed. This could be due to them being more exposed to or less protected from psychological stress than children living with more than one caregiver.
6. Keep them active
Exercise has a host of benefits, including improving the body’s defenses against inflammatory diseases, reduced risk of depression and improved thinking and memory skills. These are the recommended amounts of physical activity for your child’s growth and development:
• For kids, aged 3 – 5, encourage them to be physically active throughout the day.
• For kids aged 6 and older, they need at least an hour of moderate exercise, three days a week.
7. Encourage good hygiene habits… at the right times
Good hygiene habits also play a big role in keeping your kids healthy, so ensure that they’re washing their hands at specific instances. This is called targeted hygiene or “moments for hygiene”.
These include washing hands:
1. After using the toilet
2. After taking out the dirt
3. Before preparing food
4. Before and after eating
5. After coughing, sneezing or blowing their nose
6. When looking after someone ill
7. After doing dirty laundry
8. After handling pets
8. Let the laughter flow
A good laugh relieves stress, triggers the release of endorphins, and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies.
*Researchers at Rutgers University in the US found that likelihood of developing a foodborne illness by cross-contamination depends on moisture, the type of surface, and contact time on the ground.
* A microbiome is the community of microorganisms – protists, bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses – that live together in a particular habitat (e.g. the gut, the skin or the lungs).
