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A podcast for parents regarding the health and wellness of their children.
Tis’ the season of virus, virus, virus.
And it seems never-ending.
I have so many parents DMing me on my Instagram account wondering if their kid is the only one sick “all the time.”
YOU ARE NOT ALONE. I see kids from all various ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds sick right now (not just COVID).
Illnesses happen, especially viral illnesses.
I discuss:
Blog on Immune health and supplements
Fever YouTube Video:
Cough YouTube Video:
00;00;01;04 – 00;00;22;13
Dr. Mona
Welcome to Monday Mornings with Doctor Mona, where each week I answer your questions. Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Monday Mornings with Doctor Mona. For this week’s episode, I am going over a question that I have gotten asked over and over on my Instagram account pizza Talk talk from followers. Why is my kid sick all the time?
00;00;22;13 – 00;00;39;26
Dr. Mona
Is it just my kid? What is going on? When do I need to be concerned? So we’re going to go over all of that today. Now the truth is, children get colds and viruses after they turn six months of age, when the immunity they receive from mom starts to fade and they have to build up their own immune system.
00;00;39;28 – 00;01;00;02
Dr. Mona
That’s not to say that a baby under six months of age cannot get sick. It’s just that they do have some protection from mom. Not enough to, you know, throw them into a virus pit and then they won’t ever get an illness. But you will start to see more illnesses after six months, not only because of their immune system that now has to build on their own, but also because their hands are in their mouth more.
00;01;00;04 – 00;01;20;08
Dr. Mona
So a baby at two months is not putting their hands in their mouth as much. They have mom’s immune system. Mom’s immunity. That has helped them. But now they are six months. They have to build their own immune system and their hands are constantly in their mouths. So germs on surfaces, germs on shared toys, germs everywhere exist.
00;01;20;08 – 00;01;42;06
Dr. Mona
And it can come into our system by the mouth, by touching mucous membranes, our eyes, our nose, our lips, our mouth, our tongue. All of that can transmit viruses, especially respiratory viruses. You know, if you read literature or a lot of articles, they’ll say like numbers wise, right, that babies, toddlers and preschoolers can get about 7 to 8 calls a year.
00;01;42;12 – 00;02;05;12
Dr. Mona
School aged kids can get 5 to 6 colds a year, and then teenagers about four colds a year. I hate when people report this, and that’s why I’m using it as an example, because it’s kind of like saying like, your baby should eat X amount or you should sleep x amount. Every person is different. And when you start to hear expectations that, oh, babies, toddlers and preschoolers get about 7 to 8 cold.
00;02;05;16 – 00;02;22;20
Dr. Mona
Why did my child get sick 12 times this year? You’re going to be like, what’s wrong with my kid? So please, if you have been reading any of those things, remember what I’m saying is that it is very, very variable as to how many illnesses your child will get. Some children just get a lot of viruses and some don’t.
00;02;22;21 – 00;02;43;22
Dr. Mona
It’s just an immunity luck, if you will. You could have two kids who have the same exact diet, the same exact lifestyle, the same exact everything. And I’m going to use twins as an example, right? Twins in one household you have one. They’re eating the same thing. They, you know, are in the same environment, but one tends to get sick more.
00;02;43;24 – 00;03;03;09
Dr. Mona
It’s just unfortunately, a luck of the draw with our immune system. And it doesn’t mean it’s anything bad. Your child, who seems to be getting sick a lot with these viruses or colds or stomach bugs, you know, viral illnesses. It’s not going to be like that forever. As a mother of a two year old at the time of this recording, I can say that it’s been a pretty crazy year.
00;03;03;12 – 00;03;27;00
Dr. Mona
We put our son into child care. January of 2021 and he has loved it. We’ve loved having him in childcare, and starting April of 2021 is when he started getting these illnesses. It’s when everything kind of opened up with the pandemic. You know, he had been a pandemic baby before that time, 13, 14 months. He really didn’t do playdates.
00;03;27;00 – 00;03;46;07
Dr. Mona
He really didn’t see a lot of other kids. So he really never got sick and he never actually had a virus before. He turned 13, 14 months. And then we went into childcare and he got sick about 8 to 9 times so far. And interestingly enough, every time he gets sick it comes in sets, meaning he gets back to back illnesses.
00;03;46;07 – 00;04;07;09
Dr. Mona
So he gets sick, he recovers, he goes back to childcare, and he gets sick again. And then we get a 2 to 3 month break. And then the cycle happens again with another virus of the season back to back, another break for 2 to 3 months. And then again, the viruses that are circulating in the season, his body is literally been exposed to every major virus that I’ve seen common viruses.
00;04;07;09 – 00;04;27;08
Dr. Mona
As a pediatrician, and I know a lot of you listening have gone through the same thing, and I want to explain why it’s happening in the pandemic. So for a year or for a while, our children were not exposed to germs. So imagine if you have a child who has never started daycare before, even I’m I’m thinking even before a pandemic.
00;04;27;08 – 00;04;46;28
Dr. Mona
Right. And now you start them in daycare, they’re going to get sick because now they’re just exposed to germs. Similar concept with the pandemic, a lot of our children had just not been exposed to germs for a year because of social distancing. So now when they’re finally exposed to other children and other vectors, you know, human beings are vectors for viruses and illness.
00;04;47;00 – 00;05;05;25
Dr. Mona
They are going to get sick now. And it’s almost like everyone is starting daycare. Whatever age your kid is all of a sudden now they’re getting sick because they have just not been exposed to viruses. The main reason your child is getting all of these infections is that he or she is just getting exposed to new viruses all the time.
00;05;05;25 – 00;05;27;20
Dr. Mona
Remember, there are hundreds and hundreds of different viruses. And then within each virus, like adenovirus or enterovirus, there’s different variants. There’s different classes of these viruses. So just because you get a common cold, it doesn’t mean that you can’t get the common cold again, correct. Because there’s different strains to that common cold. There’s different strains to hand, foot and mouth.
00;05;27;20 – 00;05;49;29
Dr. Mona
Oh gosh. There’s different strains to different viruses. So your kid is going to be exposed to these germs, and you’re going to see the back to back initially. And you’re going to see a lot of infections with viruses initially as their immune system is working. Your child’s body is building up defenses and immunity against these viruses every time they get sick.
00;05;50;01 – 00;06;05;16
Dr. Mona
So although I don’t want to see our kids sick, just if you want some reframing anytime your kid is sick, I want you to tell yourself this really sucks. I hate when my kid is sick. I hate seeing them sick, I hate anxiety, I hate worrying, I hate the sleepless nights, I hate everything. Go ahead, just play it to yourself, I hate it.
00;06;05;16 – 00;06;22;10
Dr. Mona
It’s not fun when your kid is sick, but in the large big picture of things I want you to tell yourself, okay, we’re going to get through this because we’ve gotten through illnesses before. I know what I need to monitor hydration, difficulty breathing, fever, persistence, all the thing Doctor Mona tells me to monitor. But we’re going to get through this.
00;06;22;10 – 00;06;42;29
Dr. Mona
And then my child is going to build an immune system after every exposure to a virus. And remember, your child is getting exposed through daycare, but they’re also getting exposed through older siblings, and they’re also getting exposed through adults. And sometimes parents will tell me, well, okay, my toddler got sick and they don’t go to daycare. They’re never leave the house.
00;06;42;29 – 00;07;01;18
Dr. Mona
How the heck did they get this virus? I want to remind you that we as adults are vectors and we bring home germs as well. No matter how much we try. Viruses do come into our homes because sometimes you don’t even know you’re sick and you bring home a virus. And as an adult, you know you may have been exposed to, let’s use rhodiola, the virus that causes rosella.
00;07;01;20 – 00;07;21;08
Dr. Mona
You’ve been exposed to this virus multiple times when you were young. You may have had it. And then as you get older, you still get exposed to it. But now your body, because your immune system has seen it before, has now adapted to it. So either you get that virus and it’s very minor symptoms, or you get it and it doesn’t even do much of anything, and eventually your child is going to get there too.
00;07;21;08 – 00;07;42;13
Dr. Mona
It’s certain viruses. Eventually you’re going to see that, that they’re not sick all the time, quote unquote. But they’re constantly being exposed to germs, especially if you have your child in child care and their siblings in the home. And also you, you know, me and my husband work in health care and, you know, we can wash our hands, change our clothes all we want, but there are germs that come into our home just from us.
00;07;42;15 – 00;07;59;05
Dr. Mona
I as a pediatrician, I’m sure I bring home so many germs from just that live inside me that just by talking to my son, I’m exposing him. Because, you know, even though I may not be outwardly feeling sick, you could still be harboring viruses without even knowing it. As an adult. It sounds a little scary, but it’s not meant to be like that.
00;07;59;05 – 00;08;20;28
Dr. Mona
It’s meant that your immune system is just really hard at work all the time, and our our children’s immune system is always at work. So colds are your most common thing, right? Upper respiratory infections. Upper respiratory infections are like things like the common cold. I’m nothing that’s deeper into your chest like a pneumonia. So Yuri is what you would call it and get coded at as if you go to the doctor.
00;08;21;00 – 00;08;39;07
Dr. Mona
These are very, very common. And you’re also, you know, stomach viruses. Any virus is going to be common. Hand, foot and mouth is considered a virus. Viruses are just so common. It’s also the number one reason we see children get fevers. You know, the the common reason children get fevers is viruses. Parents often think that it’s a cause of concern.
00;08;39;09 – 00;08;57;08
Dr. Mona
Make sure you listen and watch my, fever YouTube video, which I’ll link in my show notes. But fever is not always a concern. But your child’s immune system is constantly working. It’s. Parents will often say, okay, my kid had a fever and then the fever just disappeared. It must be teething. No, it actually probably was your child.
00;08;57;15 – 00;09;21;15
Dr. Mona
Your child’s immune system fighting off a new illness. And in this situation, your child’s immune system fight it really fast. And you may start to see that as your kid gets older, or as your kid gets exposed to different strains of the of similar viruses, that they tend to fight it faster, they may get sick, but instead of being sick for 70s, they’re now sick for four days, they’re now sick for two days, and then all of a sudden they’re not sick as much.
00;09;21;21 – 00;09;42;23
Dr. Mona
You’re going to see that as your child gets older. So I’m recording this in January of 2022. So we are in peak viral season. What does that mean. Viral season pediatricians call viral season winter time. So the time between October through basically April is when we see a lot of viruses in children and it has a lot to do with temperature.
00;09;42;25 – 00;10;08;29
Dr. Mona
In most places it’s cooler. So people are going indoors more and also different viruses like different climate. So not only are we now congregating indoors, but one virus may like hot temperatures, one virus may like cold temperatures. Hand, foot and mouth usually likes the spring, but for some reason it’s loved everyone this entire year. I don’t know if you’ve had him put him out, but it’s been like the virus that has not gone away this entire year.
00;10;09;01 – 00;10;28;20
Dr. Mona
But viruses tend to like certain climates, so when weather changes, it’s not the weather that’s making your kids sick. It’s the fact that with different temperatures come, different variants come different viruses that like that climate. And when you’re in the winter time, which is viral season, everyone’s indoor indoors more, and that’s when it’s going to lead to more transmission of viruses.
00;10;28;23 – 00;10;49;07
Dr. Mona
So one of the biggest questions I also get asked is how to know when it’s back to back illnesses, or if it’s the same illness. And why does this happen. So how to know when it’s back to back? So I like to use the 24 hour fever free med free rule to kind of know for sure that this is an isolated one illness.
00;10;49;07 – 00;11;19;07
Dr. Mona
And now we any any new symptoms, any new illness is likely a second illness. Now hear me out here. So if you are not doing the 24 hour fever free and med free rule, you could be masking symptoms of an initial illness. So for example, you have a kid who has a cough and a runny nose and it’s been three days on day four you see a temperature of 99.8, which is not a fever, but you medicate that child with Tylenol or Motrin and they never really spike above 100.4.
00;11;19;10 – 00;11;38;29
Dr. Mona
You could have been masking a fever, your child was not clinically well enough and you gave them medicine, right? You’re giving you’re treating something. You’re treating aches. You’re treating pain, you’re treating discomfort. So you could be dealing with that same illness and then not know it. Send your kid back to school and then now your kid is sick again, quote unquote.
00;11;39;06 – 00;12;01;17
Dr. Mona
But it could be that they just never really recovered from that first illness. So I want you to use the 24 hour fever free and medicine free rule. So, for example, if your child has a fever Wednesday afternoon at 12 p.m., but the last time you give medicine was Thursday morning, you would be able to send them back and say, okay, we are in the clear.
00;12;01;17 – 00;12;20;01
Dr. Mona
This is probably the illnesses over. If they are fever free and med free by Friday morning. So what you’re looking at is the last time you gave medicine and the last time they had a fever. And both of those things have to be at least 24 hours. And symptoms are improving, right? The child is acting better. The child is more energetic.
00;12;20;06 – 00;12;37;13
Dr. Mona
So those two things combined fever free, med free for 24 hours. And your child is acting better and then you send them back into school. Okay. But now you send them back into school or daycare and they get sick again a week later or three days later. You’re now back with another virus. What is going on? I’m so stressed out.
00;12;37;13 – 00;13;04;04
Dr. Mona
This just can’t keep happening. And this is what we saw with our son. We saw again four sets of illnesses, eight, eight illnesses in the past year. And it always came in sets. And it’s what I see commonly in in practice too, that when your immune system has been busy working right on fighting one illness, it’s not that it’s not strong enough, it’s that it’s a little more susceptible to the other viruses that are now out there.
00;13;04;10 – 00;13;23;01
Dr. Mona
So your immune system was so busy and working so hard to fight virus number one. And now you go back into a petri dish that is child care because it is right. They touch everything. And daycare daycares are amazing, but they can’t be in charge of intervening before a child intercepts a toy, right? It’s just impossible. So they do the best that they can.
00;13;23;03 – 00;13;45;13
Dr. Mona
So your child had virus number one and they were feeling better. That immune system is worked really hard on. Virus number one is still just kind of, you know, puttering along, working hard to end, you know, to finish healing that end of that virus. And then you go back into child care and then now you pick up virus number two that’s circulating, and now you’re sick again.
00;13;45;15 – 00;14;02;01
Dr. Mona
So your immune system is kind of in a way depressed after a first illness, not to a point where you need to keep your kid home for weeks and weeks because one virus can linger in our body for weeks. We know this, even with Covid, that you could get Covid and symptoms can kind of be residual for anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks.
00;14;02;01 – 00;14;24;24
Dr. Mona
I’ve seen some diarrhea symptoms, some lingering cough. So you could still be shedding the virus, but clinically your child as well. So it doesn’t mean that you have to keep your kid home for three weeks after every illness. But conceptually, I want you to remember that your immune your child’s immune system was busy fixing virus number one. So when you send them back to child care, there’s a reality that they could pick up something new because their immune system was so busy.
00;14;25;00 – 00;14;48;16
Dr. Mona
You know, fixing problem number one that they weren’t really, you know, ready for problem number two. So that is kind of why we see these back to back illnesses. And remember there are many different viruses circulating at any given time. So that is why you see back to back you’re likely not getting sick with the same virus. You’re probably getting sick with a different strain or different class of virus altogether.
00;14;48;20 – 00;15;05;28
Dr. Mona
So your kid gets croup, which is, you know, common is influenza, and then goes back and then now has a stomach virus, you know, and then or your kid had hand, foot and mouth and then now they get a cold. Right. These are different viruses. And again, not all viruses have a test that you can do. It’s more of clinical symptoms.
00;15;06;00 – 00;15;25;13
Dr. Mona
So you may you may never know what the virus was. But what is really important to understand is that it’s very normal that we see these back to back illnesses, especially now in this pandemic. What I’ve kind of told a lot of my families is these viruses have had no business for one year, right? For one year when we were in social distancing, these viruses were like twiddling their thumbs.
00;15;25;13 – 00;15;42;14
Dr. Mona
They were like, what do I do? There’s nothing going on. There’s no children to infect. Like, what am I supposed to do? And now they are having a field day. Now they are transmitting and now they’ve become, I think, more virulent to basically, you know, continue replicating and continue to infect hosts. And that is why we’re seeing our kids sick.
00;15;42;16 – 00;15;57;10
Dr. Mona
It doesn’t mean this is harmful to our children. It means that they are going to develop immunity. And by the time they’re 4 or 5 years old, you’re going to be like, oh, you remember when they were in, you know, preschool or daycare and they got sick a lot. You’re not even going to remember it because they’re going to be sick, much less.
00;15;57;14 – 00;16;19;23
Dr. Mona
So now the question remains when to be concerned. So I am not really concerned. And nor would your pediatrician if your child is getting back to back of viruses and is overall in the grand scheme of things, from well visit to well visit, growing well and thriving developmentally. And I can’t stress enough the growing well from well visit to well visit.
00;16;19;23 – 00;16;38;12
Dr. Mona
Because if you were to come in for sick visit and sick visit and sick visit, you’re going to see weight fluctuations. I’m talking about the big picture, how are they looking from well, visit to well, visit? And are they thriving developmentally? I am not concerned if a child is repetitively getting viral illnesses and is thriving on their growth curve.
00;16;38;14 – 00;16;56;14
Dr. Mona
I don’t care where their growth curve is, but I want them thriving on their curve. But for some of these reasons is when you should seek medical attention or talk to your child’s clinician. If they’re losing weight, you are noticing that they’re losing weight and they’re just getting sick often. And again, I’m not talking about day to day.
00;16;56;14 – 00;17;20;04
Dr. Mona
I’m talking about big picture. You’re seeing from the last two months that they’re just going down on the percentile curve. They’re just losing weight and they’re often sick. Definitely a good thing to just have your clinician do an exam, make sure everything’s okay. Bacterial infections, things like recurrent pneumonias, recurrent sinus infections, six or more ear infections in a year, bacterial infections that needed antibiotics.
00;17;20;06 – 00;17;41;06
Dr. Mona
That is when we want to evaluate and say, hey, is there something that we need to do? Do we need to see an EMT for the recurrent ear infections? Do we need to see a pulmonologist for them to do a procedure to see what’s going on in the lungs, why the child is developing recurrent Pneumonias do we need to do an immunological study to determine why the child is getting recurrent bacterial infections?
00;17;41;08 – 00;18;13;21
Dr. Mona
That also goes into abscesses. If your child is getting a lot of abscesses, which are a little pus pockets that we have to drain, recurrent thrush or needing repetitive IV antibiotics to clear these bacterial infections. So as you can see, none of the things I mentioned go over viruses. Recurrent viruses are expected. If your child is getting recurrent viruses and is losing weight, and you’re worried about their overall development, that they’re not thriving developmentally, meaning they’re not meeting milestones, they’re not, you know, doing what they normally did, then of course, bring it up.
00;18;13;24 – 00;18;30;28
Dr. Mona
But I am not concerned about back to back illnesses in terms of viruses, in a child who’s growing well and thriving developmentally. When we look at the big picture, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I know it’s really hard. We are living it to, you know, any time our son gets sick, I’m like, oh my gosh, okay.
00;18;30;28 – 00;18;46;13
Dr. Mona
It’s like, you just don’t know. It could be, especially in the time of a pandemic. It’s like 5 to 10 days were out, you know, waiting for the, you know, the rules for them to be able to go back, waiting to see if he’s able to go back. I really do like waiting, you know, the 24 hour fever free, med free and clinically looking better.
00;18;46;18 – 00;19;08;01
Dr. Mona
And sometimes that can take a long time because you’re still medicating them for discomfort or they’re still spiking, you know, 99.8 or 100 100.4 is considered fever. But I consider anything over 100 for daycare purposes, because if they’re if they’re at 100.1 and they’re still recovering from a virus, they could still be virulent, right? They could still just be healing.
00;19;08;01 – 00;19;32;29
Dr. Mona
And it’s best for their body to rest and heal. I know we don’t want your kids getting sick. I don’t like my son getting sick. I don’t want your child sick. But this is very common. And your child will end up having a really adaptable and adapted immune system. I don’t want to say the word strong, because I feel like when we talk about weak and strong immune systems, it makes people feel like, well, what if my child isn’t in child care?
00;19;32;29 – 00;19;49;14
Dr. Mona
Then are they going to have a weak immune system? That’s not how this works. It means that any exposure your child gets to a virus, whether it’s at two years old, three years old or six years old, their immune system will continue to work. Another reason why we, you know, see a lot of it in the toddler years is remember, their hands are in their mouth a lot.
00;19;49;15 – 00;20;14;28
Dr. Mona
They have not learned the ability to wash their hands with their own desire. Right? A child who’s older, like six, seven, you can teach them to, hey, wash your hands before we eat, you know, wash your hands before this. But toddlers just spread germs so readily. And I know this is hard, but I also want to reframe and let you all know that by the time they get to pre-K, by the time they get to kindergarten, the joke goes that they will have perfect attendance.
00;20;14;28 – 00;20;34;21
Dr. Mona
Of course, they can still get sick. Okay, so don’t have that expectation, but it’s that they have just been exposed to so many different germs that their immune system has now said, oh, I’ve seen this before. Oh hand, foot and mouth. Oh. Adenovirus. Oh. Enterovirus. Oh this virus, this virus. They’re going to be better adaptable. Their immune system is constantly adapting.
00;20;34;23 – 00;20;58;08
Dr. Mona
So I know this can be very hard. But when you are going through it, focus on your child. Focus on giving them love, and focus on what you need to do to get through that very hard time when they’re sick. I know no one loves seeing their child sick, but also remember that they will get better. And we have hospitals and your doctor to help you if you need us, and that with every illness that they do end up getting and you don’t want to force them to get sick, but they will get sick.
00;20;58;08 – 00;21;18;16
Dr. Mona
And if they do, every illness will mean better outcomes. When they get older, it’ll mean less illnesses as they get older and it will happen. I see it all the time and you’re not alone. If you feel like your child is the one who’s constantly getting sick. Thank you for tuning in today. If you find this series helpful or any of my content helpful, please make sure to share it on your social media channels.
00;21;18;17 – 00;21;26;02
Dr. Mona
And that is how other people can find this resource. So thank you so much for joining us and I will talk to you next week.
Please note that our transcript may not exactly match the final audio, as minor edits or adjustments could be made during production.
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All information presented on this blog, my Instagram, and my podcast is for educational purposes and should not be taken as personal medical advice. These platforms are to educate and should not replace the medical judgment of a licensed healthcare provider who is evaluating a patient.
It is the responsibility of the guardian to seek appropriate medical attention when they are concerned about their child.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinions of my employer or hospitals I may be affiliated with.
