Cold & Flu Symptoms in Children

Caring for a sick child brings extra stress and worry for everyone in the family—especially parents. Unfortunately, colds and the flu are very common in children.

On average, kids can expect five or six colds a year before they start school. Some kids get as many as eight to 10 colds a year. It isn’t until they become teenagers that kids settle down to adult levels of cold infections, getting infected about four times a year on average.

Kids get sick a lot because they’ve never been exposed to the many common cold and flu viruses that most adults have already built immunities to. Building immunities takes time: many years, in fact. Plus there are more than 200 different cold viruses, making the situation worse.

Unfortunately colds cannot be cured. That’s why treatment is your first line of defense when it comes to fighting sickness in children. In this article, we will use the advice of medical experts to give you the best chances of easing your child’s cold and flu symptoms.

Fighting Cold Symptoms: Why Rest Is Best

Sleep is restorative, and it helps us recover from illness. This is why it's important for your children to rest when they are under the weather. Keep them home from school or daycare if they are sick, especially if they have a fever. This will also help keep the germs from spreading to classmates.

• Try to give them at least 8-10 hours of sleep.
• Let them rest until they feel better.
• One study indicated that the less sleep we get, the more likely we are to become infected after being exposed to a cold virus.

Even if your children do not sleep, it's a good idea to limit their activity and keep them resting.
Let them stay in bed and read them their favorite book or watch a movie.