In this follow up to Part 1 of this edition of “Fast Five”, you’ll hear once again from Dr. Divya Pubbi, a Physician with Nemours Children’s Health, as she answers more key questions regarding how to stay safe and healthy during the fall and winter months. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Part 1 HERE for more tips and information!

We also have an upcoming discussion on this important topic with Dr. Pubbi as the headline panelist! We welcome you to join our free, upcoming webinar at 6pm on Wednesday, September 25th, 2024: Cold & Flu Season Survival Guide: Tips for Protecting Your Family and Child.

What are the most effective ways to naturally boost a child’s immune system as colder weather approaches and/or what are some practical ways parents can keep their homes healthy and prevent the spread of illness within the family?

In terms of natural immunity boosters, the number one thing that we can do is give our kids well-rounded meals. I know that sounds much easier said than done but adding those fruits and veggies into a regular diet is really important. Additionally, it is important to make sure that your child is staying well hydrated, which I know can be something that we don’t often think about but can actually help our bodies a whole lot. Even if we are starting to see some of those early signs of cold and flu, staying on top of these best practices will help prevent things from getting worse. 

Some good, natural immunity-boosting foods I recommend are citrus fruits that have some vitamin C in them, yogurts, milk, and cheeses with vitamin D, and other fruits and vegetables such as Brussels sprouts, spinach, kiwi are all foods that have some good extra immume-boosting benefits to them. 

A lot of parents will ask about things like supplements. We don’t necessarily recommend starting any supplements because most kids are awesome, their bodies are pretty magical, and they can absorb from these natural sources. So that’s more what we’d recommend rather than adding in an additional thing in terms of healthy ways to prevent spread within the family.

When talking about preventing the spread of illness within the family, one key thing you can do is avoid sharing things like drinks, food, or utensils. This is a good general practice and is especially good practice when someone in the house is sick.

Another level of this would be having the sick individual isolated from the family. I understand that it can be hard to isolate from your own family and it’s not something that we’re always going to be able to do, but it could be for the best. 

With the demands of school and extracurricular activities, how can parents maintain a balance between keeping kids active and ensuring their well-being during this season?

This is such a good question. I think it’s a really hard balance that we’re constantly all striving for. No one wants to miss out on activities, no one wants to miss out on fun things or even sports, right? Moreover, the more active we are, the healthier we are as well so getting sick can definitely take a toll on a lot of people physically and mentally. That being said, we have to find the balance. 

So when we’re starting to have mild sniffles but feeling okay otherwise, I think it’s still okay to try and do relatively normal day-to-day activities. However, once we’re starting to see that we’re definitely not acting like ourselves and are experiencing more symptoms than just the sniffles, we should consider maybe taking it a bit easier and giving our body time to heal.

Another thing to consider is that the more of those group activities we’re doing, the more we’re spreading those germs – it goes both ways, right? We don’t want to spread germs to other people and we would also love for other people to not spread them to us. So if we can avoid getting sick 4 times because we avoided going to things once, that’s ideal.

Alternatively, you can plan a home activity that’s just as fun and something that you can do as a family and still allow them to have some activity. For example, instead of going to a soccer game with everyone, you could do a special soccer shootout at home or maybe instead of an hour of activity, you only do 10 minutes of activity just to give them that mental and energy boost, without taking away their body’s ability to heal and without spreading those germs.

How important are flu shots for children and at what age should families consider them? 

So important! I know there are lots of misconceptions about flu shots, but we definitely recommend them. Anyone six months and up should be getting their flu shot. Additionally, it is extra important that family members of kids who are less than six months old also get the flu shot – not only to protect themselves but also to protect the baby. 

The important thing to know about flu shots is that it takes around two weeks for a flu shot to work. We sometimes hear people say, “I got my flu shot but I still got the flu,” which is entirely possible because they could have been exposed to and caught the flu before their flu shot had a chance to work.

In some other cases, we sometimes hear, “I got my flu shot and I got the flu later in the season.” Another thing about the flu shot is that it’s not perfect. The reality is that it’s not always going to prevent the flu, but what it is also really helpful in doing is keeping us out of the hospital, keeping us from having a flu that’s getting us so sick that we’re ending up in a much more severe situation. The hope is that it’s doing wonderful and we don’t get the flu at all from it, but even if we do, it will be easier to manage at home because we got that flu shot.

Lastly, getting the flu shot is especially important for the higher-risk children that I talked about earlier who may already deal with asthma or other medical conditions. The vaccine serves to give them that extra layer of protection.

All in all, we highly recommend getting yourself and your kid(s) vaccinated. Definitely call your pediatrician or go to your local pharmacy to get your flu shot taken care of if you haven’t already.

Dr. Pubbi’s Final Thoughts

Yeah, I think going into cold and flu season is always a little bit intimidating. I know I have a lot of my families who are coming in bracing themselves, but I think there’s a lot that we can do to help keep ourselves safe. There are a lot of creative ways that we can keep our morale up when we are getting sick and hopefully prevent those future illnesses from being as bad as they have been in the past. So I’m excited we get to talk about it and I’m hopeful that we get to keep some people a little extra safe this year!

About Dr. Pubbi

Dr. Divya Pubbi is a general outpatient pediatrician at the Nemours Foulk Road office. She loves working with all ages from newborns all the way through our teenagers who are on their way into college or starting their careers. Her favorite part of the day is the time she gets to spend with her patients and families. Dr. Pubbi loves watching her patients grow and progress physically and mentally through the years.  She is passionate about the care we are able to provide and training a new generation of doctors to do the same.

ESF Camps & Experiences has spent 40+ years designing summer experiences that develop the whole child. Our programs are built in partnership with Nemours Children’s Health and grounded in pediatric research on resilience, social-emotional learning, and child development.