Important immune training at an unusual time
Is it Christmas already? At least when we look at how many children are currently coming into the practice with mild respiratory infections, you could almost think so. While we had virtually no mild infections last autumn and winter, we can hardly save ourselves from children with coughs, colds and fevers. This is extremely atypical for summertime - but it's not bad. Quite the opposite.
Here are a few points that are important to me: Dear parents, be glad that your children get these infections! There is actually nothing better for a small child and up to primary school age than regular simple airway infections. These are infections that heal on their own, where no antibiotics are needed because the child has pus running out of the ear or the tonsils are purulently inflamed. They are simply so-called cold infections, which are very important for the child's immune system. And, don't be alarmed: They say that eight to twelve infections a year are completely undramatic, especially in infants, and are no cause for concern for children's immune systems.
One aspect that seems strange to me is that there are more and more reports of children being sent home from community centres, even though they have been tested for Covid, just because they are covered in snot or have a bit of a cough but are otherwise fit and healthy. I think we need to be careful that we don't introduce new regulations here that shouldn't actually exist. Before coronavirus, a child with just a cold, a little cough and no fever, who is otherwise fit and active, was allowed to attend community centres. I think that should continue. Because we won't be able to get such mild colds out of the centres - and, strictly speaking, we don't want to. Because children's immune systems need this training.
I would also like to look ahead and make a plea for the coming autumn/winter that we don't try to deprive children of contact with other toddlers for months on end again, because we can see that now: The immune system has really been waiting to be allowed to become active again. And I can report from 15 years of practice: The children who often had a bit of a cold and were ill when they were small are often the ones I didn't see again for years later because they were simply healthy throughout, not seriously ill. So here's my appeal once again: regular contact with other children - and therefore also the exchange of banal viral pathogens - is fundamentally important for the (young) child's immune system.
Further interesting tips
Debate about breastfeeding duration
The new national guideline on breastfeeding duration and interventions to promote breastfeeding has recently been published and has immediately triggered some unnecessary media controversy. However, a debate about this guideline is actually largely superfluous.
Meningococcus I
Infections with meningococci (bacteria that can cause dangerous meningitis, for example) are fortunately very rare and fortunately we can also do a lot to prevent them with vaccinations (more on this in Part II).
Ticks
My conclusion after almost 15 years as a paediatrician in private practice: tick-borne diseases are probably the most overestimated health risk - at least from the parents' point of view.