# Boosting immunity in a 20 month old



## TealCandy (Dec 14, 2014)

I'm looking for ways to boost immunity. My 20 month old gets sick all. The. Time. Last winter and spring it was pretty much 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off. Now that we have a tiny baby in the house and are nearing cold/flu/everything else season, I want to make some changes.
I'm pretty sure we do at least an ok job preventing illness: we're great about washing hands, not touching gross things, and avoiding places where illnesses are likely to be. We use a shopping cart cover. He takes daily probiotics, drinks large amounts of expressed breastmilk, and eats a healthy diet. He is a thumb sucker, though, was on antibiotics immediately after birth, and has some sort of problem with dairy (it seems like he starts catching things every time we try dairy again). I have the impression that all these contribute to him catching everything in a 10 mile radius.
I'm sure there is a lot more we could be doing, so please share your ideas with me.


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## MountainMamaGC (Jun 23, 2008)

Is he getting enough vitamin D. At least 1000 units a day during fall and winter. The immune system has a very hard time working well if deficient.


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## TealCandy (Dec 14, 2014)

I supplement about 5000 units a day for myself as well as tracking the sun altitude and spending 10 min a day in the sun when it's actually effective so my doctor and I both assumed he would get enough from my breastmilk. But I think my body has a hard time absorbing d (if that's even possible, just a theory), which is why I supplement so high. It is definitely worthwhile to giving him some extra too. I don't know much about the immune system. I don't think I knew that d affected it much.


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## pulcetti (Sep 29, 2014)

homeopathy


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## ScienceMommy101 (Sep 23, 2015)

I am an immunologist, and I have developed a bunch of easy, safe and healthy things to give (probiotics, omega 3s, vitamin D included) that optimize and enhance immune functioning. I have written a highly detailed post on the topic with explanations of how things work, but can't post it here: the forums will not let me yet, because I am new.

This stuff seems to work: my daughter is the only kid in the mother toddler group who has not gotten sick--even I picked up a throat infection that put me under the weather for a few days.

Anyway, you can PM me and I will send you the link.


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## TealCandy (Dec 14, 2014)

I like homeopathy. We use a lot of remedies but don't have and can't afford an ongoing homeopath. I treat his illness homeopathically. It seems to shorten the duration a lot of the time but I think he'd need some more extreme interventions to change his immune system function (or whatever it is that he needs), and I know he'd need to be under the care of a homeopath for that. I'm definitely not equipped to do anything too major!
Thanks sciencemommy!


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