I've bought them in the past, but we never really took them on a regular basis.

IMO, keeping the kids off of antibiotics as much as you can particularly in the earlier years seems to help the immune system more than anything. I let my kids get out and play in the dirt when they were young. They stay inside a lot more now, but that is how their friends are. Also, I prefer they wash their hands with soap rather than hand sanitizer.

Watchmelol said much of what I agree with. I will say the only thing I have personally noticed with my own kids is that as they have gotten older and been more aware of the importance of hand washing, the illnesses have dropped.

Ask them why it is that doctors see sick people all the time but they rarely get sick. Always always always wash your hands before touching your face or anything that will be going in your mouth. It's not magic, it's good hygiene.

I am not a believer in supplements either. Hand washing is very important- though ever so difficult to get boys to wash as often as I would like. Staying well hydrated helps too- something about moist nasal passages not providing a great environment for the virus to catch on- seems counterintuitive to me- but that's what my ped says and she is great.

As the boys get older their immunity will develop through having been exposed to lots of viruses over the years. By the middle of elementary school I noticed a steep decline in the amount of colds that came home.

I agree with watchme, there's no science behind most of what people do for vitamins and supplements for colds and other illnesses. Simple hand washing, and keeping hands out of mouths, does wonders. Exercise and a balanced diet (and most kids eat too many carbs and not enough not-starchy veggies) is similarly important. Playing in the dirt - also good.

There is also no basis for saying there's a benefit from withholding antibiotics from kids when prescribed by a doctor. Most doctors are careful to not prescribe them when not necessary.

Exactly how I feel. As for hand sanitizer I have a small one in my purse in case I'm out and need sanitized now and can't wait to wash. The boys are good about washing their hands that's not a problem. Its the dang strep throat, croup, and than of course the fluids end up causing ear infections. A very minor illness can send Chip to hospital and admitted with his asthma.

Watchmelol...do teachers receive more of an income if children arnt absent??

I know at the boys school they are allowed 4 absenses and than they need a doctors excuse which irritates me to no end. A kid can be sick with a virus even with a fever and not need to rush to a doctor but not be well enough to go to school. My Tim gets chronic croup as soon as fall gets under way he's in a steamy bathroom all night I call the doctor knowing what he's going to say...keep doing what your doing as the only treatment for croup is steroids and we want to avoid them when we can...yet the school wants them seen. Tims doc gets more irritated about this than me and drafts up a letter saying we spoke over the phone and he's advised me to keep Tim home until xxx. School attendance is important but when a kid is sick they are sick.

Anyway realistically I knew vitamins wernt the answer to jeeping kids healthy but thought wonder if I'm wrong. Thank you I appreciate the knowledge you all have.

Playing in the dirt lol my boys are excellent at that haha.

Antibotics well yes the boys doctor thinks they are often over prescribed in children and unless its a case of strep throat or a raging ear infection he does not prescribe them. Viral infections do not respond to antibotics.

Rita Thats exactly what the boys doctor told me...they won't be sick nearly as often once they are out of elementary school. I remember jokingly telling the doc that the kids that dont dress for cold weather hats ect don't get sick maybe I shouldn't wear coats on the boys lol. He told me the healthy kids in earlier grades will be the ones getting sick in middle school and my boys will be healthy guys.

Elmer, I didn't say I withheld antibiotics from my children. I've visited the doctor and we've agreed to taken a wait and see approach on filling prescriptions. The doctor would write a prescription so we didn't have to come back in, but said to watch and see if it was really needed.

My basic approach to avoiding antibiotics was to get the kids outdoors and keep them active. We didn't stay cooped up and we didn't hang out with large crowds. I took the kids to the store, but we didn't go during rush hours.

What you said was

"keeping the kids off of antibiotics as much as you can particularly in the earlier years seems to help the immune system "

To which I ask, based on what?

Keeping them off of antibiotics means avoiding them. That's a different sentiment than what you've expressed the second time. Getting kids outdoors and active in their normal routines may have nothing at all to do with whether an antibiotic is needed for various common childhood afflictions. Like a painful ear infection, as a quick example, which an antibiotic knocks down in just a few days (but should be taken until all the medicine has been used, of course).

Teachers salaries are not based on the number of children that are present. The schools are funded by the state and must meet attendance requirements. Only a certain number of absences are allowed without a doctors note. And as to the original question, yes, I give a multi vitamin, can't hurt.

We avoided some antibiotics by not catching all of the illnesses in the earlier years. They had friends and they played together, but we limited exposure to large groups of people and places where we would constantly catch things from sick people. The children did catch colds occasionally and had a couple of ear infections, but their exposure to antibiotics were limited because they didn't have that many illnesses where they would need them. By the time they were exposed to various illnesses in public school, they usually didn't need antibiotics because they were older and had their own immunity.

For instance, my children have had sore throats, but I can't remember any of them actually ever testing positive for strep. We know other children who appear to have strep every year and are constantly taking an antibiotic for that or another illness. IMO, the antibiotic may be fighting the illness, but it is also decreasing the body's ability to defend itself. If the need for the antibiotic can be decreased, then maybe the body can build its own defenses. Once you get on the antibiotic roller coaster, it's hard to get off.

Teachers don't get more money for attendance but the school districts do and there is a lot of pressure on the schools to keep their attendance up.

The poor teachers are at the bottom of the pecking order. There is a lot of waste at the top and even at the PTA level. DD says she is joining the PTA to "keep an eye on things". School hasn't even started and she caught some shenanigans regarding the donation wish lists put out for classroom supplies. Turned out no one asked the teachers what they really needed. The list was changed to what was needed after DD called them on it.

Sometimes I feel like my own family is a micro-experiment where I get to see first hand how much genetics vs environment might play into things.

As an example, when each of my 4 children were born, once we came home from the hospital, I had a one month "quarantine" for lack of a better way to put it. The baby did not leave the house except for necessary doctors visits and we did not have visitors.

This was intentionally done for two reasons. One was to protect my newborns extremely fragile immune system and the other was to allow ourselves as a family unit to adjust to this new reality.

I've also never sent my kids to a daycare or nanny so they have all had basically the same (non)exposure to other children in their preschool years.

My 1st and 3rd both have the same blood type, look remarkably similar in face shape as well as general body composition (between 5 and 8 percent on height/weight charts) and both have had to have tubes in their ears and generally get sick more frequently.

My 2nd and 4th both have the same blood type, look remarkably similar in face shape as well as general body composition (between 50 and 75 percent on height/weight charts) and both get sick less often and when they do get sick, they bounce back faster than the other two.

All 4 have been raised in the same environment, had the same limited exposure to others as a young child, been taught the importance of hand washing and general hygiene AND gone to the same pediatrician so they have had the same medical care.

When my 2nd was 2 years old, she was severely burned. The burn doctors suggested, as part of her treatment, that she begin taking a daily multi vitamin. She and DD1 both began getting a multivitamin every night for a year. I saw no difference in getting sick before or after we were taking multivitamins daily.

In my personal opinion, genetics definitely play a role, and a far greater one than taking or not taking a vitamin might have.

The rest comes down to proper hand washing.

adella, you've convinced yourself you know what you're talking about. Maybe not anyone else, though.

As a young mother, I protected my first born like he was a little prince. I remember washing his crib and floors in his nursery with Lysol. I was a stay at home mother and he played with neighbor kids but only if they weren't sick. So then he went to school and missed so many kindergarten and first grade school days it was crazy. He had strep throat, ear infections. He ate well, got vitamins and certainly washed his hands at least when I was around. Then his immune system must have kicked in and from third grade to the last day of HS, he had perfect attendance, never missed a day. He's still that way and is a ranked mountain biker in this country.

I think there's more to it than hand washing. My first year of teaching in a preschool, I caught everything. Every nasty cold that went around. It was absolutely miserable and I am fastidious about hand washing. I never touched my face or ate before washing my hands, I never touched my phone, or other personal objects, and I washed before leaving. After about a year, I stopped getting sick, and it's been 6 months and not so much as the sniffles.

chi, new parents sometimes have the same experience. When our first kid began going to preschool, a variety of ailments started hitting the family including, for me, a series of ear infections. I sometimes had it twice a year, for the next 3 years. We all lived through it. But hand washing for later years and especially for adults does a lot.

Hand washing definitely helps and it's very important. All my fellow teachers warned me it would happen. I'm sure health care professionals go through something similar. I joke that now I have super immunity and hopefully I will stop getting sick when I travel. I've always seemed to catch a bug in the past.

Teaching kids good hygiene helps a LOT. Wash your hands regularly. Sneeze into a tissue or your elbow. That's one habit that's so hard for me because I was taught to cover my mouth with my hand. If anything, to avoid a cold I usually up my vitamin C. You can do this by eating an orange or if you're cutting back on sugars (yes, even those 'healthy' sugars) eat broccoli. Believe it or not, it's loaded with vitamin C. Or pop a pill.... ;) I rarely gave my kids vitamins. I have a hard enough time taking the Bio-Flex for my joints let alone try to remember to give my kids a vitamin. ;) I was good at making sure they got their prescription meds though.

This again... I haven't changed my position. "Healthy diet", helps, but if it's the end-all/be-all to health then healthy eaters wouldn't go to doctors, have surgery, vaccines/inoculations or other things. And then comes the issue of what IS a "healthy diet"? I won't go into that. But suffice to say that many people are fooled on what they consider a "healthy diet". Fresh fruits and vegetables are good for you but buying them in the produce section of the grocery store is not getting them what many think it's getting them.

Supplements? I firmly believe in some, for certain things. I've experienced the results of joint supplements and yes they help me. I can tell rather quickly if I stop taking them. When I do feel a cold coming on I too up the vitamin C. And another thing that strangely seems to work on that end, when I have the sniffles/sneezes is to wash my ears with peroxide. I can't believe how it (at least seems) to work.

Hand washing? Probably the best thing I've done over the years to help to avoid colds and flu. I carry sanitizer and use it when I can't wash my hands. And I'd prefer to use sanitizer than use public restrooms. Having had hip implants it's very important to avoid infections of any type.

The other thing I found important is to pay attention to the blood work, tests and such. If I'm low on something, then I examine diet, etc to see what I can do about it. Maybe I'm eating something that inhibits absorption of needed vitamins or something. Maybe I need something more to help absorb another, etc. Education went a long way to making for a surprising fast recovery following the surgeries.

The other thing that too many people don't realize is the importance of proper hydration. I carry water with me all the time. I've done this for years. And pop/coffee/tea/alcohol are not the best for hydrating you. You're really taxing your body in many ways by not keeping yourself properly hydrated.