Why does a child often get sick in kindergarten? The child is constantly sick in kindergarten The child is often sick in kindergarten what to do
Finally, the baby has grown up, and a new stage appears in his life - the baby is ready to attend nursery preschool. The first days of adaptation, getting to know the group, the children, and now the parents can breathe easy, the child is settled. But after just a month of going to the garden, the first colds may begin to appear, turning into a vicious circle: two weeks in the garden, then a month at home on sick leave. Let's try to find out what to do to avoid getting sick in kindergarten and whether it is even worth taking a child who often gets sick in kindergarten to kindergarten.
Causes of common illnesses in kindergarten
The child’s first year in kindergarten is spent in socialization mode. Separation from mom, restructuring the body to a new daily routine, adjusting to children's team– all of the above are mini-stresses. For a “home” baby, such innovations can cause a weakening of the immune system. For parents, a series of endless illnesses of the child becomes a real problem. To start fighting a problem, you first need to find its root cause.
Psychological factor
This is the first reason why diseases drag on one after another. The child is comfortable at home, and as soon as he spends a couple of days in the garden after recovery, he falls ill again. There is an explanation for this. There are children who crave communication, and there are those who have difficulty withstanding large crowds of people (read: children). And it is likely that the baby is in constant discomfort while visiting the garden. Hence, changes in behavior, poor sleep, appetite, and as a result, weak immunity.
Maximum group configuration
In most municipal preschool institutions, kindergarten groups consist of 25-35 people. Accumulation of children in one or two rooms with an area of 30-40 sq.m. leads to too close contact, and contributes to the constant “walking” of the virus throughout the group.
Poor condition of the premises
Lack of repairs in the group may be one of the reasons why a child is constantly sick in kindergarten. Old buildings with a hint of renovation, catastrophic cracks in the windows and icy floors lead to strong drafts. This deplorable condition placement in the autumn-winter period leads to an increase in the incidence of children in the group.
Weak immunity before the garden
If by the time your child visits a preschool institution, the outpatient card has already acquired a “plumpy” appearance and there is a mark on the cover of the FBD (frequently ill child), then you should not flatter yourself with hopes that everything will change in the kindergarten. Given to the garden, such a baby gets sick every week, even if the illness is limited to a runny nose. Constant illness can weaken the child so much that treatment will be accompanied by antibiotics.
Within normal limits - how often a child can get sick
A certain number of acute respiratory viral infections suffered by a child per year are included in the concept of normal. Russian pediatricians agree that during the entire school year, a child attending a preschool institution can get sick up to 10 times. But taking into account the additions:
— illnesses proceeded without complications (pneumonia, bronchitis, otitis, etc.);
- each illness was not accompanied by a prolonged temperature above 38-38.5 degrees.
If the number of medical certificates your child has in a year exceeds 11 or more, there is cause for concern. The main end goal is to figure out how to get sick less. It is necessary to look for the reasons why the baby’s body does not cope properly with pathogens.
First of all, parents should be interested in their child being healthy. If you constantly let the healing process take its course, then there is a chance that by the time the child goes to school he will have a “bouquet” of chronic diseases of the upper and lower respiratory tract.
In order for your child to get sick less, try to follow simple tips, which will help boost the baby’s immunity and keep it in good shape, with constant contact with children in kindergarten.
1. Treatment until complete recovery
As soon as the first cold, “earned” in the garden, appears on the threshold, try to cure the baby conscientiously, until the last sneeze. The main reason why children often get sick in kindergarten is that parents hastily get a certificate as soon as the fever passes and take their untreated child to kindergarten. As a result, the child, often still coughing, quickly picks up the pace of illness again and comes down with more serious symptoms, having managed to infect a good half of the group.
2. Clothes and shoes for the season
Remember how our grandmothers told our mothers: “Don’t wrap him/her up like that!” A child who is steamed under three layers of clothing will have a disruption in thermoregulation and it will not be difficult for a sweaty little one to catch a cold, especially if the caregivers often like to open the windows for ventilation. Also keep in mind that children walk in the garden every day and in almost any weather. Take care of high-quality waterproof shoes and clothing.
3. Strengthening the immune system
How can you strengthen it, this immunity, you say, when diseases come one after another. Start with nutrition. The child should eat fresh fruits every day: apples, pears, bananas, whatever is available to your wallet. If it is not possible to organize good nutrition, or the child refuses to eat healthy food, pay attention to vitamin complexes - daily daily norm vitamins helps strengthen the immune system.
Important! Please note! Even ordinary ascorbic acid can fight off a cold. Start giving your child vitamins from the first days of autumn, remembering to consult your doctor first.
4. Healthy lifestyle
Sport and movement are life. Daily five-minute exercises with your baby in front of the garden will lift not only your mood, but also your immune system. The simplest movements will do: bending over, squats, jumping in place. Whether to harden the child or not is another question, but at least don’t wrap him in two or three socks and allow him to drink from the refrigerator occasionally. Since childhood, a throat accustomed to cold is less prone to sore throats and laryngitis. Also, make it a rule to ventilate the room before going to bed; fresh air will help your baby fall asleep quickly and soundly.
5. Delay visiting kindergarten
If the series of endless illnesses does not end and you are already tired of being sick, and the child is exhausted with pills and injections, the question arises whether to take them to the kindergarten at all and how advisable it is. Consult an immunologist; perhaps it is best for your child to avoid attending preschool. As a last resort, take a “break” for the summer - in three sunny months the baby will gain vitamins and sun, which will increase resistance to colds. And if you manage to breathe sea air, then the effects of such health therapy will be enough for the whole coming year. academic year.
Important! Note! Many parents do not have the opportunity to stay at home with their baby. In such a situation, try to look for groups with fewer children (private or family kindergartens) or change the team - perhaps the child did not like the particular group “for the climate.”
In the first year, attending kindergarten is not easy for many children and their parents. We'll tell you what preventive measures can be taken to prevent frequent illnesses:
- do not self-medicate, and at the first signs of illness, visit a doctor with your child. You may not notice developing inflammation behind such harmless symptoms as fever and hoarseness of voice. Treatment should be carried out by a doctor;
— teach your baby to be hygienic. Many diseases can be avoided by simply washing your hands with soap in time;
- if a child has a runny nose, use disposable tissues or toilet paper. Reusable fabric scarves are a breeding ground for infection. Each time the child comes into contact with a used handkerchief, the child “grabs” a new portion of germs;
— in the garden, the infection can be transmitted through common objects and toys. Stop your child from chewing or putting foreign things in his mouth. Make sure that your child always has a personal scarf and a spare change of clothes in his locker; do not allow him to take and use other people’s things.
You should not definitely register your child as a frequently ill person, even if over the course of a year you can count on your fingers how many times he went to kindergarten. Having undergone adaptation to the end and having been ill for the first year and a half, children “outgrow” and there are fewer and fewer colds each time.
The most common opinion explaining frequent illnesses is the systematic exchange of bacilli. Most of them are related to colds and are unable to affect a baby with good immunity. The reason should be sought in the decline protective function body.
Colds with roots in nervous tension
Nervous tension provokes a weakening of the immune system. The child may not outwardly show any signs of anxiety or reluctance to go to kindergarten, but kindergarten will still be a burden on the baby’s nervous system. A large number of children and vigorous activity, which can be interesting and exciting, increases the child’s fatigue. Constant overexcitation triggers the body's defensive reaction, and the baby... The likelihood of this effect can be reduced by gradually increasing the time spent in kindergarten or by taking an additional day off in the middle of the week.
The reason is difficult adaptation
A child’s difficult adaptation to kindergarten is manifested in a reluctance to let his parents go, constant questions about when he will be picked up, and a lack of communication with other children. The result will not be long in coming - nervous exhaustion.
Many parents in this situation make a huge mistake, which in the future does not allow them to escape from vicious circle. A sick child receives excessive care and attention. Uncontrolled hours of watching cartoons, availability of your favorite toys, lack of rules and only your favorite foods. As a result, illness becomes the joy of life.
And now the time comes to go to the garden again, where a team awaits, to which it is necessary to adapt, educators who will not rush to fulfill the slightest whim and a number of rules. So what's going on? A week-long visit to the garden ends with illness. In some cases, the situation can drag on for months or even years. We will have to take measures that will make sick leave “unprofitable” for the child. Just a few phrases from the list: “Sick children don’t watch cartoons,” “Don’t jump around the apartment, you’re sick,” you can continue the list at your own discretion. Illness should become boring. We can say with confidence that after one or two relapses, “healing” occurs and the child stops getting sick.
“Sinking into illness” is observed in children with communication difficulties. Therefore, in the fight against systematic colds, do not forget that his social contacts require correction. If your child couldn’t find a friend in the garden, go for a walk with someone from the group on a day off. Having a friend in the group will certainly solve the issue of adaptation.
Attending preschool plays a huge role in the development of every child. In kindergarten, children learn to find common language with peers, communicate with adults, gain a lot of new knowledge and skills. However, it often happens that a child who has never been sick at home begins to get sick every two weeks upon entering kindergarten. In the post-Soviet space, a special term “frequently ill child” has even been introduced, which is applied to kindergarten students who get sick more than 6 times a year. However, in most civilized countries it is believed that a child undergoing painful conditions up to 10 times a year is the norm for organized child care institutions. Where is the source of health problems for kindergarten children, and what should parents do to prevent their children from getting sick?
Causes of frequent illnesses in kindergarten students
Statistics say that those children who attend kindergarten get sick only 13% more often than those who do not go to it. Moreover, in the first year, as a rule, most children get sick, in the second this figure drops to 20%, and in the third year preschool education Already, only 10% of children do not go to kindergarten due to illness. The severity of diseases also decreases over time. All this suggests that the immune system is actively developing in the child’s body. So why do children get sick?
Weak immunity
The development of the human immune system begins in utero. However, the fetus appears to be biologically foreign to the mother’s body, therefore, in order to prevent rejection, it is protected by the placenta and has high suppressor activity. That is, the immune response of the unborn child is constantly suppressed. From the moment of birth, the active formation of the baby’s immune system begins. In this case, it is necessary to distinguish between general and local immunity.
Good to know: the mechanism of general immunity is triggered if microbes penetrate the blood and tissues of the body, and the local one reflects the constant attacks of billions of viruses and bacteria that come from environment on the skin and mucous membranes.
Thus, if a child often gets sick, but his body copes with the disease easily and quickly, then he has good general immunity, but poor local immunity.
Large children's group
Coming to kindergarten for the first time, a child is faced with a flora that is completely unfamiliar to him, to which he still has to get used to and adapt. He has to deal with many new microorganisms. The carriers of these microbes are other children with whom he plays all day long, exchanges toys, and contacts in other ways. Since there is currently a shortage of places in kindergartens, groups are filled to the maximum, so at the same time there can be 25-35 pupils in a room whose area does not exceed 30-60 square meters. Some of them may have mild manifestations of the disease, others may be carriers of the infection.
Good to know: even if all these children are healthy, a newcomer can get sick literally after a few days spent in the garden, since his body will react to microbes still unknown to him.
In addition, the pathological microflora in the children's group is constantly updated, since debutant children are most likely carriers of previously unknown species of bacteria and viruses in the group. It will take a couple of years for the children to adapt to each other’s flora and develop resistance to pathogenic microorganisms.
Also, we should not forget that for every mother, her child is one and only, and before a walk in the winter season, she carefully checks whether her child is wearing warm socks, whether a button on his jacket is undone, or whether the scarf is tied. And the kindergarten teacher and nanny have as many as 35 students, so each of them has a chance of catching a cold due to a banal oversight.
Parents' guilt, system problems
In order for one of your classmates to get sick, you need a source of infection, and in the kindergarten group they are found all the time. Very often circumstances, financial and other personal problems force the mother to bring not quite healthy child. In turn, the teacher must send the sick child home, but this also does not always happen. It’s no wonder that this could turn out badly for his peers.
Condition of the premises and microclimate
Most kindergartens are located in old buildings that have not undergone major renovation for a long time. Often there are wooden windows installed, which for many years dried out, loosened and leaking drafts, the floor is always cold, and the radiators are barely warm. It is not surprising that in such conditions children often catch colds or catch viral and other infections.
Good to know: the microclimate in kindergartens where children play and sleep has a huge impact on the incidence of illness among children.
Thus, during the heating season, air parameters do not at all correspond to the sanitary and hygienic standards and rules in force in preschool institutions. Normally, the air temperature should reach a maximum of 22 degrees, and humidity should be maintained at 40-60%. However, the following situation is often observed in kindergartens during the heating season: the temperature is 25 and above, and the humidity is 25% and below. And such conditions are detrimental to the local immunity of children. At the same time, the premises are rarely ventilated, which creates conditions for the accumulation of pathogenic microorganisms.
Psychological factor
Frequent respiratory diseases in a child attending a preschool institution may have a psychosomatic cause. Children are forced to get used to completely new conditions of existence for them, a daily routine, to be separated from their families, to obey absolutely stranger- a nanny or teacher. All this affects the moral state of each child. In addition, the baby may have conflicts with classmates, or in parallel with adaptation in kindergarten, discord and quarrels may occur in the family.
Stress negatively affects children's immunity; their body becomes more susceptible to the influence of various pathogenic microorganisms. That is why parents should know how to help their child adapt to kindergarten.
When a baby gets sick for the first time after starting to attend preschool, his family tries to please him in everything, indulges his whims in every possible way, and this is a big strategic mistake. For several weeks after such an unpleasant stay in kindergarten, the child plunges into an atmosphere of permissiveness and completely forgets that at the very beginning of the illness he had any unpleasant symptoms. When it’s time to go to the garden again, his body triggers defense mechanism, he falls ill again in order to extend his stay at home, where he feels so good.
No matter how often a child gets sick, what is much more important is how his body copes with these diseases. If he manages to defeat the infection within a week and at the same time medicines To eliminate symptoms, they are used in minimal quantities, then there is no need to sound the alarm, this is a natural process of formation of the immune system. However, when any viral infection has bacterial complications, if you constantly have to use antibacterial agents, then you need to look for the reasons for this condition of the baby.
How to protect your baby from diseases?
It is impossible to completely rid your child of diseases; it is unnatural. But by following certain rules, you can significantly reduce the incidence of illness in a child who goes to kindergarten.
Choosing a preschool
Prevention of common illnesses in a kindergarten child begins with the choice of a preschool institution. You can chat on the playground with the mothers of slightly older children who are already attending kindergarten, find out their opinions, ask about the size of the groups, ask about the attitude of the teachers towards the kids, how attentive they are and whether sick children are accepted into the group. You can also contact your local pediatrician with questions about kindergartens. As a rule, children from all surrounding kindergartens are brought to him, therefore, he knows the children from which institution get sick more often.
Important: before you start registering your daughter or son for kindergarten, you should also ask to inspect the room where the child will spend most of the day.
The rooms should be bright and spacious, and in winter they should have optimal temperature and humidity. It is very desirable that in kindergarten, where the child will go, there was a nurse who would be able to isolate the patient from the healthy children in the group until his parents arrived, and would also provide him with assistance if necessary.
Strengthening the immune system
One way to prevent colds and infectious diseases in children is hardening. allow you to strengthen the immune, nervous and endocrine systems.
These include such basic actions as daily active walks and outdoor sports, sleeping in a well-ventilated area, for example, with the window open, water procedures, barefoot. Moreover, a child can walk barefoot not only in summer (both outside and at home), but also indoors in winter. Both hypothermia and overheating are harmful to the immune system, so children should not be bundled up; they should be dressed in accordance with the weather conditions and the temperature regime that is followed in kindergarten. It should also be remembered that immunity is higher in those children who move actively, have the opportunity to splash in ponds in the summer, play in the sand, eat as they develop an appetite and drink chilled drinks.
At the same time daily diet The child’s diet should be complete and include cereals, meat, dairy foods, vegetables and fruits, and occasionally seafood. Advice: if you are planning a trip to the sea with your child in order to strengthen the immune system, then it is advisable that its duration be at least a month, since he will need the first couple of weeks to adapt to new climatic conditions.
Positive condition children's health systematic physical activity. Regular exercise can improve heart function and condition nervous system, strengthen muscles, improve posture, increase appetite, lift your mood and strengthen your immune system. But we must not forget that it negatively affects the health of children. So, if parents allow themselves to smoke in the presence of their child, then his growing body suffers greatly from this, or, for example, atmospheric air pollution in big cities is much higher than in the countryside, so a country walk, hike or picnic on weekends will be very useful for the whole family.
Clean hands - healthy child
Pathogenic microorganisms are transmitted not only through the air (airborne infection), but also settle on various common objects, such as door handles and toys. If you touch these objects, they will inevitably end up on the surface of the skin.
Even adults touch their eyes, nose, and lips with their hands throughout the day, and small children can put their fingers in their mouth and nose up to 300 times a day. And since millions of different germs accumulate on your hands, you need to wash them with soap as often as possible. The child should be taught to perform this simple operation after a walk or visiting the toilet, before eating and always when dirty. You should also explain to your baby that putting anything in his mouth, especially outside the home, is absolutely unacceptable. Unwashed hands can cause a viral, bacterial, fungal infection or even helminthic infestation, which will invariably negatively affect the health of the baby.
Microclimate
Not only in preschool institutions must adhere to sanitary and hygienic standards and rules. At home you need - you need to support optimal temperature air and humidity, and also monitor air quality, you should remove all possible dust collectors, and carry out wet cleaning as often as possible.
Important: you need to protect the child’s nasal mucous membranes from drying out, since overdried mucous membranes are an ideal environment for the development of infection.
For this purpose, it is useful to irrigate the baby’s nose with saline solution in the morning and upon his return from kindergarten.
Medicines that don't cure
There are several myths about preventing diseases in children who are preparing to enter preschool. They consist in the fact that if you take a course of vitamin preparations or immunomodulators, this will help strengthen the baby’s immunity. But neither one nor the other pharmacological drugs are capable of increasing the body's resistance to various infections. Moreover, any drug treatment for an already sick child should be used only when absolutely necessary. Children's immunity is in its infancy; it is just learning to repel attacks from viruses, bacteria and other microbes.
Good to know: even if your child has a fever or a cough, wait a minute to feed him antipyretic and expectorant medications, and even more so, give him antibiotics.
We need to try to help the body defeat the infection. on our own. To do this, it is enough to maintain an optimal microclimate in the room, give the child more to drink, eat only when desired, and moisturize the nasal cavity with saline solution. You need to start lowering your body temperature when it reaches 38 degrees.
After recovery, you should not immediately take your child to kindergarten; his body needs time to fully restore its strength. After this, the quarantine must last for at least three days.
If the illness is severe, the child may need up to two weeks. A weakened child should be isolated from his peers, because he runs the risk of immediately catching another infection, since his immunity is depleted. Also, you should not take your sick baby to kindergarten. After all, there is no guarantee that if his illness manifested itself only with a runny nose and cough, then in another child its course will be just as mild.
Flu shot
This method of protection against the most common respiratory disease is 70-90% effective, but the body of a vaccinated child, if the disease develops, will cope with the infection much faster. Vaccination must be repeated annually, preferably before the start of the epidemic period (in September-October).
The best age
The best time to start attending kindergarten is considered to be the age of 3-4 years, since before this time the immune system of children is not yet able to produce memory cells, and psychologically they are not yet ready to be separated from their mother. In addition, at this age children already have all the necessary self-care skills.
Love and understanding
If a child is often sick, then it is important to surround him with love and care and not drag him into family conflicts.
Advice: for a child who has difficulty adapting to kindergarten, you can develop your own visiting schedule. For example, take an extra day off during the week.
But you shouldn’t leave your child too often either. If a child feels that he can benefit from his painful condition, he will unconsciously strive to get sick again and again. Being sick must be boring.
If all the measures taken do not bring the desired result and the baby gets sick too often, then you can postpone admission to kindergarten for a year.
My child is sick in kindergarten, what should I do? Video
Are you tired of your child getting sick so often in kindergarten? 2 days in kindergarten = 2 weeks on sick leave? Do you want to stop your torment and the torment of your child?)
In this article I would like to talk in detail about why children get sick in kindergarten.
Many people believe that diseases in the garden are the result of children “exchanging bacilli” with each other. There is, of course, some truth here, but no disease can affect a child with strong immunity. Especially when you consider that the main diseases in the garden are common colds.
So why do children get sick in kindergarten?
The thing is that the immune system weakens due to nervous tension. If a child constantly cries, does not let his parents let go, and then gets sick, then often the parents themselves understand that it is because of nerves.
But a child may like to go to kindergarten, he calmly lets his mother go, but still gets sick in kindergarten.
There are a lot of children there who make noise all the time; there is always some kind of activity going on there, even if it’s interesting, but that doesn’t make it any less tiring. And as a result, from constant overexcitation, the child’s body turns on a defense mechanism, and the child gets sick.
This effect can be minimized. To do this, the time spent visiting kindergarten must be increased gradually. Or there is another option: at first, give your child a day off in the middle or at the end of the week.
The second option is a child who gets sick in kindergarten due to difficult adaptation. With all the accompanying signs: does not let go of parents, constantly asks about them, does not play with children, and the like.
Therefore, again, the child’s nervous system is depleted and he gets sick.
Such diseases are called psychosomatic. This is a child's defense mechanism.
Look where I talk in more detail about the nature of such diseases:
When a child is ill, parents often make a big, big mistake.
When a child is ill, they carry him around like a sack. He is allowed to do whatever he wants. He watches cartoons for hours, plays with all the toys, and, in general, enjoys life.
And then he is again taken to the kindergarten, where he must adapt to the team, to the rules of behavior, where the teacher does not rush headlong to fulfill all his whims. And being sick at home is so good...
And guess what happens to the child after a maximum of a week of visiting the kindergarten?
Right. He gets sick again, he is again cared for and cherished. And if he also sits with his grandmother, then she usually spoils him so much that he definitely doesn’t want to go to kindergarten later.
How to break out of this vicious circle? After all, this can last for a very long time, not only a couple of months, but also a year, or even two.
It is necessary to make sure that it is “unprofitable” for the child to be sick. That is, to exclude all the benefits of disease. “Sick children should not watch cartoons,” “Sick children should not jump around the apartment like a saiga,” and the list goes on.
It must be boring for a child to be sick. And then it happens miraculous healing, with a maximum of one or two relapses. And then the child stops getting sick.
Only here it is worth taking into account the fact that it is mainly children who “go into illness” who have some difficulties in communication. These are usually modest and shy children. And, in addition to the fact that you are getting your child out of constant pain, do not forget to establish his social contacts.
Go for a walk or visit with someone from the group on the weekend. After all, if a child has at least one friend in the group with whom he can play, then adaptation will proceed much faster.
Dear parents, remember that diseases in the garden are a surmountable phenomenon. And if a child is often sick in the garden, then you should not give up.
P.S. Does your child get sick often? How did you fight? Share your experience with other parents!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Irina Terentyeva: child psychologist, fairytale therapist.