Faced with infectious diseases, we can distinguish two “schools” concerning the attitude to have towards young children : protect them since they are fragile people, with immature immune systems, or expose them, with the idea of stimulating their immune system, to “build their immunity”.
In reality, both approaches have their arguments and their limits, and it all depends on what we mean in each of them, and to what intensity we apply them.
A new study, carried out among 614 children, details what a high “infection load” in an infant meansin other words what a significant number of infections early in life mean for long-term health.
The study, the results of which were published in the JAMA Network Open (Source 1), was conducted with Danish children, from birth to the age of 10 or 13. Children with immune deficiencies or congenital diseases were excluded from the study, to avoid any bias. Episodes of infection such as colds, ear infections, tonsillitis, pneumonia, gastroenteritis and fever were recorded in a notebook, from the children’s birth to their 3rd birthday.
Infections and antibiotics for the future
The results showed that the overall infectious burden in early life was associated with increased risks of infections moderate to severe, as well as taking antibiotics, later in…
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