Taking care of sick children can be a rather challenging aspect of being a parent. Waking up in the middle of the night to the sounds of your child’s cough, feeling your child’s feverish body against yours, and cleaning up vomit is something you may be familiar with. We all knew there would be times like this in our parenting experience. It’s inevitable that kids get sick. It’s a necessary part of growing up, a normal part of childhood.

The general belief is that kids “catch” colds and flu from viruses that are circulating in the air or passed from others. Many people talk about a cold or flu “going around” as if it were making the rounds infecting every child in its path. The reality is that out of all the children exposed to the virus, only a portion of these children will get sick to some degree and others will not succumb to the disease at all. This is because viruses and bacteria are not the sole cause of disease.