Is it abnormal for a child to get sick several times a year?

[**All Heart RN**]

I'm a nursing student but I haven't gone through my OB/Peds rotation yet. My 3 year old niece seems to get sick several times throughout the year. She recently became sick (just a cold w/o a fever) 4 wks ago and is now sick again. She has also been sick earlier in the year. She's in preschool, so I know that children can be walking petri dishes but how often is it normal for a child to get sick?

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

Sounds pretty normal to me. As she gets older the frequency will fall, unless she has some sort of immunodeficiency, which is unlikely. Her immune system is just immature.

[rn/writer, RN]

Do kids get sick several times a year?

Uh, yeah. I had six and sometimes it seemed like there was always at least one who had some kind of bug. That happens. Their immune systems need time to acquire those immunities by exposure to diseases), and until they do, keep the Tylenol and the tissues handy. Oh, and the barf bucket, too.

Thank goodness for immunizations, or we'd still be dealing with mumps, measles, rubella, polio, chicken pox, and whooping cough.

A kid who isn't sick a couple of times a year would be the oddball.