I think daycare is a big vector. However, anecdotally, it is said that day care kids are exposed to such a treasure trove of infections when they are young, that they don't get sick as much when they are older. Also, more cold symptoms is paradoxically often a sign of a strong immune system.

However, for some kids it's just not tolerable. Density is the mother of disease in humans and animals. For example, the two models of pasturing chickens, true-free-range and the "chicken tractor" model have different densities and different disease risks. The former your chickens die from accidents/predation, the latter they are more vulnerable to infections because while they are in pasture, they are clustered in pens.

Paleolithic humans did not live in the kind of densities represented by day care. They also breastfed for an average of three years or more. I think this highlights the fact that the health enjoyed by foragers is not just about nutrition.

You can tough it out or try to put him in a less-dense situation like with a family member, a smaller daycare, a nanny, etc.

BTW I was breastfed, never went to daycare, and had a stay-at-home mom and I still got sick all the time. In the paleolithic I guess babies like me would have died. So genetics/epigenetics (in my case my mother didn't have a very healthy pregnancy and my grandmother took questionable drugs when she was pregnant with my mother) may be at play as well.

I mean in my own life I'm quite curious if a baby would be super healthy with both paleo diet + lifestyle, but I'm not quite ready for that experiment yet.

Not all immune systems are created equal, I'm afraid. Being constantly sick, though, isn't normal. Keep working at it, I'd get another doctor's opinion as well. Or maybe it's just the Petri dish, that is daycare, that's causing all the problems.

Have you had his Vitamin D level tested?

I haven't been sick in over 2 years supplementing with oil-based D3 to get my blood level to 50-80 ng/ml.

Also, was he separated from his mom after birth? Respiratory illnesses have been linked to an interruption in mother/baby bonding. http://asthma-busters.org/research1.pdf

EFT can help with this.

I have personal experience with this, if you have more questions.

Virtually all 1.5yos get sick constantly. My daughter had her first tubes put in at 1.5 years and then another set a year later. Hopefully this will be the last since we're moving south. Here's some risk factors:

• Using daycare (timeshifts illness)
• Travel, for anyone in the family
• Not breastfeeding
• Living in a cold climate (dry air)
• Anesthesia (my daughter developed pneumonia afterwards)

Doctors often prescribe antibiotics and steroids (especially) unnecessarily because patients expect them or because they think they do. With tubes in and after the few weeks after getting them put in, tell the doctor you don't want the meds unless they're absolutely sure they're necessary. My daughter also picked up mono from daycare btw and a few variants of HFMD. The frequency seemed to be about twice a month at her daycare, which is large, until she turned about 2 and it dropped to every few months.

It's not a clear yes or no, but I do believe we all have our "weak link" and whatever attacks our system has a better chance of succeeding there.

In my case, it's my bronchial area. Every cold or flu winds up being bronchitis/walking pneumonia. My son inherited the tendency but my grandson did not.

For my brother, it's the stomach/colon but that may be because he abused them horribly when he was a jockey.

The old saying probably applies, "If it's not one thing, it's another" because very few of us are invulnerable.

My thoughts are:

1) It is a new human who has not built up its defenses yet

2) Day care is overexposing your child to too many viruses/germs at the same time

I really don't have any advice except to perhaps try to limit daycare or see if you can put him in a smaller daycare or pay a family member to care for him at home.

When I lived in Korea for a short while (teaching to little kids) I was sick a LOT (and I have a third world immune system!), but the plus side is that now I'm back in the states and have not been sick in years- so there is perhaps a silver lining to all this. Best of luck!

Don't overlook things outside of diet (although the suggestions in this thread are quite valid). Mold issues in the home for example could explain the frequent congestion, which in turn could provide a breeding ground for virus or bacteria.

Odd things like breakdown of fiberboard HVAC ducting, or outgassing of formaldehyde from newcarpeting, and a host of other things could be having an effect. "The Healthy House" is an interesting read, don't know if they've updated it for things like the contaminated imported sheetrock (wallboard) for example.

You honestly just described my childhood. I had 3 sets of tubes due to chronic ear infections for which I was on chronic antibiotics for. I was on antibiotics when I came out of the womb and for most of the first 3 years of my life. My eardrum eventually needed to be rebuilt because infections had literally ate away part of it and I don't think I'll ever hear as well out of that ear. Acne, GERD, depression, fatigue, arthritis, IBS followed over the last 23 or so years.

After I went grain, legume, crappy dairy, excess sugar, antibiotic, processed crap free, I realized that those things were probably responsible for just about every health issue I've ever had.

Get him off the damn antibiotics and remove gluten from his diet. Oh, wait, I can't tell you to do that soooo, if it was MY kid, that's what I'd do.

At age 3 my son was diagnosed with vasomotor rhinitis - constantly congested but not due to an infection or allergy, but for some mystery reason. Basically any irritant sets off the histamine reaction in his sinuses. This led to many ear and sinus infections and lots of antibiotics. We eliminated everything we could (pet, perfume, scented anything) to lessen the issue, put a humidifier in his room (removed this eventually), cleaned his nose daily with saline spray and got him on lots of vit d & c and probiotics. While I'm sure that all these things aided him, the only thing that halted the infections was growth. Now that he's 7 infections are much less, although he still gets congested. (apparently as ear an nasal canals grow wider they don't clog so easily).

Do you dose your kids every time they are sick? That could be part of the problem. My 2 and 4 year old have had colds and fevers (fever means my kids will be better in a couple days :)) and such, but have never had any meds. I think its important to let the immune system do its job properly without intervention whenever possible. You do have to educate yourself a bit to be comfortable with it though.

Also, I'd consider the possibility of birth trauma...specifically to the neck of any child delivered in a hospital. That can compromise a lot of structures associated with upper respiratory function and even drainage from the ears. If that is the case there are pediatric chiropractors.

And I agree that daycare could be a large factor also. My kids go to a house with 5-8 kids, but thats almost just a large family.

Edit: re-read your question and it seems you didn't "jump" to medication. So just skip the first paragraph all together.

I would look into allergy testing if you haven't already had it- my parents thought that I was getting sick all the time (flu bugs, cold, sinus/ear infections etc) from my daycare, but after some allergy testing we figured it was actually the farm beside the daycare (I'm allergic to grasses). Once we treated the grass allergies, the frequency of my other sicknesses decreased. We also eventually were able to afford to remove the carpet from our home and put in hard-flooring, which helped further.

Ironically lived in a community surrounded by farms, was breast fed to 18 months, played outside constantly, and my brothers and I are all allergic to cottonwood, grasses, pollen, and dust. Also, we all went through the "getting sick all the time" stage, but for all of us, again, frequency decreased when allergies were treated. When we did get sick, the symptoms were also less unpleasant to deal with.

I was sick with throat and ear infections all the time as a young child. Tubes and all didn't help. It was affecting my hearing, so they eventually took my adenoids and tonsils out and that resolved the issue for me.

Yes, genetics (whether it's directly related to the immune system or anatomical differences) can definitely be a factor.

However, I'd personally suspect that the steroids contribute. They work by suppressing the immune system. Use them if necessary (they're certainly better than being unable to breathe), and don't stop them cold turkey (they need to be weaned), but maybe find a way to keep him a little more sheltered when he does need to be on them so that his immune system has a chance to recover and avoiding a cycle of illness. If he needs inhaled steroids, wiping out his mouth (rinsing is usually recommended, but rinsing without swallowing is going to be difficult at best for a toddler) and brushing his teeth immediately afterwards will help prevent systemic effects.

I think predisposition is part of the picture, but it differs for everyone. For instance if you had HIV or AIDS and you wanted to conceive there there would be a chance you would pass it on there is no question there.

Anything you eat the baby would of eaten. If the baby is not breast-fed that will contribute to a weaker immune system for the child because immune cells are passed on via the milk.

I think environmental factors are of great importance here. For instance the problem of heavy metals, halides (fluoride etc) in the environment, not to mention PCB's, BPA, organic phospahtes...blah blah the list goes on. These would have been passed on to your child if you came into contact (which is a problem for everyone). Unborn babies have found to have higher levels of mercury than the mothers!

our species immunity is under genetic control. because there exist genetic diversity within our species one can only infer some are more immune than others. Actually this is fact and not conjecture.

I think the diet and petri dish point are very good and are worth looking into. The immune system is sometimes slow to mature and will not be ready until between 2-5 years of age. I would try to limit exposure to bugs as much as I could. If eliminating dairy does not help I would think he just has an immature immune system.

No. We are all exactly the same. This is in Declaration of Independence, an important scientific tract written by Thomas Jefferson, who, oddly enough, finished 3rd in the 200 meter final in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles in a time of 20.26; .46 seconds behind his exact equal Carl Lewis, who, like all men, is most definitely not gay, as this video confirms: http://youtu.be/jamJ4-C_TME