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Danielle Bean

Danielle Bean
Danielle Bean, a mother of eight, is editor-in-chief of Catholic Digest and Faith & Family. She is author of My Cup of Tea, Mom to Mom, Day to Day, and most recently Small Steps for Catholic Moms. Though she once struggled to separate her life and her …
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Rachel Balducci

Rachel Balducci
Rachel Balducci is married to Paul and they are the parents of five lively boys and one precious baby girl. She is the author of How Do You Tuck In A Superhero?, and is a newspaper columnist for the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia. For the past four years, she has …
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Lisa Hendey

Lisa Hendey
Lisa Hendey is the founder and editor of CatholicMom.com and the author of A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms and The Handbook for Catholic Moms. Lisa is also enjoys speaking around the country, is employed as webmaster for her parish web sites and spends time on various …
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Arwen Mosher

Arwen Mosher
Arwen Mosher lives in southeastern Michigan with her husband Bryan and their 4-year-old daughter, 2-year-old son, and twin boys born May 2011. She has a bachelor's degree in theology. She dreads laundry, craves sleep, loves to read novels and do logic puzzles, and can't live without tea. Her personal blog site …
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Rebecca Teti

Rebecca Teti
Rebecca Teti is married to Dennis and has four children (3 boys, 1 girl) who -- like yours no doubt -- are pious and kind, gorgeous, and can spin flax into gold. A Washington, DC, native, she converted to Catholicism while an undergrad at the U. Dallas, where she double-majored in …
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Robyn Lee

Robyn Lee
Robyn Lee is a 30-something, single lady, living in Connecticut in a small bungalow-style kit house built by her great uncle in the 1950s. She also conveniently lives next door to her sister, brother-in-law and six kids ... and two doors down are her parents. She received her undergraduate degree from …
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DariaSockey
Daria Sockey is a freelance writer and veteran of the large family/homeschooling scene. She recently returned home from a three-year experiment in full time outside employment. (Hallelujah!) Daria authored several of the original Faith&Life; Catechetical Series student texts (Ignatius Press), and is currently a Senior Writer for Faith&Family; magazine. A latecomer …
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Kate Lloyd

Kate Lloyd
Kate Lloyd is a rising senior, and a political science major at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire. While not in school, she lives in Whitehall PA, with her mom, dad, five sisters and little brother. She needs someone to write a piece about how it's possible to …
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Lynn Wehner

Lynn Wehner
As a wife and mother, writer and speaker, Lynn Wehner challenges others to see the blessings that flow when we struggle to say "Yes" to God’s call. Control freak extraordinaire, she is adept at informing God of her brilliant plans and then wondering why the heck they never turn out that …
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Tough Parents

what could be making us more resistant to illness?

Posted by Arwen Mosher in News on Saturday, July 14, 2012 12:00 PM

Here’s a piece of good news for those of us blessed with children: a recent study found that when exposed to a cold virus (to which they were not immune), parents were 52% less likely to catch it than non-parents.

Read the whole story here. It’s pretty interesting.

I was especially fascinated that they couldn’t figure out exactly why the parents in the study were less likely to get sick, but there was a significant difference. What do you think the reason could be?

image credit

Comments
9
Filed under benefits, children, colds, health, news, parenting, psychology

Comments

Page 1 of 1 pages

 
Posted by PamL on Saturday, Jul 14, 2012 2:40 PM (EDT):

I think it is because as parents we are exposed to millions of different germs that we then become immune to, even though we don’t know it. Kids are like walking germs, no offense really, they just are! I have 6 children, so we know! smile

I remember two of my kids getting the rotovirus years ago, which is a really nasty vomiting/diarrhea virus that lasts for like 7-10 days. It’s awful. I remember calling a doctor friend of mine in tears after my son vomited (again) on day 6 or 7 and asking her when it would be over and why were my husband and I not getting it. She said most likely, we were immune. But I don’t ever remember having this particular virus but somehow was immune. The body is amazing! smile

 
Posted by Sarah on Saturday, Jul 14, 2012 9:20 PM (EDT):

I agree.  Parents are exposed to more so we catch less, just like teachers and medical workers.  As for rotovirus, most kids get it before their preschool years so that’s probably why you don’t remember having it.  My son actually caught that when he was in the hospital for an abscess at 16months.

 
Posted by Anna on Sunday, Jul 15, 2012 3:30 PM (EDT):

Re:the first comments: the researchers checked to see if the subjects were already immune to that particular strain and they controlled for things like occupation.  So it wasn’t just that they’d had the illness and didn’t know it, nor was it about general exposure: a childless teacher would be more likely to get sick than a teacher with a child - who is more likely to get sick than a teacher with 3 or more kids. 
That was one thing I found so interesting: 3+ kids were better than 1 or 2 for your germ defenses (by quite a bit). 
And, even weirder to me, the kids didn’t even have to be living with the parents - so empty-nesters were still better protected from germs than their childless counterparts, even though they aren’t keeping their defenses up by constant exposure.
Sorry, Arwen, not even a guess for your original question - but thanks for posting such a fascinating link!

 
Posted by rachel on Monday, Jul 16, 2012 1:06 PM (EDT):

Perhaps there is something about a fully working reproductive system that pumps up the immune system. And there are other instances of body chemistry responding to those around us. A mother’s breast may leak at the sound of her infant crying, women’s periods seeming to synchronize. Perhaps the knowledge of children, who both bring more germs and need to be protected from serious germs, signals the immune system to work harder.  Just some thoughts, but I think one thing is obvious, we are more connected than we understand, or than science cares to admit wink We were made for communion.

 
Posted by Anna on Monday, Jul 16, 2012 1:29 PM (EDT):

Ooh, that responding body chemistry is a great thought!  I bet you’re right, it could be related to how breast milk changes depending on what baby needs, even if mom isn’t sick…

 
Posted by Sarah on Monday, Jul 16, 2012 2:02 PM (EDT):

This is interesting, because my experience has been the opposite. I get sick a LOT more than I used to since having kids. Before I had kids, I got one or two colds a year. After I had my first eight years ago, I was literally getting ten colds a year for awhile. It was especially bad when I had to go back to work full-time three months after she was born and she still wasn’t sleeping well, and again when she started preschool and was exposed to lots of germs. Now I have three kids, and and for the past three or four years I’ve been getting six or seven colds a year. So it’s not as bad as when I had my first, but I get sick a lot more than I did before I had kids.

 
Posted by PamL on Monday, Jul 16, 2012 2:48 PM (EDT):

Maybe because you are sleep deprived your immune system is weaker rather than stronger?

I find that when I am exercising regularly, even if I start getting a cold, it goes away much quicker than if I am not exercising. The bad part is when you start getting a cold, you don’t want to exercise. But if I make myself do it, it is always better.

 
Posted by Monica (momof2) on Monday, Jul 16, 2012 7:30 PM (EDT):

I still get sick a lot more now that I have kids, even though I’ve been sleeping through the night for years, than I did before kids.  I still get 8 - 10 colds a year (the same number my kids get) whereas before kids I got 3 - 4.  My youngest is 10.

 
Posted by baby furniture BabyBot on Tuesday, Jul 17, 2012 4:33 AM (EDT):

Interesting article. What I think is parents are exposed to any kind of diseases because of their children which means they are immune. I think the antibodies are get stronger as they adapted to the environment with children. Our body do amazing things and this is one amazing adaptation is one.


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