Preschool-aged children average 6 to 10 upper respiratory infections per year, with 10 to 15 percent of school-aged kids clocking 12 or more.¹ That’s basically one illness a month for the school year.
Keep your children’s wellness on track
As a naturopathic doctor, I tell parents every day that frequent illness during childhood is normal. Every cold, every sniffle, every feverish Tuesday is essentially a training session for the immune system. But “normal” doesn’t mean you have to spend every September feeling helpless. There’s a way to support the immune-building process without the suffering that comes with such frequent illness.
The Mouth and Throat as the First Steps to Prevention
Most of us think about immunity as something that happens in the bloodstream, the lymph nodes, the gut. And that’s true. But the fight against pathogens often begins in the mouth and throat.
The oral and upper respiratory microbiome, the community of bacteria living in our mouth, throat, and nasal passages, is an active part of immune defense. A healthy, diverse microbial community recognizes pathogens early, competes with them for space and resources, and in many cases neutralizes threats before they travel deeper into the body.
The throat houses a ring of lymphatic tissue called Waldeyer’s ring, which functions as an immune-monitoring station. It’s constantly sampling what passes through and mounting responses. When the microbial community around it is balanced and thriving, that system works well. When it’s been disrupted by antibiotic courses, excess sugar, or repeated illness cycles, it becomes less effective.
This is one reason kids who get one infection often chain into another. It’s not bad luck; it’s biology.
The Kid Who Never Gets Strep
Researchers tried to understand why some children seemed remarkably resistant to streptococcal throat infections while others were more prone to these frequent infections. In the mouths of children with unusually healthy resistance to infections, they consistently found a specific bacterial strain: Streptococcus salivarius K12.²
This strain produces two natural antimicrobial compounds called salivaricins that actively fight against the main bacterial cause of strep throat and related infections. When K12 is well-established in the throat, it competes with the problematic strains and keeps them from taking hold.
Researchers gave this K12 strain to children with a history of recurrent throat infections in a clinical study. Children who completed a 90-day course showed greater than 90% reduction in streptococcal pharyngeal infections compared to the previous year.³ A separate retrospective analysis found that K12 use decreased pharyngotonsillitis incidence by about 90% and acute otitis media, or ear infections, by about 70%.⁴
There are specific probiotic supplements available with this K12 strain. These oral probiotics work differently than gut probiotics: They’re designed to be chewed or dissolved in the mouth so the strain can colonize the oral and throat tissue. These are ideal to start taking before the start of school to build up a healthy microbiome before fall illnesses start circulating.
Don’t Skip the Foundation
The oral microbiome piece is a powerful first step, but there are supporting preventative measures we can take to avoid missed school and work due to illness. Immune function at every level is downstream of basic nutritional status, and a few things come up consistently for kids who suffer from frequent illness.
Vitamin D. By September, many kids are already heading into a deficit. Sun exposure drops as school hours increase and fall sets in, and dietary sources of D3 are limited. Vitamin D plays a direct role in activating immune cells. It functions less like a vitamin and more like a hormone, essentially giving immune tissue its marching orders.⁵ I recommend most kids supplement with D3 through fall and winter.
Antioxidants from real food sources. Pathogens don’t just infect; they generate oxidative stress as part of how they damage tissue. Polyphenols and antioxidants from fruits and vegetables help the body clear that damage and recover faster. For kids with limited diets or picky eaters, this can be a struggle. In these cases, I look for a multivitamin built around concentrated whole food sources to deliver these compounds in a way isolated synthetic vitamins simply can’t match.
Vitamin C and zinc during acute illness and high-exposure periods are shown to shorten duration and support immune cell function.⁶ I think of these less as prevention and more as active response tools–things to reach for when you know exposure is coming or illness has already started.
The Tools I Typically Recommend for Immune Season
- Start with the daily foundation. A quality multivitamin, ideally sugar-free and without gummy fillers, which contribute to exactly the kind of oral dysbiosis we just discussed. Vitamin D3 through the winter months, and as much whole food variety as you can realistically manage. Not glamorous advice, but a nutritionally depleted kid is a more vulnerable kid, and this is where everything else builds from.
- Add oral microbiome support before school starts. Don’t wait until November when everyone is already sick. The oral microbiome takes time to establish, and starting a K12 oral probiotic a few weeks before the school year begins gives it the best chance to take hold.
- Have an acute support plan ready. When your child has a close-contact exposure, or when illness starts, having vitamin C, zinc, elderberry, and arabinogalactan on hand means you can respond quickly. Arabinogalactan, a prebiotic fiber from larch trees, is one of my favorites because it supports both the fast-acting and memory-building sides of immune response and is tolerated well, even in young children.
The Bottom Line
There’s a real difference between an immune system that’s well-nourished and working from a strong microbial foundation and one that’s running on empty. The mouth is a surprisingly good place to start paying attention. Give that ecosystem a little support this summer, and you may find September feels a little different this year.
References:
Heikkinen T, Järvinen A. The common cold. Lancet. 2003;361(9351):51–59. [Also cited in: Upper Respiratory Tract Infection. PMC. NCBI/NIH. Available at: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7151893]
Di Pierro F, Colombo M, Zanvit A, Risso P, Rottoli AS. Use of Streptococcus salivarius K12 in the prevention of streptococcal and viral pharyngotonsillitis in children. Drug, Healthcare and Patient Safety. 2014;6:15–20.
Di Pierro F, Colombo M, Zanvit A, Rottoli AS. Positive clinical outcomes derived from using Streptococcus salivarius K12 to prevent streptococcal pharyngotonsillitis in children: a pilot investigation. Drug, Healthcare and Patient Safety. 2016;8:77–81.
Di Pierro F, Risso P, Poggi E, et al. Use of Streptococcus salivarius K12 to reduce the incidence of pharyngo-tonsillitis and acute otitis media in children: a retrospective analysis in not-recurrent pediatric subjects. Minerva Pediatrica. 2018;70(3):240–245.
Aranow C. Vitamin D and the immune system. Journal of Investigative Medicine. 2011;59(6):881–886.
Hemilä H, Chalker E. Vitamin C for preventing and treating the common cold. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2013;(1):CD000980.
Note: These statements in this article have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
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