Child Illnesses on the Rise: The Doc Smitty Explains What's Going On

“I feel like my child has been sick for 3 months.”

“When will this cough ever go away?”

These and similar questions have been the topic of the last month at my practice.

And while I know parents are annoyed and I’m annoyed and the kids are annoyed - everyone’s annoyed - most of the time we don’t need to be concerned.

Here’s why I think kids have been sick A LOT for the last few months:

1. Cold and upper respiratory virus season were delayed due to masks and social distancing-which are starting to go away.
2. A season of terrible weather changes from hot to cool, dry to wet and everything in between and back again.
3. A wicked allergy season which tons of mountain cedar, pollen, grass, mold, etc. (Thanks to all the rain.)
4. The beginning of summer illness season with lots of fevers and rashes and insect bites and swimmer’s ear.

We see all four of these things every year, but we usually see them spread out over six months instead of crammed into two.

So what do we do?

Try to keep calm. Several mild illnesses don’t necessarily mean something bad is happening-it’s usually just bad luck.

Talk with your doctor. If you’re worried something else is going on, ask your doctor.

Consider testing if in addition to several mild illnesses, you have some severe illness or mild illness that doesn’t respond to typical treatments.