Immunity among children.

First of all, I have to make myself clear that I am not advocating that our children drink dirty water or eat dirty food. What I am going to tell you might lead you to misunderstand me. Although there is a lot of truth in what a teacher told me, we need not resort to such drastic measures to achieve good immunity from sickness.

There was a time this lady was in Sarawak teaching the students in a very rural district. She told me that the students would drink unfiltered water. At the beginning, she was aghast to see that happen and, of course, she told them they would be sick drinking such dirty water. They laughed at her fears and told her that they had been drinking that kind of water since they were very young.

From the adults she gathered that that was true. Those who were weak did not survive but those who could reach the age of seven were already safe as they had achieved a kind a immunity against whatever bacteria that was found in the water.

I would not know whether medical people would agree that such immunity could be reached and is sufficient to prevent illness. What this lady did know was that those children hardly ever fall sick. They were tough, according to her.

When she related to me the story, I remembered a time during my childhood when I observed that Chinese children caught the cold so easily while Indian kids in the same area I lived in, Market Street, Penang, hardly sneezed or suffer from pneumonia. As I was then already interested in the subject of health, I watched those Chinese and Indian children regularly.

I noticed that at the slightest hint of rain, the Chinese parents would rush their children indoors and dressed them up in thicker clothing while the Indian children would play around in the rain and miraculously escape catching any cold virus. Perhaps the virus was washed or drained off by the falling rain. No, I believe they did managed to have their immune system destroy the virus. (In my earlier posting, I had written how I allowed my children to play in the rain after a few minutes rain had started to avoid acid rain. And until this day, as young adults, they seldom catch cold.) The sudden change in weather and temperature which they were used to did not affect them as it did the Chinese children.

Well, as you can see, I am a strong believer in the immune system and how it can prevent many sicknesses.

Thinking about those Sarawak children, there could have been some unnecessary deaths among some of the weaker children. They death toll could be too high. The way they achieve their immunity was a little too extreme. Moderation and understanding ought to be the the guideline for success in health. Thus, we ought not to purposely endanger our health but then a little weak bacteria, just as medical science inoculate weaker bacteria into our body, could be helpful to stimulate our immunity. Then again, we have to understand that if our constitution is weak, even a little bacteria can bring us down. So, it does not work for everyone. Perhaps, good hygiene must be practised at all times.

How about those who rush their children to a doctor the second the little one has a fever? Should we not allow the body the opportunity to gather its forces to fight the enemy, and in the process strengthen the body's own fighters? Most times, unless the fever was very high which necessitates the services of a doctor, I wet my children's face, especially the forehead, and sometimes the body, throughout the night and day to keep the temperature down. I have succeeded in bringing the temperature down this way. Of course, it will be a sleepless night for the parent but if we do not want our children to consume too much medicine this is one of the ways to overcome fever. However, I must warn that unless that is done for fever, the child has to be given medicine as fever can be dangerous; dangerous enough to affect the brain.

Of course, in making decisions of this nature, knowing and understanding the child and his/her state of health is important.