How to boost kids’ immune system with food and supplements

Whether it’s COVID-19 or the common cold, parents know that children are always bringing home bugs — and not the six-legged kind.

Daycares, mommy-and-me classes, playgrounds and doctors’ offices are filled with germs that kids seem to pick up and spread to anyone and everyone around them. So what makes kids’ immune systems different than adult immune systems, and how can we boost our children’s immune systems so they spend less time being sick and more time enjoying life?

Understanding kids’ immune systems

First, it’s important to understand that kids’ immune systems work differently than grown-ups’.

The mucous membranes in a child’s airways are considerably more active than those of adults, according to a 2021 study in the journal Nature Biotechnology. These membranes react much faster to viruses: Not only are childrens’ mucous membranes more active than grown-ups’, they also produce many more antibodies that fight infection.

On the other hand, kids are constantly putting items in their mouths and touching everything around them as they learn sensory perception, and those little hands inevitably make it to their mouths, eyes, ears and noses.

According to Dr. Anjuli Gans, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the blessing in disguise is that sometimes the more your kid gets sick, the better their immune system knows what to do for the next time. And with kids, there’s always a next time.

Newborns are at greater risk for illnesses than young children, since an infant’s immune system doesn’t mature until they’re around 2 or 3 months old. In the meantime, according to Dr. Camille Sabella, a pediatrician at the Cleveland Clinic, a mother’s immune system does continue to protect her infant with antibodies that are shared through the placenta immediately after birth and stay active for the first few weeks of life.

Sarah Tanner, a mom of five from Sammamish, Wash., is an optometrist. Her husband is an emergency room physician, so they’re both constantly exposed to germs that don’t belong to them.

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“Our first babies were a set of identical twin girls, born six weeks early. Until they reached their due date and a healthy full-term weight, we implemented extra protocols to avoid spreading germs to them,” Tanner says. “When the babies were about 6 weeks old, their grandmother came to visit. I recall she had a slight cold at the time, so we had her wear a mask inside the house.”

As their family grew, Tanner and her husband looked to their pediatrician for advice on building their children’s immune systems. “Her advice was simple avoidance of germs as much as possible,” says Tanner. “That and vaccinations. As parents who are also physicians, we also felt that herbal supplementation lacked the evidence we needed to be comfortable giving them to our babies without a doctor’s recommendation.”

So, can you boost a child’s immunity?

According to Dr. David Stukus, a pediatric allergy and immunology specialist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, simply put — not really.

“There’s no high-quality evidence that supports the use of any supplement to ‘boost’ a child’s immune system,” he tells Yahoo Life. “There’s very good evidence that vitamin C doesn’t prevent colds and neither does high-dose vitamin D.”

Attempting to boost immunity, Stukus says, can even have unintended negative consequences, especially for children with allergies and other immunosuppressive conditions, making their immune systems overactive enough to cause health impairment.

Stukus urges parents to focus on their child’s overall health instead of “quick fixes with good marketing.”

“Overall health is how children’s immune systems are actually supported,” he says. “This includes eating a wide variety of healthy foods, consistently getting 10 to 12 hours of sleep each night, regular activity and exercise and stress reduction through relaxation.”

Take folk remedies with a grain of salt — or a spoonful of elderberry

In addition to plenty of fruits and vegetables and a healthy diet, many parents look to age-old home remedies for boosting their children’s immune systems, some with more scientific evidence behind them than others.

Some vitamins and minerals that are said to aid in proper — but not “boosted” — immune system function include:

• Zinc, which may aid in reducing inflammation and help build immune cells.

• Vitamins A, C, D and E, which could support cellular function in the immune system and act as anti-inflammatories and anti-oxidants.

• Iron, which may help carry oxygen to blood cells, helping them fight infection more efficiently.

• Echinacea, which is said to increase the number of white blood cells.

• Honey, which could have anti-inflammatory, immune system and antimicrobial benefits.

Stukus says these more holistic remedies aren’t proven to increase immune health.

“Most of them…