The importance of catching colds

When was the last time you had a common cold? A year? Maybe two years ago? With us all trying to live in such sanitary environments we are risking not only our health but the developmental health of our children. 

This really is a double-edged sword. To avoid spreading Coronavirus to the vulnerable we’re all trying to stick to the advice to sanitise at all times but in doing so we’re not able to play host to the more harmless strains of bacterial and viral diseases. 

Back in January 2020, just as Covid was in its infancy, I attended a wonderful lecture by Dr. Jayne Donegan, a GP and Homeopath with a wealth of knowledge on the subject of acute illness, especially illness in children. She explained that as children and adults, the body builds up toxins. The only way it can effectively eradicate those toxins is through an expulsion of mucous, faeces, vomit or sweat. When the body’s toxin bucket is full it looks for a virus to host so that it can have an acute response, i.e. nose running, fever, sneezing, etc and in doing so will effectively remove the toxins through secreting the mucous. So when a person is constantly catching colds, it has more to do with their overall toxin load than a weakened immune system, though of course that comes into play also. 

She further embellished to explain that catching colds for children is fundamentally important for their development, in that after a child has caught a cold they will jump up a developmental stage. This was something I’d never really considered. After your child has been poorly you naturally feel that things have gotten easier because you’re not dealing with the sleepless nights and vomit! But if you take a moment to reflect, you’ll probably remember that your child started walking after that terrible stomach flu, or started talking after they caught a cold. It was certainly true for my family. 

So my concern for my child is not “I hope he doesn’t get sick” but instead willing him to catch something! Yet try as I might, he doesn’t get ill. None of us do! And I know for sure he has toxins in there after he polished off a tube of Smarties over Christmas and I’m not even going to begin to think about what I ate over Christmas! 

Catching a cold and going through the motions of eradicating it from your system is basically a dry run for the next big deal. It’s our immune systems’ practicing so that it knows what to do if a serious virus comes along. This is why the child’s response is often so acute when they have a cold and why ours is less so. We’ve already done it before and know we’re equipped for Armageddon. They need all the practice they can get! 
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This blog article isn’t really supposed to provide a solution to the dilemma because, let’s face it… there isn’t one! But perhaps if we all hope and pray then the Universe might deliver to your family a good old common cold and you can consider yourselves the lucky ones! Happy New Year!

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