After Dr. Wolynn's Notation teaching the states most what colds ARE, I idea information technology would be a good time to list the Meridian ten Cold & Influenza Myths…

x. Drinking milk will make your cold worse.

While milk (especially any milk with fat in information technology) may coat your throat and brand you experience more mucousy, at that place's no evidence that it increases mucous production in children. 1 of the all-time things you can do for a cold is to stay hydrated, so if a kid wants to drink milk, drink away!

9. "Feed a cold, starve a fever."

There's no need to starve a cold OR a fever. Eating a healthy nutrition, whether you have a common cold or a fever, is a good idea. Your body needs expert nutrition to office and recover at its best, and then if you're hungry, eat!  That being said, kids often lose their appetite when they're sick, and that's fine as well. Forcing them to eat when they don't desire to by and large isn't a expert idea, because yous're more likely to upset their stomachs fifty-fifty more. When they feel better, they'll eat actress nutrient to make upwardly for those lost pounds. All the same, it is very important to make certain children drink when they take colds. Staying well hydrated is one of the best things you lot tin can do for yourself while yous're sick.

viii. Chicken soup will make you better faster.

Well, really, at that place may be a bit of truth to this! Some studies accept shown chicken soup has an anti-inflammatory effect in rats, but this hasn't been reproduced in humans (still). Either way, eating soup is a great way to stay hydrated, and it makes great comfort food.

7. Vitamin C, echinacea, and zinc will make you lot better faster.

Non necessarily. There have been mixed results with each of these. Some studies suggest a minimal shortening of cold symptoms, and some studies show no improved outcome at all. Many of these studies have used widely varied doses, and at that place is very picayune inquiry on these in children. Nosotros know that being scarce in vitamins and minerals can harm your allowed system, only in that location's no proof that taking extra doses volition assist. And in large doses, they're often associated with meaning side effects like rashes, breadbasket upset, and fifty-fifty harm to your sense of smell (with large doses of nasal zinc). Lesser line: all-time thing to do is make sure y'all have a salubrious, well-balanced diet.

vi. Over The Counter (OTC) cold and cough medicines will cure a cold faster.

The bad news is, they won't. In fact, peculiarly in younger kids, cold medicines tin can actually make things worse past masking symptoms or having unwanted side furnishings. Tylenol (acetaminophen) and Motrin (ibuprofen) tin can assist bring a fever downwards and brand a kid more comfortable, but they won't brand them improve faster. Cough and cold medicines may accept the border off of older kids' symptoms, but they won't make them improve faster.

5. Antibiotics will cure a cold.

Again, the bad news is that they won't. Colds are caused by viruses, and antibiotics merely work against leaner; they do nothing to help a viral infection. In fact, taking an antibiotic when you have a viral infection just puts yous at hazard of making things worse — peradventure developing an upset tummy, diarrhea, rashes, and increasing the risk of developing bacterial resistance. The but affair that will brand a cold go away is time.

iv. The influenza vaccine will crusade you to get the flu.

Absolutely not true. The influenza shot is made with a killed virus, so it is 100% incommunicable to get the flu from a flu shot. As with any vaccine, at that place's always a small chance of getting a niggling soreness or mild fever, but nothing that compares to the seriousness of the actual flu. The nasal flu vaccine uses a special type of live flu virus, one that'southward been contradistinct to survive only  in the cooler outer nose region; if it tries to spread deeper into your nose or into your trunk, the slightly higher temperatures there preclude the nasal flu virus from living, making it impossible to go the influenza from the nasal vaccine also.  (Personally, I recall this is one of the coolest things science has done in a while. There have been AMAZING advances in medicine in the last ten years. I can't await to run across what the future holds!)

Sneezy

3. The flu vaccine will forestall all colds.

Unfortunately, it won't. I hear quite frequently, "I don't want to go a influenza shot – I got one last year, and I yet got stick a lot."  The flu vaccine is designed to prevent infection from influenza, which is a particularly nasty infection. Yet, even with a flu shot, you can notwithstanding become every other viral common cold that comes your way. Only even though information technology won't make you immune to everything, information technology's notwithstanding a good idea to go your flu shot. If you lot tin can do something to help prevent getting the flu, it's certainly worth it!

2. You shouldn't get your flu vaccine too early on, or information technology won't last.

The adept news is, immunity from flu vaccines lasts much longer than the flu season does. Fifty-fifty getting a flu vaccine in early August is belatedly enough that y'all'll stay protected well past the finish of flu flavor.

1. Going out in the cold, or with a moisture head, will crusade a cold.

Y'all've heard them all earlier from your mother when you were a kid, and you lot may have told your kids the same thing, but the truth is… yous're no less probable to take hold of a cold if you're warm and dry out indoors than if yous're wet and cold outside. Viral colds tend to exist more common this time of year for a few reasons. Information technology's colder outside, then we spend more time indoors in closer contact with each other; when someone sneezes or coughs, y'all're more than probable to be close to them and catch their cold. Also, viruses tend to live longer in lower winter humidity, so they stick effectually longer. Only actually existence moisture or cold doesn't make you lot more likely to become sick.  So while you may think those teenagers wearing shorts and no hats with moisture hair are crazy walking around similar that when it'due south freezing, they're non whatever more than probable to get sick than if they had dry out hair and were all bundled up.

Dr. Wolf, a Kids Plus Doc since 2000, is a Shareholder and CFO of the practice.