In a busy house such as yours, there are a number of common sense suggestions that I can offer to protect your baby. First, breastfeeding is a great, easy method to offer your baby more immunity. Before birth, all mothers give their babies a blood transfusion of temporary immunity. Unfortunately, this is completely gone by age 4 to 6 months. Breastfeeding offers the baby a different type of immunity. As long as you breastfeed, and to the extent that you breastfeed, you will continue your baby's immune supplement. Although it is not true that breastfed babies never contract infections, it is clear that on the whole they have a lesser number of infections than formula-fed babies.

The second thing that you can do is to teach your family members simple personal hygiene. Not only is this good for the baby, but it also will help protect the older children from becoming sick from their classmates in school. Start with frequent hand washing. This should occur after every usage of the bathroom, after sneezing and generally throughout the day. Thorough cleansing using soap and hot, running water with vigorous scrubbing will help prevent the introduction of germs into one's own mouth or nasal passages.

Avoid having others cough on your children. Teach them to turn away from others who are sneezing and coughing, and similarly, to continue these good habits at home. Also, not sharing foods, glasses and silverware is helpful. All too often, one member of the family is incubating an infection and unwittingly passes it on to others by sharing a cup of juice.

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