CLEVELAND, Ohio — Developing a strong immune system is very important in the early stages of a child’s life, which includes exposure to germs. 

What You Need To Know

  • Dr. Amy Edwards with University Hospitals said kids do need exposure to germs in order to develop their immune systems

  • While kids are in the house more, they’re still exposed to germs that can help develop their immune system

  • Edwards said a few months away from regular exposure to other germs shouldn't harm the immune system

For Dr. Amy Edwards, she’s looking at one of the bright sides of quarantine: fewer sick children. 

"I think the biggest benefit is for the parents who don’t have to deal with as many fevers! I’ve been loving it. I have two kids who are day care age, and I have to tell you, you know, four months without a fever is a record in our house. So I’m loving it,” said Edwards, who is also a Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist at University Hospitals.

Edwards said kids do need exposure to germs though in order to develop their immune systems as they grow. 

“One of the very popular hypothesis in the allergy world is called the hygiene hypotheses, and that is that our kids don’t get sick enough. Here in the United States, where our water is clean, our soil is clean, you know, kids just don’t get parasites and things like they do in other countries. And that’s why we have such high rates of asthma and eczema and allergies and food allergies and things like that,” said Edwards.  

When it comes to quarantine, while kids are in the house more, they’re still exposed to germs that can help develop their immune system. 

"Your skin is covered in bacteria, your mouth, your GI tract, the wall, the floor. I mean, the world is covered in viruses and bacteria and yeast and fungus," Edwards explained.

Edwards also said some children might get sick from more basic childhood illnesses that come with face-to-face interactions when social distancing is phased out. 

"If you think about kids in day care, kids in school, they spread through hands and mouth, they spread strep, and these are all normal childhood illness that kids need to get," said Edwards. "Let’s say an only child in their house, and they start kindergarten, they do often in their kindergarten year have to deal with a lot of illness because they haven’t been exposed to it all before."  

But she said the lack of those types of interactions for a couple of months isn’t going to have a major impact on how a child’s immune system develops. 

“Most of these kids saw people before they went into isolation. It’s not like going into isolation somehow made them forget every illness they’ve ever had prior in their life," said Edwards. "It’s too short of a period of time to make any noticeable difference in a kids immune function."