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Comment by angelzen | Hacker News Reader

We have eliminated every single chance for kids to experience adversity. They don't roam the streets, forget about the woods. We chaperone them to pre-approved activities under constant adult supervision. We pad their playgrounds in 1ft foam boards. We don't give them grades in school, lest they find out other kids work harder. We vaccinate them against everything under the sun, so they very rarely get a cold. We willfully ignore that kids are amazing "pick yourself up and go harder at it" machines. Instead, we are treating them like frail 80 year olds.

There is no wonder that new generations can't handle even the whiff of risk. This won't end well.

https://48156919-c823-48bd-a34e-f15f9b6e20f2.filesusr.com/ug... (chapter 1 of The Coddling of American Mind)

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> We vaccinate them against everything under the sun, so they very rarely get a cold.

During the fists and second year here in Argentina kids get a trip to the vaccination center every 2-3 mounts, and each trip includes like 2 injections, and each injections prevents like 3 illness. Anyway, some illness are repeated because the vaccines are not 100% effective with only one dose. I just counted the list in the official site https://www.argentina.gob.ar/salud/vacunas and the total is like 20 illness.

Anyway, in particular the kids still get:

* Common cold: It's quite popular, and this year it was a big problem because every time a kid sneeze, you must go to a covid19 test center just in case.

* Those unnamed illness, where the kid get fever for 3 or 4 days and then a lot of small red points in the body and then disappears.

* Random diarrhea and vomit.

Admittedly, this is anecdote. I grew up in a poor country, but raising my kids in the US. I can count the number of times they had to see a doctor because of fever/cough/vomiting/diarrhea using one hand (each). Had recently one of them struggle taking oral antibiotics because he never had to take oral pills before. My childhood recollection is packing the same amount of misery in one year, year after year. Not saying this is a bad thing, just that my kids grow up facing comparatively minor disease challenges. Life is a giant game of tradeoffs, etc.

Here too. Most of what I described don't need a visit to the medical doctor. One of the biggest risk is that the viral rush are sometimes similar to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarlet_fever so it is wise that a profesional take a look, but not for a common cold.

> Had recently one of them struggle taking oral antibiotics because he never had to take oral pills before.

Here we use antibiotics disolved in water, so you can give the kid it with a spoon. IIRC my younger kids never had to take antibiotic yet. My oldest daughter had antibiotics a few times, ut probably only one every 2 or 3 years.

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