On our way to his first day of college (for a summer class), my 15-year-old man-child said something offhandedly that gave me pause. We were discussing a friend of his who had recently had surgery and had had to stay in bed for a matter of weeks. When I said I couldn't imagine that, Gus said, "Yeah, I haven't even been sick for 2 years.". Then we went on, talking about other things.
It wasn't until I got home that I realized that what he said was sort of amazing. Most of us deal with the occasional winter cold or flu, or passing stomach bug. Some of us have to deal with more serious illnesses. I don't think of our family as particularly clean living or of Gus as a super healthy kid, but there it is. No sickness for 2 years. It isn't actually 'normal' for us to get sick. Our immune systems really could be strong enough to not get the bugs that go around, but often they are not.
For the most part, the rest of us don't get sick that often, either. Keeping us healthy, along with making sure my kids aren't idiots, has been one of my major projects for the last 15 years. It was somewhat easier when all they were eating was breastmilk... then if something was up, I knew whose diet had to clean up. (That sure made it easy to get off of sugar when my youngest was small and rashy). But those warm, squishy baby buddha days are long gone, and now all 6'1" of Gus takes a lot more to keep him going. I guess the project has been pretty successful and I figured I'd share how we do it.