Just like Penny at FTEP, if it's not one thing, it's another.

I have been to the doctor more times this winter than in the past five years. First it's a cough, then a cold, then a stomach bug, then the cough came back, etc.

A few weeks ago, I went to my Doc concerned that I was going to give my son the awful cough I had.

No, he assured me, it doesn't work like that. He's bringing the germs to you, not the other way around. Don't worry: you won't get him sick.

So how come I get so much sicker than he ever does?

Believe me, I'd much rather it be me than him, but how is he avoiding all the bad stuff? Does his little body have some super-charged immune system?

I'm a huge fan of my acupuncturist, so yes, I've been to see her a couple of times, and yes, I've taken my son to see her too. (No, they don't do needles on babies.) She says that Chinese medicine views sickness as an opportunity to show the body how to respond and fight off the sickness, and children respond particularly well to Chinese medicine. I took him last fall, at the first cough, and she did a massage on him, showed me how to massage his lymph points to encourage draining. Then she massaged his back with a special oil that smells sort of like Vicks, and when it turned bright red, she said, yes, his body is fighting something. Good.

Then she sent me home with herbs to give him in his juice. He recovered in like, a day, and hasn't really gotten sick since.

Huh.