When it comes to our children’s health we simply won’t take any chances. How many times have you visited the doctor knowing deep down that it’s a viral infection? It’s not worth that niggling feeling just in case it happened to be something that needed treatment though.

When a child in the house is sick the entire family equilibrium falls apart. It has a huge knock-on effect on the way family life flows and affects everything from the food you eat to the amount of sleep everyone is getting.

If you have several children it may feel as though someone is always coughing, sneezing or feeling poorly in some way.

So many of us have had facts and advice about children’s health passed down to us from older generations. Those tips and tricks are comforting and it is with a sense of pride that we take them on board as we raise our own children. But how would you feel if you discovered that a lot of those facts were actually myths? As it turns out quite a few of them might be.

Here are some myths about children’s health. Hand up who had a few things wrong!?

1. Green or yellow snot does not automatically mean a bacterial infection that requires antibiotics. In fact, green mucous is your body’s way of telling you that the immune system is responding to some kind of infection, but that could absolutely be viral.

2. Head lice cannot jump. Who knew? Lice are spread from person to person through sustained hair or head contact such as through living situations or sharing a pillow at a sleepover.

3. You shouldn’t feed a cold and starve a fever. When your child is sick it’s never a good idea to keep them off food. This is when they need nutrients the most. Soups or juices can be helpful if solid food is not being tolerated. A child needs food to aid their healing.

4. When your child has a fever it doesn’t always warrant medication to take it down. Remember that a fever is the body’s way of naturally fighting an infection. If your child is uncomfortable by all means give medication but some milder fevers do not require medication.

5. Asthma medications should be given consistently to help control and prevent inflammation rather than only giving them during a flare-up. Speak to your GP to make an action plan.

6. Wet hair does not cause a cold. Sure you’ll feel a bit chilly if you do not dry your hair but colds are caused by viruses.

7. Vicks Vaporub is designed to relieve cough and congestion symptoms when inhaled which means that technically there is no official benefit to putting it on your feet and covering with socks. (I point blank refuse to believe this one).