reaccuring colds - mold or bad hygiene?

I'm going to guess some irritant or allergen, like mold or dust, that is making the passages more sensitive to begin with.  I say that because we don't have the best hygiene and (knock on wood), the DSs hardly get sick at all.  I'm not saying we never wash hands, but just that I'm a bit forgetful at times, and D is fast about eating his leftovers off the floor before I can get to them. 

Any way you could take supplements to boost everyone's immune system?  Maybe some vit. C, and as soon as a runny nose starts, some zinc?  IDK what's safe for LOs, but those two, especially the zinc, really helped me a lot when I was a college student and beginning teacher (and exposed to lots of bugs).
Hope you get a bunch of responses here, because I'd love to know what other mamas think.

How awful about the zinc spray!  I just took the supplements, which is why IDK how it would work for LOs.

i hate wallpaper.  i say this because it's how i found mold in our house.  i wanted it down as soon as we married and i moved into the house.  upon pulling it down in the kids  bathroom, we found black mold that went out to 5 walls, two bathrooms, our bedroom, laundry room and closet.  we had an over haul, new bathroom, pulled down drywall, new carpet, etc.  thank the Lord we had a mold clause in our homeowners ins!  mold hides in dark areas.  look in closets, under sinks, etc.  if that's it, it can be deadly.  we have a severe asthmatic and i truly believe it made her worse.  it was sooooo awefull!  so sorry mama.

Maybe you should get your vitamin D levels checked.  I hear it is not unusal to be deficient in Vit D and that it predisposes you to recurrent illness, which seem to get much worse come Sept and on when shorter daylengths and more clothing dramatically decrease the amount of vit D we are getting through our skin from the sun.
Smiles,
Inge

I thought of one more thing today, Beth - do you have/use a dishwasher?  I don't even use the sterilize option, but I always feel the water gets a whole lot hotter and things get a lot cleaner than if I do the dishes/silverware by hand.
And, if you have a more recent model, it's probably more energy and water efficient than by doing it by hand. 

I lived in a moldy dorm room, and I had horrible allergies from it. But a key sign for me is that I had HORRIBLE headaches.

If you think it's mold, I'd get it checked out. It's nasty stuff. My father was a commercial builder and re-did a dorm building. The abatement of the mold was just as toxic as if they were doing asbestos abatement.