Is being cold or wet what actually causes a cold?

What the evidence says

It feels like getting cold or wet should give you a cold, but that's not actually what happens. A cold is caused by a virus, a tiny germ, that gets into your nose, throat or sinuses. Without that virus being there in the first place, no amount of cold or wet weather will give someone a cold.

The Canadian Paediatric Society explains that colds spread through direct contact, like touching an infected person's hands, or through droplets in the air. Cold weather doesn't create the virus out of nothing.

Scientists have actually tested this idea in labs. Researchers exposed people to cold temperatures and also gave them cold viruses on purpose, and being chilled did not make people more likely to get sick.

So why do colds happen more in winter? It's mostly because people spend more time indoors, closer together, which makes it easier for viruses to spread from person to person. Kids also get more colds because their immune systems, the body's defence system, haven't yet learned to fight off the many different cold viruses. Young children can catch eight to ten colds a year before age two for this reason.

Bottom line: bundle your kid up because it's more comfortable and because being cold and miserable isn't fun, not because it will stop a cold. The real defence against colds is limiting contact with sick people and good handwashing.