Flu and cold season is upon us once again. It is easier to keep the germs away than it is to get rid of them once they are caught. There are some simple ways to help protect your family from these germs. However, you must be loyal in doing them for them to work.
1. Children touch so many things with their hands. It can be very difficult to keep things out of the mouths of toddlers. If you teach your children to wash their hands at certain times, it quickly becomes habit. The most important times to wash is after going to the bathroom, anytime they come indoors, petting an animal, or playing outside, and it is very important to wash before eating.
2. There is more to washing than just putting some soap and water on our hands and rubbing. The full process should take at least 20 seconds of scrubbing with soap and water to kill the germs. Less than 20 seconds will not do the trick. Choose a song that the kids enjoy and have them sing it while they are washing. This will ensure the 20 second rule.
3. Keep a bottle of hand sanitizer with you at all times. Especially for visits to playgrounds, mall food courts, and other places where there might not be a place to wash the germs off. Hand sanitizer only works if you use it on every part of the hand including under the nail.
4. Any time you prepare meat or poultry, you should always wash the cutting boards with hot, soapy water and spray counter tops with disinfectant. I also put bleach on my cutting board. The bacteria commonly found on raw meats, including salmonella, and E. coli, are more dangerous than any other germs you're likely to have in the house. They require immediate attention to kill the germs.
5. You should always wash small cuts and scrapes with soap and water. Apply an antibacterial ointment, put on a bandage, and change the bandage every day until the wound heals. This should not be a problem with small kids as they love to have Band-Aids on. You can purchase so many cool things on band aids these days.
6. Make sure your children are up to date on their shots or vaccinations. You could even a consider getting them a flu shot each year. A child who is in school and has been vaccinated against the flu is less likely to bring home a bug that can infect the entire family.
7. Spray all door knobs, phones including buttons, keyboards, light switches, sink and shower water handles, TV remotes as well as other things that are touched often, at least once a week. If someone is sick, you may want to do these things several times throughout the day.
8. Always clean the handle on shopping carts before touching them or putting a child in them. They harbor many germs. Many stores now have wipes by the carts to clean them. If they don’t, you can purchase individually wrapped wipes to carry in your purse or pocket.
9. Don’t forget to clean the steering wheel in the car if someone is sick. Many germs linger until they are removed.
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 27
White vingegar also as a cleaner will kill up to 82% of germs. And lots of us are allergic to flu shots - can't get them at all. Why is it when a child starts school, we ALL get sick? lol
Marilyn (good luck with no flu this year!)
As for the flu shot we don't bother with it. Gideon and I are home and there's limited exposure to it all. Also when we ARE exposed while traveling we were told the shot only protects against CERTAIN TYPES of the flu that are here locally. Not all. So, if we traveled and picked up a strain we weren't vaccinated against we would still get sick.
Instead we use that Airborne stuff as a preventative, but it tastes horrible.
No amount of hand washing protects against bacteria or viruses that are spread by coughing, sneezing, or just plain breathing. A lot of colds are spread that way, but that doesn't mean hand washing isn't important -- just that dirty hands aren't always the cause. We have to be very careful, especially these days, about contaminated food, but actually that's an entirely different problem and has nothing to do with colds and flu.
I hate to say it, but some of your tips sound downright paranoid. There's not much point carrying things too far or becoming obsessed with this; it can be much worse for our mental health than getting an occasional cold. We can do everything you suggest, someone coughs on us, and down we go anyway!
I carry small bottles of hand sanitizer in my purse all the time, so I always have it on hand.
I use that Lysol Antibacterial kitchen spray.
Got the whole first aid kit thing down. The kids even have me to put medicated ointment and bandaids on the smallest of cuts. LOL
Vaccines are all up to date. Haley doesn't get anymore until she's I think 6. Parker's next ones are at age 4.
I've tried number 7 (spraying everything) and ended up staining my walls with Lysol.
I used to do number 8 all the time when the kids were smaller but have since gotten out of the habit. Probably a good idea to get back into the habit of doing.
Never thought of the steering wheel.
Great tips, Mom!
I have not seen you around here in ages! Are you ok???
What are Draino shooters???
My grandkids had the flu last year at Christmas and were so sick from it. We were all exposed to it, but managed to keep it at bay.
Another item to keep clean is a computer and your phone. Especially at work!
I have already had my flu shot for this year. I had to at the local clinic last week.
This is one I never think of, probably almost as germy as money is!