Top 5 Tips to Help Keep Your Family Cold & Flu Free

As the mother of 3 boys, I take a lot of care to keep them healthy all year long, especially during cold and flu season. The kids don’t like to miss school, because that means “make-up” work, so I’m fortunate that our tactics have worked since they were little. Here are some of my tips to keep them healthy & happy year-round.

1. Wash your hands for 20 seconds and do it often. I’ve taught the kids from the time they learned their ABC’s that singing the ABC song while washing hands is a great way to send those nasty germs down the drain. It’s also a well-known fact, that a lot of germs are transmitted by use or our hands. If your family washes their hands more often, there are less germs travelling from person to person.
2. Sneeze or cough in to a tissue or your elbow. The tissue is a no-brainer, but what’s up with the elbow? Since a lot of germs are transmitted by our hands, our pediatrician recommended this to limit the transfer of germs to our hands. One side benefit is that it saves a trip to the bathroom with a kid that has spit all over their hands 😉
3. Keep flu and other vaccinations up-to-date. I’ve had asthma since I was little, and had the flu quite a few times. Getting the isn’t any fun, and some flu strains can be fatal. Make sure to keep your family protected, but getting a flu shot every year. Make sure to confirm with you doctor or pediatrician that you and your family are candidates for the flu shot, there are some health disqualifications, but these are few and far between.
4. If someone DOES get sick, quarantine them immediately. I know this sounds cruel, it’s best for them and the rest of the family. They’re miserable, you don’t want everyone to get sick, just make them comfortable in a separate room that has easy access to a restroom. Try to make sure that you either clean the restroom often, or limit use of the restroom to only the sick family member until symptoms subside. Remember, some scientists believe that cold and flu germs can live on surfaces between 1 and 48 hours. Yikes!
5. Spray Lysol Disinfectant liberally!!! You can never use too much Lysol in my

   

   opinion. My oldest son was sick recently, and we sprayed every door handle, bathroom fixture, kitchen appliance, if it was in our house it got sprayed! Not one other person got sick, I’m sure the constant use of Lysol helped us beat that bug!

These are just a few tips to keep the cold and flu bugs at bay. Do you have any of your own? Tell us about them!

Disclaimer: I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Lysol blogging program, for a gift card worth $40. For more information on how you can participate, click here. But if you’ve ever read any of my blog posts before, you’d know that I only write about things I truly believe in and everything I post is honest and truthful.

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