Hey friends!
You know what stinks? The fact that Christmas Season and cold/flu season overlap. I don’t want to be sick for Christmas. I don’t want my kids to be sick for Christmas. I don’t want you to be sick for Christmas. So, I’m sharing a few tips with you on how to keep your kids healthy through the holidays. Some of these are just reminders for common sense, but others you probably haven’t thought of before. Hope this helps!
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I love all the gatherings and travels that come with Thanksgiving and Christmas! But because it’s colder out, these gatherings and travels tend to bring around a lot of germs. If you know me, you know I hate germs! I am a germ-a-phobe at it’s finest. Maybe I am a little extra when it comes to fighting germs, but ya know what? The past couple months we have been on road trips, in airports, and around other sick kids and my kids haven’t gotten anything contagious! (knock on wood). Here are all the precautions I take and how I plan on fighting sickness this time of year:
1: Get your family flu shots. I know, shots are the worst! Offer your kids a reward for getting a shot, and even offer yourself a reward if you need to. We bought our son a little matchbox size car to reward him for getting a shot. We told him before hand that we would buy one for him if he got his shot, so he actually was looking forward to getting his trip to the doctor out of the way.
To get your kids’ shots- take them to the pediatrician! Adults are fine to go to CVS, Walgreens, or wherever to get theirs, but our pediatrician warned us against taking our son to just any clinic. Our pediatrician told us horror stories of the staff at generic clinics not being great with kids- leading to kids flinching and not getting the full vaccine… that kind of thing.
Wherever you go to get your shots- insurance should pay for it!
Did you know the flu shot changes every year? The shot is universal and is the same vaccine no matter where you get it, but every year it is created to fight the strains of flu that are predicted to be more common during the particular year.
2: Sanitize buttons, switches, and handles that are touched a lot. Doorknobs, refrigerator handles, light switches, and the steering wheel of your car. It seriously only takes 5 minutes to run around your house with a sanitizing wipe and kill the germs lurking in places that are frequently touched. Do this a few times a week, every day if you can!
3: Essential Oils… yup! I never thought I’d say it, but I have been using essential oils for the past few months and I really think it has given us a healthy advantage! I heard about Plant Therapy oils from a friend and decided to try them out because they aren’t too expensive, so nothing to lose, right? I love that they have prediluted, kid-safe roll on essential oils. We use the “immune boom” roll on at night, and “germ destroyer” in the morning. I’ve been enlightened. I’m a believer. Since using them, we have been on a road trip, through airports, public places, and around other sick kids, but (knock on wood) my kids have not picked up anything contagious! I swear every time we’ve traveled in the past, especially through airports, we’ve had to deal with colds at best. Going to Utah and back in October without getting sick is what really made me think these things actually work!
4: Sanitize your keyboards and cell phones! It is so gross when you think of all the bacteria on your phone! You can get a sanitizing charger, sanitizing phone wipes (I have yet to find any of these wipes with good reviews), or just put a small amount of sanitizer on a rag or paper towel and wipe down your phone!
5: Don’t “dig in” with your hands. Don’t stick your hands in the ice bucket or snack bags. Use a scoop! and don’t let the handle of the scoop touch whatever is going into your mouth. Encourage your family members to use a scoop as well. See what I mean about me being a little extra? It’s worth it!
6: Eat healthy, sleep well, and get outside. Never underestimate the power of giving your body what it needs.
7: Vitamins. I still take prenatal vitamins. Gavin takes a multivitamin. Owen takes a children’s vitamin. J takes Novaferrum drops, as recommended by his pediatrician. When choosing vitamins, make sure and look at the labels! Especially with kids vitamins!
Kids get sick. They just do. Hopefully for everyone’s sake you can keep the germs at bay while you celebrate the season. If your kids do get sick, it’s not the end of the world, and I really think taking all these precautions will shorten the duration of any nasty sniffles, nausea, or spreading of germs.
Good luck! and Happy Holidays!
