Saturday, December 12, 2015

How To Keep Your Family Healthy This Winter

This blog is short and sweet about avoiding illness this sick season, but has links to dig deeper as desired.
flu, colds, cough, illness, flu shot, vaccines, wash hands, hygiene


It's not a big secret. We know the best ways to stay healthy, but it takes everyone to participate to make it work.

Practice the following routinely and help stop the spread of illness!
  1. Wash hands or use hand sanitizer (sanitizer is not helpful at eliminating all germs - see the link for more information on how and when it is appropriate) 
  2. Eat healthy and drink water (infants under 6 months should drink breast milk or formula)
  3. Sleep
  4. Get vaccinated
  5. Don't touch your face - this is where germs enter our bodies!
  6. Probiotics might help (recent meta analysis)
  7. Wipe down objects regularly: learn the difference between cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing.
  8. Safely prepare and serve food 
  9. Cover your cough and sneeze with your elbow.
  10. Avoid sick people
  11. Stay home when sick
Things that haven't been shown to help:
Cough Medicine: Which one's best?
Holidays and family spoiled by illness... It's that time of year!
New High Risk Child RSV Prevention Guidelines