Parenting
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
5 tips to help protect your kids from the swine flu
editor
"Mom, pigs are making
people sick!"
Did you hear that over the weekend? Because I sure did. Along with
the question, "Does that mean we can't eat bacon
anymore?"
As parents, we may also worry about what could happen if swine flu
hits our kids' schools. Will it spread to everyone? Will they
shut the school down? (
Two
hundred high school students are reported to have flu-like
symptoms at St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens,
N.Y., and 8 kids have been confirmed to have swine flu.)
And
just like adults, your kids may be scared of all this
swine flu news (well, except for the thought of not going to
school). Know that your kids are talking about the swine flu in
class today with their friends (even in kindergarten). And know
that teachers will likely mention it as part of current events and,
hopefully, to remind kids about good hygiene habits.
But how can you protect your kids from the swine flu? By reminding
your kids how to protect themselves from
any flu or
germs.
- Remind your kids to wash their hands often.
As Holly Perkins from Intent.com reminded
us: "...the
best way to kill environmental germs is to use soap and hot water
and scrub hands thoroughly." (Related
on Shine: The germ game is on: Teaching kids to wash their
hands)
- Remind your kids to cover their mouths when they
cough. And not with their hands! Teach them to cough into
their elbow. (Sounds funny, but most kids learn this in preschool!)
When kids do cough into their hands, make sure they know they
should wash their hands again.
- Don't spread germs. If your kids have a
fever, keep them home. If your kids have a bad cough and complain
of body aches, yes, keep them home. Also? If your kids sport a high
fever along with the cough and body ache, call the doctor. Listen,
it's okay to feel like you're being paranoid. Better to
rule out possible illnesses/check on potential treatments instead
of letting it go until it gets worse.
- Stay away from other kids that have colds.
Why? Because you want to keep your kid's body healthy and
strong, so if can fight off any other germs.
- Make sure your kids get plenty of rest.
It's important that your kids "recharge their body
batteries" every day to ensure their immune systems are in
fighting form, ready to do battle with any random germs.
Additional good health habits
to protect you
and your family from the swine flu are available from the
CDC.
More swine flu links on Shine:
Are you afraid of swine flu?
Check out this map of swine flu cases.
Related: swine flu, protecting kids from flu, germs, flu bugs, children's illnesses
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Posted by mike a Mon Apr 27, 2009 12:37pm PDT
Healthy eating would be a great start to prevent swine flu. Some kind of Raw Diet.
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Posted by POOH BEAR Tue Apr 28, 2009 7:36am PDT
Raw diet? Thats ridiculous. That would help prevent swine flu, yeah right. I think its too late for healthy eating to help anything. Im afraid to send my child to school. Im sure someone from his school has been to Mexico, or at least a relative has. The majority of the school is hispanic. What should I do? Send him and hope he doesnt get it. These are our kids we are talking about. I think the school should close at least for a week until we find out just how serious this really is.
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Posted by xenagurl Tue Apr 28, 2009 8:27am PDT
If you think a raw diet is ridiculous POOH BEAR obviously you know nothing about it. Eating raw especially fruits and vegetables helps to boost the immunity which can possibly prevent you from coming down with a communicable sickness. If you know nothing about a subject, it's was not to pretend as if you do.
As for helping kids not get it. MAKE them be sanitary. Children are some of the most unsanitary demographic around which is why they're often sick. Proper hygiene is important and is not an option.
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Posted by mommaofsun Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:25am PDT
I will be sure to follow all of these as I always do. It's kind of a pain in the butt with the "cover your mouth when you cough" rule, when your hubby won't even do it.
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Posted by Erin P Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:02pm PDT
Covering your mouth when you cough isn't a pain in the butt- it's a common courtesy to others. As another poster said, proper hygiene should not be an option- espeically for adults.
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Posted by mommaofsun Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:43pm PDT
If you were referring to me, it's a pain in the butt "when your hubby won't do it". Meaning, it's a pain in the butt to get my kids to do it, when they don't have their dad leading by example. Next time I'll simplify the sentence.
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Posted by mommaofsun Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:51pm PDT
I don't see that my other comments posted, but what Erin said really kind of ticked me off. If your comment was directed at me, maybe you should re-read mine. What my comments means is it is a pain in the butt trying to get my kids to do it everytime they cough---"cover your mouth when you cough guys" and their response "dad doesn't". THAT is the pain in the butt. My grown man of a hubby should be the other lead by example person in the house, not just me. I do agree with you, when you said, it shouldn't be an option. 100% he11 yeah.
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Posted by Doktor Eevol Tue Apr 28, 2009 2:30pm PDT
I'm sure eating the right foods to help stay healthy is a great thing - but a common problem I am starting to see more on this blog site are people saying that raw foodism, vitamins, bottled water, or some other over the counter supplement is going to prevent the swine flu. I think it's irresponsible to give people a false sense of security. Pandemic viruses do NOT act like normal flu viruses. When they studied the avian flu they found that it caused the immune system to OVER react, so in that case having a healthy strong immune system is a double edged sword.
And right now, even the CDC nor the WHO knows how this virus is going to behave. Pandemic viruses are unpredictable and it can evolve suddenly. This *could* get worse. Yes, we need to take care of our bodies but we should NOT make unsubstantiated claims because they seem common sense and intuitive. Pandemic flu is anything BUT intuitive. It attacks healthy people in their prime.
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Posted by Doktor Eevol Tue Apr 28, 2009 2:33pm PDT
mommaofsun, I totally understand what you are saying. It IS a pain in the butt to be the only one in the household who cares about the rest of the family's health. Believe me, I was in your shoes although I was a teenager living at home with a family of people who enjoyed wallowing in their bad health habits.
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Posted by Theresa Tue Apr 28, 2009 2:56pm PDT
being careful of the wholefoods stores since sometimes the big thing is not using pesticides, the food can still carry viruses and bacteria. But other than that, my children are eating raw fruits and vegetables! As long as they're not like, a year old, sounds fine to me!
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