When sickness strikes your home and a family member is sick, your challenge becomes nursing one person back to health without getting the rest of the house sick. While your first inclination may be to evacuate the healthy family members, remember they may already have been exposed. The only thing you accomplish is to spread the illness around the community – so for the love of a short and easy flu-season… Please keep your family under one roof, this CAN be done successfully without everyone getting sick.
[bctt tweet=”When sickness strikes, keep your family #healthy with these awesome tips! #germs #flu”]
- Contain the illness to one area of the house! Entertain the patient with TV, video games, books – what ever is necessary to keep them in their own room.
- Wipe door handles, bathroom, stair rails, kitchen counters, and remotes with disinfecting wipes – several times a day!
- Wash sick person’s laundry and bedding separately!
- Keep windows open, air out as much as possible!
- Diffuse with your favorite essential oils several times a day – in common area as well as sick area!
- Do NOT call on friends with babies, or kids with compromised immune systems to help with your healthy kids! Your kids have been exposed and they may appear healthy during the incubation period (time from exposure until sickness strikes). What is a stomach virus in your kids could mean an ER trip for someone else’s kid.
- Do NOT attend birthday parties or other large gatherings with your healthy kids! They can be contagious before they show symptoms.
- Take your healthy kids out for walks in the fresh air, any activity outdoors that doesn’t require contact with others!
- Keep your kids separated as much as possible! It is nearly impossible for our four boys to stick to this one. But we make an effort, and that’s better than not doing anything.
- Make sure all family members take their vitamins and wash their hands thoroughly throughout the day!
- Change sleeping arrangements so the sick child isn’t alone, but also so one parent and the other kids stay healthy!
- Ask friends to run errands, pick up food or help with other logistics! They can always leave the groceries on your porch, drive your healthy kids to/ from school or deliver a home cooked meal.
We recently recovered from three weeks of our kids being sick. Oddly enough, each of them had different symptoms from the flu (yes – THE Flu), but we managed to keep half of the family members unaffected, which became the inspiration to this article. Good luck staying healthy! I hope the future months prove to be germ-free for you and your family.
How do you prevent germs from spreading like wild fire in your house? Please share your tips in the comments – so we can learn from each other.
Just in case you have someone down with the “man cold,” here are the signs and symptoms for a quick diagnosis.
Hopefully you stay healthy, but in case you fall victim to the germ attack, here are some awesome tips to get you back on your feet again – QUICKLY!
This is SO important! I am in a moms and kids group and everyone, for the most part, is good about staying home when they are sick. It’s very frustrating when several kids get sick because someone just didn’t choose to stay home and let things run their course within their home/family.
Great tips!! Im all for keeping sickness confined! Blows my mind when people bring sick kids to play… smh. Essential oils have helped us tremendously with all our bugs!!
what is a diffuser? Please share your oil info….I’m ready to listen!
I’d like to hear oil suggestions as well. 😀 Our little one is a preemie with heart issues and lung disease, we are gonna need all the anti-germ and sickness stuff we can get!
Excellent tips!!! 😀 In my house, Young Living’s Thieve’s Oil and cleaners are a HUGE relief once the first sign of sickness strikes.
Awesome advice!!! I would love to be able to avoid the reality of “one person is sick, it’s a matter of time before everybody gets it.”
These are great tips. I always have hand sanitizer in my purse for just in case moments.
Great tips! I am constantly wiping down our door knobs; I think it’s often overlooked, yet one “germy” place. Staying home is definite a good tip. If you end up taking someone to the doctors, then I would suggest leaving the healthy kids at home!
So true – and do NOT play with the toys at the pediatrician’s office! Great tip!!!
Great tips thanks for the awesome blog I enjoy it
Great tips! When my son was sick my friend dropped off essentials on the doorstep. It was a life saver!
We went through this this past weekend. My five-year-old and I both had the stomach flu, and we cancelled on events we were going to in lieu of staying home. We also just rested as much as possible and yep—washed all our laundry and kept everything sanitary so the others don’t catch it as well!
I hope you are all feeling better, Nina!