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Healthier
Living
Biting Back at
Those Winter Bugs
by Evangelia Zonnios
Tummy Bugs!
Every parents dread, and they’re not the only bugs out there either.
There is nothing you can do to stop them altogether, but it’s
not impossible to contain the situation and prevent it in
contaminating the whole household.
Sure enough, as soon as summer ends
and the temperature begins to plummet to uncomfortable levels, they
start to make things even more difficult for you.
Yes, I’m talking about those little germs that get into your child’s
school and invade the immune systems of your unsuspecting young
ones, only to come home with them and wreak havoc on everyone else
in the house.
In the school arena there are more
venues available for these bugs to attack a child than anywhere
else.
First of all, there is contact with lots of other children from
lots of other houses that know lots of other people.
So, there is reason number one why they all seem to get sick as
soon as they get back to school.
At school, even though teachers may remind the children of the
necessity to wash their hands after going to the toilet, it is
impossible for them to monitor that all children have done so.
This is problem number two, needless to say germs spread fast
in this manner. The one
thing that you have to accept, like it or not, is that regardless of
how clean you teach your child to be, it is probably safer to assume
that many other children are not doing the same thing.
This is where you tackle the problem from the opposite goal
post. Teach your child
some simple rules that will help prevent them from picking up germs
from other children.
-
Insist that your child washes
his/her hands after using the bathroom.
Regardless of what the other children do, it still stops
germs from spreading and gives them the chance to wash any germs
that they have on their own hands.
-
Wash hands before and after school
break too, this reduces the risk of getting sick from germs in
general, even from things as innocent as playing equipment.
-
Tell them to not put their fingers
in their mouths. Nail-biters
often create a lot of their own problems by putting the germs
directly into their bodies.
Underneath the nail is the perfect place to harbor
millions of ugly germs.
Keep your child’s nails short to avoid the build up of dirt.
-
Tell your child to not swap food
at school or share drink cups or food utensils.
-
Get your child into a good
sleeping routine.
Plenty of rest helps the body fight off sicknesses.
If your child is sick, there are a few
things you can do that will reduce the chances of the bug going
through the whole family.
-
Quarantine the sick child.
No, it isn’t so easy for a young child to understand, or for you to
be able to keep them in one room for an entire day.
Let them out into the backyard to get some fresh air during
the day, (adequately dressed for the weather), and then insist that
they do their other activities in their own room.
Where the child shares with siblings, make sure that each
one stays to their own bed and that pillows do not move from one bed
to another.
-
Avoid the child having close contact
with siblings while sick.
As much as is possible, keep them apart during their sick
time. (Don’t worry it
passes quickly enough).
-
Every time your sick child goes to the
toilet, use a disinfectant on the seat so that the germ does not
spread from one person to the next.
-
Keep a can of disinfectant spray handy
and spray once or twice during the day, to kill any germs hovering
around.
Use it to spray around the room as well, on bedclothes,
window sills and shelves or wherever dust settles.
-
Every day, use a floor disinfectant as
children walking around in bare feet can easily pick up germs from
the floor.
-
Wash your own hands after tending to
your sick child, in order to not spread germs around yourself while
cooking or taking care of other family members.
Of course, don’t become paranoid about
the whole thing.
There is only so much you can do, after all kids will get sick.
It’s part of what happens while they are growing.
But obviously, keeping sicknesses to a minimum is worth a bit
of effort as it can be a very tiring time when the whole family gets
sick together. So if
you do your bit and hit back at those bugs, they won’t hit your
children so hard this winter.
ezonnios@yahoo.com
Writing on children and family.
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