I’m a blogging ambassador for the CHPA Educational Foundation’s KnowYourOTCs program and all opinions are mine, mine, mine!
Following up on the germy post I shared before….
Rohan and Kaya are both in school. (Well, Kaya just a few hours a few days a week…but still.) I’m always running all over the place and John is at an office 5 days a week. We all bring germs home from wherever we go, and the kids just had their names legally changed from Rohan and Kaya to “Sniffles” and “Stuffy.” (Yes, even Kaya, who used to be my tank!) Look at the pic above. She was SO stuffy despite giving her medicine and doing a bunch of homeopathic and woowoo stuff for her. All she wanted was snuggles.
I don’t understand how the sickies just come back to back. We do everything “right.” I wanna just bleach down the entire world….or keep my kids in a bubble forever.
Fun fact I got from KnowYourOTCs.org: According to this article on CNN, the germiest places in a school is the water fountain and cafeteria trays.
Rohan and Kai bring their lunches and water bottles each day, so that’s a small win.
Here are some tips from KnowYourOTCs.org to help you with keeping your kids healthy and safe:
If your child has a fever and you are treating their symptoms with an OTC pain reliever, remember that you always want to dose them based on their weight, not their age. Find additional helpful tips from KnowYourOTCs.org on how to safely treat a fever and be confident you are safely dosing your child.
To Send or not to Send.
If your kid is coughing up a lung and you’re wondering, “Should I send my child to school?” one morning, this is a helpful read from Today’s Parent, which can be a nice resource, in addition to your school’s guidelines.
(Pretty sure Rohan’s school lets kids come in to school no matter what. Even if they are zombies. I see some Walking Dead looking kids sometimes and I feel for them.
It’s seasonal allergy time.
My nose is running like a faucet, how ’bout you? Often parents are left wondering, is that runny nose from allergies or a cold? It can be challenging to tell the difference. Find an expert article on how to learn the characteristics between the symptoms of a cold and the symptoms of allergies here. And make sure to never give a multi-symptom cough and cold products to children under 4 years old.
Know the Dose
Did you know that 8 out of 10 parents have given their child the wrong dosage of liquid medicine at some point? If you are using liquid medicine, always use the dosing device that comes with the medicine…not a kitchen spoon! (side eye to you, grandma!) Be sure you’re dosing properly by reading the Drug Facts label.
Gummies or Chewables?
Don’t forget about vitamins and supplements! Our bodies need vitamins and supplements and it can be difficult to get the nutrients we need from the food we eat alone, especially if you have a picky eater like Kaya living in the house. For more information about common vitamins and minerals, click here.
Wash those hands
And finally, prevention is the best medicine! “People, and kids in particular, touch their eyes, nose, and mouth frequently, transmitting the germs on their hands into their bodies. Washing your hands with soap and water is one of the best defenses against infections. It reduces the risk of respiratory infection by approximately 24 percent and gastrointestinal infections (e.g., diarrhea) by more than 30 percent.”
So keep washing frequently. (Like, real washing, not that gel stuff people rub on like lotion.)
Another idea. We had 3 in school at the same time. PAPER TOWELS IN THE BATHROOM. No sense in washing your hands all the time, then using a germy towel to put them right back on, even after washing. The littles are also big enough to use the paper towel to turn off the water faucet.
That one little step made it so much easier to stay well. And we had people in and out of our home constantly as we were running a home fellowship at the same time.