An Ounce of Prevention

Despite the spring-like weather we have been having recently, I am often reminded that it is cold and flu season.

"Johnny has a terrible snotty nose."
"Susie's been throwing up all morning."
"My husband's throat has been aching for two days."
"My fever is making my joints ache."

I'm sure most everyone knows someone by now who has a cold or flu. So, what can we do to protect our family? Personally, I think the simplest solution would be just to stay inside our own plastic bubbles from December to March. But since that isn't possible, there are some other things we can do.

I am totally paranoid about germs this time of year. We buy Purell by the gallon jug this time of year. We keep a bottle in each vehicle. In my purse. In the diaper bag. I have even considered putting a small dispenser in each pew in church. If we go to the store, the children's hands get smeared with a thick coat of the stuff the second we get to the vehicle. Have you ever noticed that a child's propensity for putting their fingers in their mouth is directly proportional to how bad of a cold/flu season it is? Perhaps a recorded message, booming from our Ipod, hooked up to my purse... "Keep your fingers out of your mouth." "Don't touch anything on the floor." "keep your fingers out of your mouth." "No you may not use the public restroom." "Keep your fingers out of your mouth." "Don't drink from the water fountain." "keep your fingers out of your mouth. " "Don't touch your eyes."

Another tactic is vitamin and herbal supplements. Echinacea is a favorite of ours. But the problem is, you have to REMEMBER to dole out the pills. Now for my younger ones that can't swallow pills, there are drops. We have long since run out of drops, and I haven't ordered more, so in a fit of creativity, I decided to take apart one of the pills, and dump the powdered echinacea into their juice. The faces they made rivaled the days of when they were babies and eating squash for the first time. My three year old gave me a look that said "How could you desecrate perfectly good juice this way?" I think she would have tried to say it, but her mouth was in an involuntary pucker that I feared was permanent.

Okayy... let's try putting it in their oatmeal. So I did... and, they kind of looked at me like "What in the world did you do to the oatmeal???" but ate it. Very slowly.

I decided I need to order some drops.

Then there are the multivitamins. Here again, the problem is REMEMBERING to take them. My multivitamins are on the window sill by the kitchen sink. I see them when I am getting my coffee mug out of the cupboard in the morning. However, trying to hock down a horse choker before I am fully caffinated in the morning is just WRONG. I always figure I will just take them with breakfast, when I can use some juice to wash them down. However, the table is way over on the other side of the room and I forget, and there the bottle sits, shaking its head at me in disdain.

Inevitably, no matter what precautions we take, at some point, we will get sick. Now, for the stomach bug, all we do is make a bucket brigade, and wait it out. But for colds, dh and I each have our own way of dealing with it. I go through an elaborate regimen of herbal teas and tinctures, and try to get through the "7 days coming, 7 days here, 7 days leaving" with as much feminine grace as I can. My dh, on the other hand, grabs the bottle of Nyquil, and drinks it directly from the jug in a manly fashion.

So far, this season, we haven't had so much as a sniffle, but winter is young yet, so for now I will keep cramming the family full of echinacea and multivitamins, and smearing Purell over everyone every time we stick our noses out the door.

Or maybe a plastic bubble will be easier?