Back to School and Healthy!

It's that time of year again! Back to school with cold and flu season following closely behind. Have your kids started school yet? My oldest will start his second year of preschool this week. I can hardly believe how fast the summer has gone! The kids in my area have already started and my husband's university is in full swing too!

Germs, germs and more germs!! They are everywhere of course, but especially in school classrooms! Kids are continually sneezing, coughing, not washing hands properly (or at all!) and sharing their germs with their neighbor, who shares it with his neighbor, family, etc. So how can we help with this?

PREVENTION!!! 

Here are a few tips to help prevent illness...

1. Proper Hand Washing. It's our first defense against infection and disease and can prevent illness and the spread of illness. It is important to teach our kids the proper way to do this and to make sure they do it regularly. At the very least after using the bathroom and before eating. My kids and I sing the ABCs while we wash to make sure we are scrubbing long enough.

 from the Center for Disease Control website:

When should you wash your hands?

• Before, during, and after preparing food
• Before eating food
• Before and after caring for someone who is sick
• Before and after treating a cut or wound
• After using the toilet
• After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet
• After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing
• After touching an animal or animal waste
• After handling pet food or pet treats
• After touching garbage

 

What is the right way to wash your hands?

• Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold) and apply soap.
• Rub your hands together to make a lather and scrub them well; be sure to scrub the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
• Continue rubbing your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the "Happy Birthday" song from beginning to end twice.
• Rinse your hands well under running water.
• Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them.

The CDC said that washing with soap and clean water is best. However, if you do not have that as an option, hand sanitizer with 60% or more of alcohol is the next best thing to kill many germs.

Germs are so easily passed - door handles, sharing a pencil or pen, shaking hands, etc and then you touch your nose, mouth or eyes! There you go! You may have just passed whatever germs were on your hands to your body. Is your body ready to battle the germs? 

It is argued that it is good for kids to be exposed to germs. I agree with this. But I also feel that it is important to have our defenses up when we are exposed so we won't be hit too hard and take down the entire family in the process.

2. Teach your kids to keep a distance from another child who is hacking or sneezing. Kids aren't the most sanitary, so many don't cover their cough or sneeze, putting the germ particles into the air for the next child to breathe in. Teach your child how to properly cover their cough or sneeze into their sleeve instead of their hand.

3. Supplement with good quality vitamins - they will fill in the gaps in nutrition and also build your child's immune system.

Not all vitamins are created equal. It's important to research your vitamins to make sure they are actually doing your and your kid's body good!

My kids love their Incredivites chewables. They are made from the #1 natural nutrition company in the US - Shaklee. Incredivites is the most complete kids multivitamin on the market AND it contains Lactoferrin, the immune booster found in breastmilk!! No other vitamin has that. 

I also give my children chewable vitamin C. Vitamin C is known to help the immune system and fight infection. My kids love these too! This is what my mom gave me when I was young! The vitamins in one of Shaklee's Vitamin C chewable is the equivalent to 1.5 organic oranges and since it is water soluble, you cannot get too much.

At the first sign of sickness, my entire family takes Defend and Resist Complex. This is fantastic at keeping sickness at bay.

My kids have generally been very healthy and have never had an ear infection:)

Thanks for reading! I hope this info was useful to you. How do you keep your kids healthy as they head back to school?

Have a healthy day!:)

Rebecca