This is a sponsored post for Vicks Humidifiers. As always, opinions remain 100% my own. With 3 kids, a single cold can take over a month to work its way through our entire house. Learn how Vicks Humidifiers help to prevent spreading cold and flu for kids.
When you have three or more kids, you get lots of looks. Lots of “You’ve sure got your hands full!” Plenty of, “You know how that happens, right?” But nobody tells you, come cold and flu season, that unless you take active measures to stop germs from spreading, when one kid comes home with a little cold, it will be weeks before it is finished making its way through your entire household. And by then, someone else will have brought another one home for the whole cycle to start again. Read on for my top 5 tips for preventing the spread of cold and flu for kids, and enter to win your very own Vicks® Germ Free Cool Moisture Humidifier at the end of this post.
5 Ways to Prevent Spreading of Cold and Flu for Kids
Preventing your kids from getting sick during cold and flu season is a near impossibility. Just spend a morning at your child’s preschool and you will quickly see why: they sit in shared, close quarters, and despite their teachers’ best efforts, a four year old’s hygeine is far from pristine.
Kids are dirty, full of germs, and when you multiply that by multiple kids at different schools with all sorts of different activities, inevitably someone will come home sick. In your home, however, you can take measures to prevent those cold and flu germs from spreading among your kids and to you and your husband.
Use a Vicks Germ Free Cool Moisture Humidifier
Colder weather and use of drying heaters create the perfect breeding ground for cold and flu germs. Increasing the humidity level in your home to between 40 and 60 percent can reduce the survival of flu viruses on surfaces and in the air.
Vicks, the most trusted brand for cough and cold relief, now offers a Vicks Germ Free Cool Moisture Humidifier. Its patented germ-killing technology assures that the humidifer emits mist that is 99.9% free of viruses, fungus, bacteria and mold, which can often develop in a humidifer’s water tank. When we turn on our heat, I start using my humidifier to prevent illness… and if the kids get sick, I add Vicks VapoPads to my humidifier to help relieve congestion so they breathe better and sleep easier. And the best part? The one gallon tank runs for up to 24 hours per filling.
The Vicks Germ Free Cool Moisture Humidifer is available at Walmart for an everyday low price of $59.99, but it is currently on rollback for $49.86 in stores and online from now through January 2018. It’s the perfect time to get one for every bedroom in your house, and even one for your child’s classroom!
Drink LOTS of Fluids
Dryer air also leaves you and your kids dehydrated, which can decrease your immune system. With colder weather, kids have lower activity levels and may not feel as thirsty as in the heat of summer. But they still need to drink lots of fluids.
This becomes even more important if they do get sick. Many cough medicines and decongestants are even more dehydrating and are most effective if you drink plenty of fluids. So push water and juice, and make sure you stay hydrated to prevent cold and flu for kids – both to keep them well, and help them recover quickly if they do get sick.
Wash hands. And wash them again.
Our daily routine when we come home from school is to take off our shoes in the mudroom, hang up all our coats and backpacks, and then head to the bathroom to wash our hands. And I make them wash them again before we sit down to eat. I become even more crazy about hand washing during the winter months to protect cold and flu germs from spreading.
If you want to help engrain handwashing in your kids, try this Glitter Activity for kids from The Simple Parent. It’s an awesome demonstration of how germs spread from hand to hand and surface to surface, and just how effectively you have to wash to remove germs too.
Disinfect daily
While your kids are busy washing their hands, you need to disinfect the rest of your house. Focus especially on high touch, high traffic areas and surfaces: play areas, toys, stair railings, door knobs, light switches. Stock up on disinfectant wipes and sprays. It’s often a nice gesture to donate a few of these to your child’s classroom too to help them do the same.
Get some sleep
Staying well rested is as important for your immune system as just about anything else. With the busy holiday season, it can be easy to let your kids miss bedtimes. Make sure they are getting adequate sleep regularly. And should they get sick, the best remediy for cold and flu for kids is sleep.
It’s also so much better to keep them home from school for an extra day or two to allow their immune systems to fully recover. Not only will you prevent spreading cold and flu germs at school, you will also prevent them from contracting another illness and getting sick all over again.
Win a Vicks Germ Free Cool Moisture Humidifer and Accessories
Thanks to Vicks, I have one Vicks Germ Free Cool Moisture Humidifier to giveaway, along with one box of Sleepytime Rosemary & Lavendar VapoPads and one box of Vicks VapoPads, for use with your humidifier. To enter, please leave a comment on this blog post sharing how you and your family prepare for cold and flu season.
See giveaway below for more ways to enter. Please note, upon selection winner must provide their mailing address to receive their prize.
Vicks Germ Free Cool Moisture Humidifier Giveaway
What are your go-to prevention methods against cold and flu for kids? If you enjoyed this post, be sure to also check out my 30+ favorite mom hacks I learned from my Grandmother, a mother of 8!!! kids. Her methods for battling the stomach bug are lifechanging. You can find both of these and more on my Health and Safety for kids board on Pinterest.
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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Vicks Humidifiers. The opinions and text are all mine.