How To Prevent Spreading Sickness In Family Home

Introduction

I’m going to talk about How To Prevent Spreading Sickness In Family Home.

Table of Contents

Did you know that it only takes a sneeze for a virus or bacteria to spread?

Today I’m going to talk to you about what I do to protect my other child from getting sick if one of them has gotten a virus or bacterial infection. This off course can apply to a family of three or more kids too. The concepts I’m going to discuss are based on my experience and it assumes you have help from a spouse.

If you are a single mum or dad then you may need to re-enforce family, friends or a nanny to help you out as it’s a two person job and cannot be accomplished with just a single one.

I have had to deal with this a few times now as I have a 3.5 year old and a toddler at the age of 9 months old now. Since we live in the covid era they all got that and also we went through some other viral infections that my three year old brought from school to our home.

Since I’ve developed the best practices that I’m going to talk to you about below I have had very good success on preventing the virus spread and keeping my other kid healthy and sound.

I will be breaking this down in three main sections:

Things you can do to detect this early and how to act fast
How to prepare your home when that event happens
Put a schedule down and follow it religiously until the virus gets eradicated from the home

Hoping by the end of this article you will be better equipped to deal with such an unfortunate event as a mother, father or even care giver.

Just as a note any advice here is not from a medical professional. This is just my experience with the topic and how I deal with things. By no means do not take this for granted. Before all seek help to a medical advisor and your registered doctor, they are the ones that have the first and final word.

Preventative Care To Stop The Spread

The most important thing you need to be doing is being prepared for such a situation when it happens. Every year when the winter season kicks in I start preparing my home for an unexpected event.

Since Covid has hit us I’ve been doing this regularly earlier than the season. But regardless there’s a lot of viruses that are spreading so you may still need to be ready for such an event. More importantly when it happens you will have all the things ready to go when it does happen.

Trust Well Time Tested Vaccinations

Let’s start with the basics which I think everyone should be doing. These days we live in a strong sentiment about vaccinations and all things related to them. While I’m not here to tell you what to do I think you should be considering to do the ones that have been tested for prolonged period of times as they may save and prevent a lot of pain for you when it comes to infections.

I am personally very conservative when it comes to that and careful on selecting when and what I inject into my kids but I still try to do what I consider the absolute minimum that every responsible parent should do.

Have The Essentials Always Stocked In Your Shelves

You should always have some essential medication around your home. I like to renew them at the end of the season as they expire fast. Some of the things I always have around are:

Fever control medication
Pain killer medication
Sterilization wipes
Medicated Eye Drops
Ear Drops
Nose anti contestant spray
Chest rub for breathing better or essential oils
Upset stomach
Sore throat syrup
Thermometer

My list is actually bigger than that but those are what I consider the essentials to have in an easy to access spot. I used to think I’ll buy them when needed but the problem is that you don’t know when you will need them or you may not even in the position to go out and get them as you may be feeling sick. Imagine getting an upset stomach really late at night for example, that’s why I think it’s great to have them handy.

Eat Healthy And Take Some Supplements

It’s very important to keep your diet on point very rich on vegetables and fruit. Those powerful nutrient powerhouses can help prevent and stop infection. They are rich in antioxidants and they are generally good for your overall health. I have a section on my blog here where I list some delicious healthy recipes that I make for my family.

Besides eating health you may also want to supplement your diet with some things that are difficult to get from your diet. Just remember that eating healthy isn’t the silver bullet and taking supplements isn’t one either. When you combine both they work synergistically to improve your health condition. Below is a list of supplements that I take as an adult, currently I do not give any to my children I just try to feed them healthy.

Vitamin C, I take 500mg once a day during the winter seasons
Vitamin D, I take 1000iu once a day during winter, during summer I just try to get some good amount of sunlight

Since I work out I also take a few more to help me with performance. These are not mandatory but they help a lot if you are male and exercise frequently.

I have written about these here:

How Working Out After 40 Years Old Is Like

Things To Do Once Someone In The Home Gets Sick

So you took all the preventative measures listed above but someone still got sick. This is inevitable if we were able to prevent illness no one would ever get sick. Our bodies are very complicated and there’s no way you can tick all the boxes to prevent such a thing. Sometimes you will slip out and get sick. My daughter picks up a lot of viruses when she’s in school and you know why? The reason is very simple, we don’t always control the environment we are in.

There’s numerous times I’ve gotten sick by eating food out even in really good restaurants that have a reputation of being clean. What I’m trying to say here is that we will eventually lose control of a situation and someone will get sick.

I will try to split things up in sections starting with the basics and which I consider more important.

Get All Tested

You will want to all get tested even if you do not have symptoms. Viruses have different incubation periods and may affect people at different time. This means basically it’s good to at least know who is sick and who is not as the next step is to basically split up the house in two groups of people.

Yes you guessed it right the first group will be the sick group and the other group will be the ones that are not.

Separate Sick From Non Sick In The House

You will want to setup the house in such a way that the two groups of people will be working in inverse schedules. The idea here is when the first group uses the kitchen the other group will be in the room napping or using entertainment. Similarly you probably want to time the sleep schedules especially if you have children in such a way that it’s done in an inverse manner.

One of the parents may take a bit more of a load on this method but at least you won’t have to deal with more people getting sick at the same time.

Take Up More Responsibilities

The non-sick group of people will have to take up most if not all of the house chores. With proper care using gloves and a mask they should be in charge of the following things on a daily maybe twice a day basis:

Disinfect all surfaces especially before and after meals
Air out the rooms whenever possible
Steam clean the floors or at least mop using a good disinfectant
Take out the trash
Do the laundry
Take care of pets if you have some in your household
Do some cooking whenever possible, do not shy from ordering some healthy food it’s ok to do that in difficult times
Be in charge of keeping the medical supplies filled up, although you shouldn’t have to do this if you followed what I mentioned earlier to having the house pre-stocked with medical supplies.

Since this will put more strain on the group that’s not sick it’s vital that the sick group is not careless and tries to reduce their load. For example small things such as rinsing the plates after a meal or not leaving clothes everywhere can make a big difference.

Setup A Routine And Stick To It

Following a routine is also very important. Some things you will probably want to schedule are the following:

Alternate sleep schedules
Alternate eating schedules
Alternate entertainment room sessions
Bath time routine
Pill/Medicine routine and timing

You may ask why alternate sleep schedules and this is one of those things that I’m always torn about. However I will list a few reasons for you to consider on why I think that’s important:

The sick group needs to sleep longer periods of time and they need peace when they do, if you share the bed with a spouse sometimes entertainment gadgets and such get in the way and the person feeling good may not willingly know that they are disrupting the other persons sleep.
If you are sharing beds due to a small house you will get the other person sick easier.
Some viruses are serious and medical emergencies may be needed at weird times, having an alternate schedule someone is always on watch and can monitor the sick people.
The group not sleeping can help the other group when they are sleeping in case they need some medication or with their bed. If both are sleeping at the same time the sick group could be helpless, imagine being weak and having to go down stairs or something similar.

If this list wasn’t convincing enough then you can reconsider your strategy on it.

Make Your Time More Fun

This is the time to indulge in those Netflix or Amazon prime series you always wanted to watch. Also pick a book if it’s entertaining enough and try to read it. Both of those activities will get your mind off being sick for a bit and may be soothing for you.

If you have some cuisine that’s not super unhealthy and you do not have stomach problems indulge yourself in it. It’s ok to let go and order out a nice Chinese soup that will help your stomach and give you some joy. Obviously don’t go all out and overdo it like ordering fries and other heavy meals that will make your worst to begin with.

Pick up the phone and talk to your friends and family. Don’t do that if you have a sore throat or difficult breathing and talking obviously. But if it’s something that won’t affect your vocal cords then go ahead and dial your friend groups. Talking to others sometimes about it takes away some weight off your shoulders and it makes you feel better.

Use Equipment To Help You

There’s some equipment you can keep in your home to help with everything. A list below is some of the things I use on occasion when I’m sick.

HEPA filters: These guys are good at keeping your room clean and virus free. The filtration is so good that sometimes you could be in the same room without a mask and not get sick, obviously don’t do that as this is asking for trouble.
Humidifiers: If you have a problem breathing or feeling in general your nose airways dry go ahead and make use of these devices. With me personally they have helped me a lot over the years when I’m sick. As a bonus I like to pour in a few essential oil drops to help open my airways such as Eucalyptus oil, Rosemery and Oregano.
Heaters: If you have a cold you would most likely feel colder than everyone else. It’s just the nature of how these things affect your body. Having a portable plugin heater or AC wall unit with you can help alleviate this for you.
Heated Blanket: A heated blanket works in a similar way as the heater but I believe it’s a bit more cozy to have on you as you can wrap it around you.

Note these are all optional but can greatly help you a lot.

Use Common Sense

Last but not the least use common sense on everything you are doing. I will list some best practices you can follow but this greatly depends on what you have it’s very situational. If your mind says it’s a bad idea then don’t do it it’s not worth the risk.

Wash your hands whenever you can
Use face masks
Use gloves when cleaning (especially if you are not in the sick group)
Shower often, hot showers help open up the airways and clearing out mucus
Consult your doctor at all times
Monitor your temperature and oxygen levels if you can

As mentioned above your best friend after your doctor is yourself. You are the one that knows your body better if you feel something is wrong do not hesitate to reach out to the medical professionals. This is what they do the best and they are trained for. Do not think at any time that your question may be stupid, it’s better to be wrong than sorry.

Conclusion

If you found How To Prevent Spreading Sickness in Family Home useful and you think it may have helped you please drop me a cheer below I would appreciate it.

If you have any questions, comments please post them below I check periodically and try to answer them in the priority they come in. Also if you have any corrections please do let me know and I’ll update the article with new updates or mistakes I did.

What’s your favorite thing to do to prevent the virus spread in a family home?

My favorite is by far to use the isolation method I mentioned earlier, I believe no matter how much you disinfect it’s hard to prevent airbone viruses even with the best HEPA filtration system.

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