How do you keep illness from passing to every member of the family?

[BamaTanya]

Sigh.
I am tired of being sick. I am tired of having sick dc. I am tired of having a sick dh.

I pass out the vitamins. I wash the sheets and towels. It just seems there's so much togetherness that I'm fighting a losing battle.

We have 3 bedrooms. 3 boys in one room (bunkbed with a full-size on bottom) and 2 girls in another (one bed). And dh and I share a bed.

There's nowhere to put the sick people that quarantines them. KWIM? If they sleep on the sofa, then they've contaminated the room where everyone gathers during the day! If I put them on a pallet in my room, I'm exposing dh (and he gets exposed to plenty working in an elementary school). My immunity used to be stronger, but in the last year or so, I've been getting sick, too. (Probably weakened due to stress of grad school and my mom's health.)

I joke that my dc are like a litter of puppies, always piled on top of each other, almost always in the same room. That's cute when they're well. Not so cute when I know that it means an extended stay for whatever bug has invaded our home at the time.

Help!

[PrairieAir]

This year I've started using colloidal silver when we are around sick people or starting to come down with something. It seems we've been sick less this year and that sometimes we're able to stop sickness before it goes through the entire family. The silver is the only thing we've done differently. I was always afraid to try it before, but I think as long as you use a reputable brand, don't formulate it yourself, and use it only when needed instead of all the time, it's okay. We take elderberry concentrate and garlic and vitamins as well as some other herbal remedies, but the silver is the only thing I've never tried before. I suppose it could be that we're just having a good year.

[Stirsmommy]

You can do that:eek:? No really I haven't found anything to stop it. Of course I haven't tried sticking the sick one in a bubble yet. And I do try all of the sanitary measures. I just hope we all start recovering faster or get it at the same time.

[Beth in Central TX]

We all wash our hands frequently when we are sick, especially after sneezing or blowing a nose. I also use those disinfecting wipes and wipe down door knobs, faucets, & toilet handles at least once a day, sometimes more if we've been sick awhile or it's going around the family.

[Cricket]

We've had success with Airborne (we usually use the Walgreens generic version). Plus what Beth said: wiping everything with disinfecting wipes and lots of hand washing.

[godpoetry]

I know what you mean. I try so hard to keep everyone well. My son who got sick first is now sick again.:eek: We have cycled through the family. I would love to find out how to stop it.

[Jean in Newcastle]

We get a bottle of hand sanitizer. We keep it, the tissue box and a small garbage can near the sickos. Whoever is sick is required to use the tissue, throw it away and then use the hand sanitizer.

We disinfect the light switches, and door knobs with Lysol.

But the biggest reason I think we are having a good year this year is that every morning I put "Emergen-C" in the kid's juice. Airborne is good too but Emgergen-C is cheaper here. I usually split one pack between two kids. If someone seems like they are coming down with something they get a whole pack.

After someone has been sick I wash the sheets (like you do) and air out their bedroom (even if it is cold outside)!

[one l michele]

Sigh.
I am tired of being sick. I am tired of having sick dc. I am tired of having a sick dh.

I pass out the vitamins. I wash the sheets and towels. It just seems there's so much togetherness that I'm fighting a losing battle.

We have 3 bedrooms. 3 boys in one room (bunkbed with a full-size on bottom) and 2 girls in another (one bed). And dh and I share a bed.

There's nowhere to put the sick people that quarantines them. KWIM? If they sleep on the sofa, then they've contaminated the room where everyone gathers during the day! If I put them on a pallet in my room, I'm exposing dh (and he gets exposed to plenty working in an elementary school). My immunity used to be stronger, but in the last year or so, I've been getting sick, too. (Probably weakened due to stress of grad school and my mom's health.)

I joke that my dc are like a litter of puppies, always piled on top of each other, almost always in the same room. That's cute when they're well. Not so cute when I know that it means an extended stay for whatever bug has invaded our home at the time.

Help!

Each of us has their own toiletry bag with a cup, toothbrush, and toothpaste in it they keep in their underwear drawer and it's replaced after each is sick.

Lysols wipes and spray on all I can.

[LizzyBee]

We don't do anything out of the ordinary, but we don't seem to pass illnesses around that much. It's not uncommon for 1 or 2 of us to get sick and the rest of the family not catch it. I hope your family is well soon!

[Pegasus]

We don't even try. I just accept that if one DD gets sick, the rest of us will probably follow. The real problem is that many illnesses are most contagious before the person shows any symptoms. So, I figure it is too late once someone starts running a fever or using boxes of tissues.

I hope you are all well soon.

Pegasus

[Lisa at Home]

Crack some windows and let in some fresh air if you can, and try to get some sunshine and exercise.

~Lisa

[Doran]

Sigh.
I am tired of being sick. I am tired of having sick dc. I am tired of having a sick dh. ...


I have to say that as my children have grown older, keeping the illnesses from spreading has become much easier. I think it has a lot to do with them knowing how to control their goo. We use empty tissue boxes to hold the dirty ones. We wash hands more often (we're not crazy over hand washing otherwise) and encourage coughing into elbows rather than hands. I open windows whenever I can to "change the air", even if it's just for 15 minutes. And, I like to use a tea tree oil spritzer -- maybe 20 drops of oil in a 1/4 cup of water -- which I shake and spray all over everywhere. On hands. On fixtures. On surfaces. I think it helps. Tea Tree Oil has very high antiviral and antibacterial properties.

I have to admit, I'm almost afraid to type this out given that both my kids are very ill as I type and I'm sitting here feeling like I need to be in my own personal bubble.

Doran

[DollyM]

Paper towels in the bathrooms.
Paper cups for most meals.
Purel next to every sink and right inside the door.

We do this until everybody's well, then go back to a "greener" alternative. But yeah... paper goods.

[Jill, OK]

My thinking also; if someone is contagious before they show symptoms, in a household of seven people...quarantine just ain't gonna happen, lol.

Does anyone remember reading The Great Brain books, where the mom would put all the boys together in her bed once one of them was sick with something, lol? I don't go *that* far, but I absolutely don't do anything out of the ordinary to keep contact to a minimum. I just accept that what is a 24 hour virus for most folks will end up being a...168 hour virus, care-wise, for me. :-/

[Jill, OK]

...strengthening immune systems, though; plenty of vitamin C, white or green tea, probiotics, rest, and a multivitamin.

Chicken soup. A dose of raw apple cider vinegar, now and again. (Many of my kids would just rather get sick, lol).

[CalicoKat]

DH and I were musing about it recently and wondering what we're doing differently this year that is helping. We both think it may have to do with the change the weely organic veggie/fruit box we started ordering last spring. We were always big veggie eaters, but the veggie box really forced us to eat tons so it wouldn't get wasted. We're wondering if this better nutrition boosted their immune systems to be able to better fight off their siblings germs. :) The boxes have tons of salad greens of all sorts of varieties.

And this is the first winter colds and the flu haven't cycled through the family one-by-one. Generally the first sick is the sickest and the next is just slightly ill. Mostly it's been stopping there, rarely another might get sort of sick.

We've also letting kids fill up on oranges, clementines, apples, and bananas. We buy our budgeted amount of fruit for groceries and just let the kids eat it. We used to try and tell them one a day.

In addition to hand washings, and using paper goods this is what seems to be working here this year.

[Liz CA]

Sigh.
I am tired of being sick. I am tired of having sick dc. I am tired of having a sick dh.

I pass out the vitamins. I wash the sheets and towels. It just seems there's so much togetherness that I'm fighting a losing battle.

We have 3 bedrooms. 3 boys in one room (bunkbed with a full-size on bottom) and 2 girls in another (one bed). And dh and I share a bed.

Help!

we had to pass out heavy-duty immune boosters or stay on "Airborne" for the rest of the season. Right now, everyone is taking "Immune Stimulator" and we have not had a big battle. I am sure it's much harder with a larger family and especially younger children.

[mcconnellboys]

Are you blue yet?

Regena

[mcconnellboys]

We do wash sheets and towels more often. We also tend to wipe counters with clorox wipes or other anti-bacterial/viral, sprays, etc. We spray things down with Lysol. We all wash our hands more often. We try to keep the sick person removed from the others as much as possible and spray things down after they've been on the couch, etc. Since we've gotten more cognizant of doing this extra cleaning, we do seem to be doing a better job the last couple of years of not passing every single thing we get along to each member.

Regena

[Elinor Everywhere]

We all wash our hands frequently when we are sick, especially after sneezing or blowing a nose.

Two of us wash our hands a LOT, whether anyone is sick or not. Two of us tend to not wash so much. Guess which two get sick the most, and which two hardly ever catch anything?

It could be genetics, but I'll stick with the hand-washing theory. ;)

[Jean in Wisc]

The sick room has to be the sick room. If you can, choose one room for the sick to sleep in--boys or girls. Pull the matresses off the bunk beds and move them to make this work.

Then, if you want the living room to be the sick room, the rest of you need to live in the kitchen, bedrooms, and any other rooms in the house until they are well.

Don't let the sick ones in the kitchen--it has to be a clean room. If you have 2 bathrooms, make one the sick bathroom.

My mantra is "Quarantine!!!!"

The bad news? The child who has no symptoms but is coming down with it is most contagious.

:confused:

Sigh.

[Remudamom]

I've got a different approach. I just embraced the whole thing. When mine were little and someone was sick, I'd expose everyone. And when everyone was sick and throwing up I'd layer the floor with sheets, and we'd all sleep on them together. When one of the kids threw up I'd roll up the top sheet, they'd be on a new clean one and we'd sleep til the next disaster. This works for me because I just don't seem to get the flu.

Dh's strategy was to stay as far away from the rest of us as possible.