I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting (#MC) for MedImmune Specialty Care. I received a promotional item as a thank you for participating.
For most of their childhoods, all 3 of our children received the flu mist every year. Despite this, our family would still get hit with a bad flu each winter. So last year, I decided to forgo getting the flu vaccine for the whole family. I thought, since we were going to get a bad flu anyways, why bother to get the vaccine? Was that ever a mistake! I would say that our household got hit with a flu or stomach bug once every 3 weeks throughout the fall and winter. Since it took 1-1/2 to 2 weeks for the bug to make it through all 5 family members, it seemed like we would get sick again just when everyone was feeling better every single time. It was the roughest flu season we ever had.
We definitely did not make the same mistake this year. All 5 of us have been vaccinated. Unlike before, I would feel lucky this year if we only came down with the flu once this winter. I think one of our biggest battles is capturing the germs. According to A Parent's Guide to Flu Season by Elizabeth Pantley, it is ideal to capture the germs by catching them in a tissue whenever possible. The problem is that, for the past few years, the schools have been teaching the children to cough or sneeze into their sleeves, which is not incorrect, but apparently using a tissue to catch the cough or sneeze is better. With how quickly a flu bug spreads through one classroom (and the entire school), I think every student should have a box of tissues within arms reach, at the very least during peak flu season. If the students threw away their used tissue right away and immediately washed or sanitized their hands, we could drastically reduce the number of absences due to flu symptoms this school year.
If you struggled with the flu last year like I did, download Elizabeth Pantley's ebooklet A Parent's Guide to Flu Season. Did you know that children are 2 to 3 times as likely to catch the flu than an adult because their immune systems are still developing or that virus particles from a cough or a sneeze can reach a distance of up to 6 feet? Which facts found in Pantley's ebooklet surprised you?
