As we head into the New Year and start moving from winter to spring, one common problem we have is illness spreading. The change in weather can often bring with it plenty of niggly little illnesses – none more annoying than the family cold. If you would like to try and help your family to avoid this issue, then you need to be able to work towards avoiding this irritation.
How can you help make sure that your family can avoid picking up a debilitating cold that brings the whole house down?
1. Give out rewards to the children
The first thing that you should look to do is help to give your kids some extra rewards to your children if they take basic hygienic care. This might seem like an odd thing to reward your children for, but the reason is quite simple: they will be much more likely to actually listen to your requests if they know that there is something waiting for them at the end of the road!
A little incentive is just what a child needs to listen and learn to what you have to say, in truth. Encourage them to regularly wash their hands with soap and water and to help make sure they do so for at least 20 seconds. Every time they do this, give them a little reward – for every, say, 5 or 10 rewards, they get a treat of some capacity. It’s a good little way to incentivize your children to play along and stay healthy.
You can also do this for various other forms of hygienic care. The majority of children will be able to just go along with it, but you can usually throw in other rewards for basic hygienic improvements. The more incentive they have to do these things; the sooner they will become a natural habit.
2. Wash your hands in a thorough manner
Most of us simply just run our hands quickly under the water, giving them a quick scrub and then calling it at that. This is not the right way to clean your hands, though. Instead, you need to be able to look at your hands and give them a proper thorough scrubbing if you want to make sure they remain in quality condition.
The best way to stay germ-free is to take extra care of your hands when you are washing them. It might seem like an obvious thing, but for many households, this is one of the easiest mistakes to make. Wash your hands on a regular basis with soap and with water, making sure that you go for at least 20 seconds with particular concentration in-between and on the back of your fingers. It’s a small but important habit to get into.
3. Get a tissue bin
One of the most common ways to spread germs and filth around the house is to use tissues and then fail to get rid of them in a proper manner. Think about what the hanky is actually used for: blowing a lot of germs and disease out of the nose and onto the paper. Therefore, you should look to get disposable tissues and then get a specific tissue bin. This would be a good way to help keep all of the hanky in the one place, and then make it easy for you to dispose of said hanky when the time is right.
Don’t just allow those tissues to go in with the normal bin, especially a bin that has an open top. If you do this, then the germs can spread back out from the bin and around the rest of the room, which is sure to cause issues.
4. Open up the windows
A lot of people look to keep the windows shut when there is an illness floating around, as they don’t’ want to catch a chill and make it worse. However, that is probably not the right thing to do: you should look to instead open up the windows and allow some extra fresh air into the house. If you do this, you are much more likely to see positive results and to actually overcome the problem at hand.
If you are serious about trying to keep your home fresh and healthy, then make sure that you allow more ventilation into the room. If you are worried about catching a chill, then just put on an extra layer of clothing: that will be sure to help keep you nice and safe from the coldness. Fresh air coming in is always useful for combatting problems like the family cold.
5. Keep a clean environment
One of the best things that you can do to help make sure you stay nice and safe during this kind of experience is to invest more time and energy into keeping the environment clean. Sanitize everything in your house that could be touched regularly, from doorknobs to things like the kettle and even light switches.
That might seem like an over-the-top move, but you will feel the benefits in the long run if you go down this route. You will be much more likely to come out the other side of your illness feeling much better if you just take that extra time to clean everything. Sure, it will make cleaning around the house a bit longer than it would be normally, but you will see a big reduction in the number of germs which are floating around your home. That’s very important for avoiding the family cold.
6. Keep up a healthy lifestyle
Try and make sure that you all stay healthy and active, too. An active lifestyle will help you to be fit enough to combat an illness, making it much easier for you to overcome physical problems like the cold. You will be much more likely to overcome the cold just on the basis that your body will be in better shape, meaning that you should be able to help resist the condition in the first place.
When you have a cold, you often feel like you need a long rest and your body needs more time to recover. If you are eating right and you are physically active, though, you will be much more likely to combat the illness and get rid of it in a timely manner. So, keep that in mind as it will become increasingly important in your battle to get your home free of family illness.
7. Clean toys with disinfectant wipes
Your kids are very much likely to be the ones spreading around germs as they are the ones mixing in the most contaminated locations such as schools and nurseries. When they come home, they will be playing with their toys and passing on all manner of germs and dirt to the toy. Over time, this could play a contributing factor in the rest of the home falling ill. If you would like to avoid that, then you should definitely look to clean toys with some disinfectant wipes.
This will keep the toys in good condition, and also prevent your children from using their entertainment as a means of passing on said illness.
8. Keep hydrated
Lastly, you need to keep those fluid levels high. High fluid levels will help to combat the build-up of a cold or flu and will play an important role in giving your body the shield it needs. Convince everyone in your house to start drinking more water, allowing for everyone at home to slowly but surely combat the issue at hand and start to feel healthier as they do so. Keeping a high fluid level will give your body the help that it needs to combat the illness and stop it from spreading, which can only be a good thing for you in the long run.
With that in mind, then, you should look to keep hydrated. Doing that, along with the rest of the above ideas, will be very much likely to help you overcome most family illnesses like the cold.
