Staying Safe from the Swine (H1N1)

Posted on Monday, November 2, 2009 by Jen

There has been a lot of information out there in the media about H1N1 and how to avoid getting it. While at first I thought that a lot of it was hysteria, now that a few healthy children in Canada have died from it and that I have a relative in ICU because of it, I am now a paranoid freak mother.

In addition to the natural disinfection methods I mentioned in a previous post, I received an email from a friend that had a few different ways to try and avoid getting infected with it. I heard that Dr. Oz may have discussed these as well.

1) WASH YOUR HANDS This cannot be stressed enough. Usually contact with the virus happens this way. You cannot wash your hands too much!

2) DON’T TOUCH YOUR FACE The virus enters your system through the nostrils, and mouth/throat. If you contact the virus on your hands and touch your face, it will begin to proliferate in these areas. The virus has to have somewhere to live. Don’t help it move in!

3) GARGLE Gargling with salt water twice a day can prevent the proliferation of the virus in your throat. It can take a few days for the virus to proliferate enough in there before it makes you sick. You can knock it out before it hits you if you catch it early enough. This has now become my new bedtime/wake-up ritual. I even do it when I come home from being in public. My kids enjoy it too. I don’t make their solution as salty as mine but I figured if they can gargle their milk and juice, they can do this too! And best yet, they get to spit it out!!!

4) CLEAN YOUR NOSTRILS Sounds crazy, but again, you have a chance to knock out the virus if it has begun proliferating in there. Use cu-tips with warm salt water. My kids are even letting me do this to them. They think it is funny to clean their “boogies”.

5) DRINK WARM LIQUIDS Drinking warm liquids can wash proliferating viruses out of your throat down into your stomach where they cannot survive as the living conditions are too acidic. I am a bit of a tea granny anyway so this is an easy one for me. My two year old twins also enjoy afternoon herbal tea and honey with their snack so this can be an easy one to do with kids. Instead of having a pretend tea party, have a real one!

These seems so simple so why not incorporate these into your routine? Swine flu can be serious for anyone, but especially our little people. Do what you can to protect them and yourself. Stay healthy!