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Home › Articles › Health › Stop the Spread of Germs

Stop the Spread of Germs

5 Easy Steps to Keep Your Family Healthy

By Harmony Cornwell

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Vermeer even labels her children's drinks to prevent the spread of germs that can occur by drinking from the same cup. If you have young children that mouth their toys, give them a laundry hamper full of toys to play with that is only for them until the contagious period has passed. But make sure you sanitize all the toys before putting them back into circulation. A good way to sanitize children's toys is to fill your bath tub with hot water and put in a fourth cup of bleach; let the toys stay in the solution for two minutes in order to kill any germs or bacteria.

Give each child their own pillow and blanket too. Patty Underhill, a mother of two boys from New Brunswick, Canada, washes her children's bedding daily when they are sick to keep the germs at bay.

4. Don't Put Your Hands in Your Mouth (Nose, Eyes, Etc.)
This may be the hardest one to enforce with young children who rub their eyes when they are tired, sometimes forget to use a tissue or may suck their thumb, but it is an important step. Gentle and consistent reminders in conjunction with a good hand washing routine will help prevent children from getting sick due to infections spread by direct contact.

5. Get Plenty of Rest
Unerhill's son came home from school recently quite annoyed that one of his classmates had arrived at school obviously suffering from a bad cold. "[He] indignantly informed the other child that it was not fair of him to be at school when he was sick as he might not only get [his classmates] sick because of it, but [everyone] might bring home germs and make their whole family ill," she says. This is a very grownup response from a 7-year-old, but still true. Not only is rest the best thing for your child when he or she is ill, it also benefits the other children they would have come into contact with that day.

When possible, have a day at home with Mom or Dad to rest and take in plenty of fluids. Vermeer makes homemade snow cones for her daughters when they are sick. She makes them with juice when they have a cold and uses a fizzy drink (such as Sprite or 7-UP) if they have the flu.


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Re: Stop the Spread of Germs by anonymous on 03/06/2009 10:55PM

Wow. My daughter's preschool started teaching this to kids with a new product called Germy Wormy. She was so excited about it she came home and taught me a thing or two which got me googling to find this article. Germy Wormy doesn't teach the sharing tip though. Great addition.

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