Weather Up & Down? How To Prevent Your Kids From Getting Sick

Mother Nature has menopause, here in the Northeast, and I am NOT complaining! In a state that saw Hurricane Sandy and some significant snow storms as early as mid-October, we are LOVING the 70 degree weather we've had this week. Still, we did have colder temps last week and more seasonal weather is on the horizon.

So how can you keep kids healthy in the face of Mother Nature's mood swings?

 Here are some tips:

 

 

1.  Dress them in layers. It can be 40 when they leave for school and 65 when they get out. Plus, they have recess for a good hour in the middle of the day. Layers are essential so they can adjust their clothing with the temps. My daughter wears a camisole top, then a short-sleeved shirt, and carries a little jacket. She dons leggings which she rolls up to form shorts in case she's too warm.

2.  Pack back-up gear in the car. I carry an extra, slightly heavier jacket for her in the trunk and gloves just in case the weather is significantly colder at pick-up. I also stock blankets in the back seat so she can bundle up in the mornings while we're waiting for the car's heat to go on.  My 15-year old?  He's on his own.

3.  Make sure the kids are hydrated. This would go without saying, but when I ask my kids how much they drink, they usually tell me they forgot to fill up their reusable water bottles. I carry bottled water they can grab as I taxi them around (or in the case of my son, seltzer) so I can watch them drink water.

 4.  Watch them take their vitamins in the morning. Just today, my son found his multi-vitamin on the table where he'd forgotten to eat it at breakfast-time. Watching him take his vitamin would have ensured he'd had the proper amount of nutrients to combat germs during the day.  Oops.

5.  Keep hand sanitizer out in the entryway when they get home and remind them to use it. Kids are not the best hand-washers and in the course of the school day, they've touched lots of surfaces that have been sneezed and coughed on. Reminding them to clean their hands when they first walk in the door, especially before they eat, will keep germs at minimum. 

Using these tips, I'm hoping no one gets sick for quite a while and that their immune systems are able to fend off the latest strain of cold/flu.

Warm weather is fun – being sick is not. Stack the odds that YOUR kids will remain healthy.

Thanks for reading!!!