How to Keep Your Family Healthy With Kids in School

Preventing Illness This Winter

Thank you to iHerb for sponsoring this post. All opinions are 100% my own. 

As I walked into the room, I was welcomed by several hacking coughs and lots of sniffling noses.

No, I wasn’t walking into a sick ward at the hospital.

I was volunteering in Jack’s Kindergarten class.

I knew that with him starting school, he would be exposed to all sorts of new germs and illnesses…at a likely higher rate than he ever had before.

This has always worried me, because our family doesn’t seem to have very good immune systems, and we get sick with everything (need I remind you how both my boys were hospitalized with RSV?!)

It’s only just November, and we’ve already battled the regular flu, the stomach flu, and lots and lots of coughs, congestion and runny noses.

I recently started researching ways to help our family stay a little healthier, especially with Jack being in school.

Honestly, most of them are pretty simple and just take some common sense…but it does take some effort to make sure you do all of these, especially with the craziness that comes with kids being in school.

Eat Healthy

There are so many benefits to eating healthy – including keeping you from getting sick. A diet full of fruits and vegetables (with a particular emphasis on Vitamin C and dark, leafy greens) can help bolster up that immune system.

We’ve been trying to eat “cleaner” in our family, and I do feel like we all feel better when we do. My boys love my healthy smoothies and shakes. I think smoothies are a great way to sneak fruits and vegetables into everyone’s diet. You can also add in MCT Oil from Coconut. It’s a great energy source (as well as a supplement to help with weight loss) that is odorless and tasteless, which makes it ideal for adding to your smoothies.

Vitamins and Probiotics

It’s not always possible to get all the essential vitamins that we need into our diets – and especially in our kids diets.

However, there are a lot of vitamins that truly are essential for your health, especially during the cold and flu season. I think the best thing you can do is just take a good ol’ multivitamin that is created specifically for your age and gender. Here are a couple we really like:

• Nature’s Way, Alive! Gummies, Multi-Vitamin for Children (my boys really love these, because they get to eat three at a time!)
  
• Nature’s Way, Alive! Women’s Energy, Multivitamin-Multimineral
• Nature’s Way, Alive!, Max3 Daily, Men’s Max Potency
  

It’s also essential to have enough calcium in your diet (and most of us don’t). This is a great calcium supplement to help fill in the gaps. 

I also am a big fan of probiotics. They have so many amazing benefits, and they should be taken year-round. If your kids or you end up on antibiotics this winter, make sure you have them set up on good probiotics immediately following the course of antibiotics.

For adults, Nature’s Way Reuteri is a great probiotic to stock up on this winter.

Treat Illnesses Right Away

There’s no reason anyone should have to “tough” out a sickness – and you don’t have to resort to medications! I think there are a lot of benefits to natural treatments, especially in the early stages of illnesses. Echinacea Goldenseal is supposed to help stop colds in their tracks, and it’s safe for all ages.

Make sure to stock up on all the essential vitamins, probiotics, and supplements you need this winter! New customers can get $5 off their Nature’s Way order of $20 or more by clicking here.

Vaccines

I know vaccines are a controversial topic, but I think it’s an important one to mention.

Vaccines do help prevent many communicable diseases from being spread. I mean, when I was a child, everyone got the chicken pox. And now? I hardly hear of everyone.

So, vaccination can be helpful in helping to prevent certain illnesses – and it helps protect those who are too young to be vaccinated as well as those who are immunocompromised.

Just Say No

Although I don’t love when my kids say no to me, knowing how to say no to other people is important.

Does someone want to come over right after their family all just recovered from the stomach flu? Say no.

Did little Johnny come home from school asking if he could go to little Sam’s house to play, and you noticed that Sam’s nose was running and his eyes were watering while you were volunteering? Say no.

The truth is, your family’s health should most definitely come first. I know it’s not always possible, but if you

Practice Good Hygiene 

While you can sometimes do everything right and still get sick, practicing good hygiene can make a world of difference.

Teaching your child how to wash their hands properly and regularly is so important when they are in school where they are constantly sharing equipments, desks, and other items with kids. For younger kids, you can teach them to sing the ABCs the whole way through while washing their hands.

Other simple things you can do is to teach your child to sneeze or cough into their elbow rather than their hand, not to share food or drinks with friends at school, and to regularly bathe.

Get Adequate Rest

It’s a lot easier to get sick if you aren’t well-rested. Children need a lot of sleep still, so implement a regular bedtime to make sure they get enough sleep. You can check out this chart here in order to make sure you know how much your child needs to be getting.

And if your child does get sick, sleeping and resting is the best recipe for getting well fast.

Having a good mattress can make all the difference in the quality of sleep someone gets. I think we sometimes forget that our children need good mattresses and don’t put a lot of thought into the one they are sleeping on…but it really can make a huge impact on their health. We LOVE the 5 Little Monkey’s Mattress – it’s designed specifically for children and built to last them until they leave home.

 

DON’T FORGET: Stock up on all the essential vitamins, probiotics, and supplements you need this winter! New customers can get $5 off their Nature’s Way order of $20 or more by clicking here. iHerb makes it easy to get all your vitamins and supplements without even stepping outside. They carry over 400 Nature’s Way products, so this is an amazing time to stock up!