No one looks forward to the cold and flu season.
Runny noses, itchy eyes, and scratchy throats cause missed days of work and school.
Plus, usually, the flu comes at a time when you’re not prepared to be sick.
Here are my tips for getting through the cold and flu season and even how to avoid getting sick altogether.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Stock up on essential cold and flu season supplies early
As soon as back-to-school season begins I recommend stocking up on essential cold and flu supplies.
The first reason I recommend doing this is that you can find some great deals on things such as hand sanitizer and tissues. The second reason I recommend this is because you’ll be able to handle any germs that the kids may pick up at school quickly as well.
Plus, if you have a younger child at home, you’ll find having essential cold and flu season supplies on hand early a great way to keep your baby from getting sick from the older school-aged kids.
Recommended Cold and Flu Season Supplies
The basic cold and flu season supplies you should stock up on include:
- Hand sanitizer
- Daytime and nighttime cold medicines
- Nasal spray
- Facial tissue
- Toilet tissue
- Cough and throat drops
- Vapor rub
- eTherm Thermometer
- Sore throat spray
- Toothbrushes
- Reishi Mushroom Gummies
Why I Recommend eTherm as a Thermometer
When shopping for a thermometer the one that I recommend is eTherm from Elepho. I recommend eTherm because it’s easy to use on kids of all ages (and can work for adults too). Plus, it’s easy to clean.
The best part is since it takes the temperature from skin contact (forehead or ear), you don’t have to worry about spreading germs as easily as in the case of using thermometers that have to go in the mouth.
Why I Recommend the Mushroom Gummies From Fungies
Reishi is a powerful mushroom that is known to improve immune health.
Having a robust immunity system is super important during cold and flu season and by adding the Reishi Mushroom Gummies to your current vitamin routine you can make sure that your family’s health is supported.
Many refer to Reishi as the “mushroom of immortality” and research has shown that it could help support healthy immune function and aging, and provide everyday stress relief.
Plus, each purchase results in a donation to Vitamin Angels, which helps women and children receive the proper nutrition that they need.
Not to mention they taste delicious!
Stock up on pantry essentials
During the summer months, we typically don’t have a ton of soups and teas sitting around.
So, when it’s time for cold and flu season, it’s important to make sure the pantry has the proper essentials just in case they’re needed.
Recommended Pantry Essentials
I recommend adding the following pantry essentials to your next grocery list:
- Chicken Noodle Soup (or your family’s favorite soup)
- Green Tea
- Honey
- Crackers
- 7 Up, Sprite, or Ginger Ale
Stock up on cleaning supplies
I’m already a little obsessed with cleaning because I hate messes and clutter.
However, during cold and flu season it gets worse and I add some additional cleaning supplies to my rotation to try to limit the spread of germs.
Recommended Cleaning Supplies
My essential list of cleaning supplies for cold and flu season consists of:
- Lysol
- Bleach
- Clorox Wipes
- Force of Nature
How to prevent sickness during cold and flu season
In the past, once I would catch a cold I would be stuck with it all winter.
It sucked.
Additionally, once one of the kids was sick the others would all get sick shortly after.
However, I found a way to prevent illnesses for the most part during the cold and flu season by doing the following things.
Set up sanitation stations
While we all know washing your hands frequently is a great way to prevent spreading germs, let’s face it, kids are not always going to wash their hands after playing, coughing, etc.
So, to eliminate germs from spreading through your home set up sanitation stations.
In these sanitation stations, you’ll keep hand sanitizer and facial tissues.
I have four sanitation stations set up in my home.
One upstairs and three downstairs.
Not only are they great for my family to use but they are also useful for when guests come over as well.
I don’t know about your kids, but my boys love putting on hand sanitizer AND I encourage it.
I have a station set up in their learning center, the living room, and the kitchen downstairs so it’s always in plain sight and regardless of where they may sneeze or cough, tissues and hand sanitizer is easily accessible for them to stop germs in their tracks.
Change toothbrushes more frequently
When you read my list of essential cold and flu season supplies and saw toothbrushes on the list you may have thought I lost my mind.
Nope.
Toothbrushes are essential because the mouth is where all the germs are.
If you’re a family that uses electric toothbrushes, I highly recommend converting back to traditional toothbrushes during cold and flu season ( at least when someone‘s sick anyway) as you’ll want to change toothbrushes (or toothbrush heads) at least once a week for the person who is sick during the duration of their sickness.
This will help them from constantly recycling the germs back into their system.
I understand that doing this can be pricey when having to purchase replacement toothbrush heads so that’s why I recommend doing this with traditional toothbrushes instead.
Clean things you’d otherwise forget
We’ve discussed upping your cleaning supplies and adding Lysol and bleach to the mix. However, avoiding getting sick requires cleaning things that you normally may forget about such as cellphones, laptops, tablets, kids’ toys, etc.
Germs can get on literally anything and the more people who touch the products the more it spreads.
Read Also: SAHM Cleaning Schedule
Keep sickness from spreading if someone does get sick
After you’ve done the above-mentioned things to try to keep sickness out of your home during cold and flu season if someone still decides to get sick, add the following additional precautions to your already set protocol.
Monitor fevers
Remember I mentioned eTherm as one of the cold and flu essentials above?
If someone does get sick, you’ll be glad that you invested in it.
With eTherm, you’ll be able to easily monitor fevers throughout the duration of their sickness and since it only requires skin contact, you can even monitor your kid’s fevers while they sleep without disturbing them.
Furthermore, if once one person is sick, everyone gets sick in your house, eTherm makes it easy for you to stay on top of everyone’s fevers even while being sick yourself.
Clean everything they touch
You can’t trust sick people to be vigilant about washing their hands.
They’re sick and probably snotting and coughing everywhere and since they’re not feeling well, they’re not going to keep running to the sanitation stations or the bathroom to wash their hands.
So, it’s up to you to follow them around with Lysol.
SPRAY EVERYTHING THEY TOUCH!!!
Yes, you’ll want to spray the doorknobs, faucet handles, and toilet handles.
However, don’t forget about pantry handles, tops of chairs, closet handles, refrigerator handles, dresser handles, etc.
I know this may seem like a lot of work, but I hate being sick so it’s definitely well worth it.
And if you want to take it one step further, change their bedding daily.
Think about it, at night they’re coughing and sneezing in bed and all the germs are just floating around in the covers.
Conclusion: You can get through cold and flu season
With these essential cold and flu items, you can survive cold and flu season.
We’ve successfully been able to avoid getting the flu for years AND I’ve been able to keep colds down to a minimum using these strategies.
What do you do to help your family get through the cold and flu season?
Very informative! I will definitely be using some of the information you provided.
A lot of great information here and I am going to review my supplies. Understand about the soup and teas, teas I alwys have but soup not so much. I live in a senior high rise where people are sick all the time. So I try not to touch stuff
I will be needing these in our home..just in case! Thank you for sharing these wonderful and helpful tips.
I am sick right now with cough and colds. Not the time I wanted to have this because the coming days are busy.
Great tips. Love this. I don’t actually remember to change my toothbrush. Good advice. I will remember that.
It is so good to be stocked up and prepared, so that you don’t have to scramble when your child is sick. This is a great reminder and I’ll have to get a bunch of these items.
I really enjoyed reading this post, these are great tips. I can’t believe cold and flu season is already upon us. I have to make sure to stock up on some of these products.
These are such great tips, I legit hateeee getting the flu or sick but i seem to at least get a cold once or twice a year.
I made sure my special needs son got a flu shot. My doctor also gave me one. Can’t make my husband do anything so I’ve bought tissues, soup, and comfort medications.
I hate the cold and flu season. That’s one thing I hate about this time of year. It’s really important to have many of these products on hand though. I have all of them too.
I caught a flu just last week and it was awful! I will be following al these tips. It’s still the flu season here so it’s better to be safe.
This is the hardest period of the year! It’s so difficult to pass it so these tips are so helpful!
I always keep most of that stuff on hand. I have 3 kids in grade school, so they bring home everything that is going around.
Great tips! It’s never fun to be at the grocery store getting cough drops and tissue when you’re feeling terrible, so it’s a great idea to have these items on hand!
We have already had and finished our first round of cough/cold symptoms that went through the whole house. I need a new thermometer and this one seems perfect.
I have many of these in my home. As we age, we don’t fight off germs like we use to.
Like what they say, prevention is always better than cure. These tips are perfect especially if you have kids in the house! I think it’s important to be prepared.
Yup, I have a lot of these on hand. Just in case. With the kids being in school, germs come in frequently. We all hate to be sick, so I always hope it passes quickly.