Get Rid of Germs: Keep Your Family from Getting Sick

Germs are lurking everywhere! They are on the playground, shopping cart, bathroom faucets, desks at school and refrigerator door handle just to name a few places. According to the Mayo Clinic, cold and flu viruses can live up to 48 hours on environmental surfaces. These viruses tend to live longer on non-porous surfaces such as metal and plastic than porous surfaces such as paper and fabric.

You cannot avoid germs unless you become a recluse and you definitely cannot keep your kids from coming in contact with germs. The one thing you can do is to keep yourself and your kids as germ free as possible. I have found that doing these simple things helps our family to stay healthy.

School kids should wash their hands immediately after getting home from school. When my son started kindergarten, I would have him wash his hands as soon as he walked through the door. He had a newborn sister and I didn't want him transferring his kindergarten germs to her. Now he washes his hands right away to get rid of his second grade germs.

Adults should wash their hands when they arrive home. If you work outside the home, it is just as important for you to wash your hands; especially if you work with children or in an environment where equipment is shared. Spray your computer keyboard surface and mouse with a disinfectant spray every day especially if others use it.

My husband works in a classroom with computers and music keyboards and he has drastically cut down the amount of colds he gets since he began disinfecting these surfaces everyday. You will keep yourself from getting sick and from transferring your work germs to your children.

Wash hands after playing at a playground. Whether you are outside or at an indoor play area, cleaning your kids' hands off will eliminate a lot of germs. Germs can be transferred from the plastic and metal equipment. A child may wipe his snotty nose and then touch the slide and then your child touches the same spot - wham! Your child has a cold a few days later.

Use a grocery cart cover for an infant or young toddler. This product will keep your child from touching the grocery cart. Teething babies love to put their mouth on that handle and imagine how many hands touch that every day. I got pink eye very bad one time and couldn't figure out how I got it. My doctor told me that I could have picked up the infection from simply touching the grocery cart handle after someone who had pink eye had touched it! Yuck! Now I wipe my hands after every store trip.

Do not touch the public restroom door handles. Use a paper towel or put your hand in your sleeve to open the door. It is amazing how many people don't wash their hands after using the bathroom! If you touch where they touched and get their bathroom germs, then it is the same as not washing your hands.

Sneeze into the bend of your arm instead of your hands. This will help you from spreading germs to others through the air or on your hands. If your children need to sneeze tell them to sneeze into the bend of their arm.

Always wash hands before eating. Simply stated, this keeps germs on your hands from entering your mouth when you eat.

Spray doorknobs, kitchen appliance handles, and faucets with Lysol as frequently as possible. This should definitely be done if someone in your house has been sick. You can also spray Lysol or another disinfectant spray in the air to disinfect as well as on all surfaces throughout the house. Be sure to get all doorknobs, faucets, and light switches.

Washing your hands with soap and warm water is the best way to eliminate germs. If soap and water are not available, antibacterial hand wipes or an alcohol based hand sanitizer will work too. Just be sure to get rid of those germs!

Source: www.mayoclinic.com