What To Do If It IS Swine Flu
Ok, so I have a tendency to freak right out over every little thing. Admitted. And having kids, especially one with some asthma-ish problems, has made me more than a little germophobic and panicky over every sniffle.
Take that into consideration when I tell you I am majorly freaked out over swine flu. The vaccine just became available here, and the city I live in tells me they have no schedule for distributing it yet. Not to mention our pediatrician’s office keeps running out of the seasonal flu vaccine.
So this story about how to handle swine flu if it does strike your family helped chill me out. Especially since the third sentence in is “don’t panic” and notes that it’s usually a mild disease for most people (corroborated by my SD colleague Cary Fagan, who tells me some of her friend’s kids had it and it was mostly like an evil cold). The advice is to stay home if you or your kids are sick (that means everything, not just school) and give them rest and fluids. It also includes tips on what’s an emergency (fast or troubled breathing, for one thing) and what to do if you’re a caregiver of someone with swine flu. This is a simple and brilliant idea: if you’re holding your sick kid, put their chin on your shoulder versus your chest so they can’t cough in your face. As someone who gets EVERYTHING my kids bring home from school, I wish I’d thought of that, um, four years ago.
We’re lining up this weekend to try to get our little ones the shot. Untl we can, though, this is very reassuring. If you’re someone who freaks like I do, I’d recommend bookmarking it until spring.
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Tags: childhood illnesses, flu, germophobes, h1n1, h1n1 vaccine, h1n1 virus, seasonal flu, swine flu, swine flu shot, vaccines, would you let your kids get the swine flu vaccine
5 Comments
gregor commented on Oct 23 09 at 1:50 pmThe link appears to be broken
Bec commented on Oct 23 09 at 2:12 pmWhy spring? If this virus is as contagious and strong as they say, why would it just dry up in the spring? The whole H1N1 outbreak BEGAN in the spring, in fact. The idea that one only gets the flu in the winter is an old wives tale; there is maybe a little more likelihood of contagion only because we have all our windows closed and are sharing more air than in warmer months.
Ali commented on Oct 23 09 at 2:48 pmThe last time I got the flu it was in May. I was down for 2 weeks.
Bekka commented on Oct 25 09 at 10:16 amI had the hamthrax myself this past week, and let me tell you - SO not as bad as I was expecting. Nowhere near as bad as the killer flu I had last year. Really, as long as you stay in bed, it’s nothing- granted, trying to DO anything for a week will spike your fever and make you feel miserable, but all that does is force you back into bed until it’s really over. An exercise in patience, especially staying away from, well, everyone because of how insanely contagious it is - but that’s the main worry, its contagiousness, not the severity of the actual disease. Obviously be careful, but the article is right, DON’T PANIC.
Lisa commented on Oct 25 09 at 11:55 amWe’ve been sitting at 10-20% absences in my school. Unless this thing is mutating quickly, I would expect most everyone to have had this thing by spring.
