How To Be Prepared for Cold and Flu Season

 

 

Seeing as our entire family has been sick for the last few weeks now, the timing of this post seems especially fitting. Colds have a way of coming on without warning around here, and when they do, they like to linger on, and work their way through each and every family member. It’s awful. With my oldest being in Kindergarten now, it always seems to start with him, which is exactly how it all went down this time around. Naturally, I caught it last, once everyone else was feeling better… but thankfully I was prepared.

Kleenex makes blowing your nose fun!

There isn’t much that you can do to outright prevent a cold from coming on at some point during the fall and winter months, but there are definitely things that you can do to help ease the symptoms, to shorten the duration, and to make you feel slightly less miserable. Here are our favorite ways to prepare for/cope with cold and flu season…

Medicine

Is there anything worse than when your baby spikes a fever, or when you wake up with a pounding headache, congestion, and a raging sore throat, and you don’t have any medicine on hand? In the fall, I made sure to stock up on our favorite pain relievers, decongestants, and cough syrups, so that this would not be an issue when we were in a dire need of relief.

Humidifier

Before I had kids, I never fully realized how helpful a humidifier could really be. Now we own a few, and I make sure that they are always clean and stored in an easy-to-reach place for when we need them. In the winter months we use them often, even when we aren’t sick, to combat that dry air.

Tissues

I cannot even tell you how many boxes of tissues we have gone through over the last few weeks. Kleenex brand tissues are a staple for us. We love their Ultra, Antiviral, and Lotion options the best, because they’re all super soft, and they all have a special blue dot layer with an anti viral formula that kills 99.9% of cold and flu viruses right in the tissue. Having kids means germs are a given, so any help with containing them is a win for us! Kleenex are an essential that we stock up on year-round, not just during cold season (you never know when a stuffy nose might strike!), and we always get ours at Walmart. Thanks to their awesome two-day shipping (free with a purchase of $35 or more), it’s easy to always have Kleenex on hand!

Essential Oils

Essential oils have become a huge part of our lives over the last couple of years. At the first sign of an illness in our house, you can find me diffusing Thieves, R.C., and Eucalyptus (together and individually), and I make rubs to have on hand for immune and respiratory support.

Lemons + Honey

These ones might sound a little silly at first, but I can assure you, when you have a sore throat, there is nothing more soothing than a cup of hot water mixed with honey and lemon juice. Honey is a pantry staple for us, and I try to always pick up a lemon or two whenever I go grocery shopping.

What is your favorite cold or flu remedy? I’d love to hear about it… and be sure to stock up on Kleenex at Walmart this winter!