How do you keep from getting sick???

Let me just begin by saying hello to everyone on the boards. I have been reading the boards forever and I love the site. Seeing the post where someone asked how many of us had kids got me thinking. I was wondering how any of keep from getting sick. My little one is two and seems to drag home everything he gets from daycare. He gets sick, I take care of him and always end up getting it too. I'm in my last semester of preq.'s before I apply to nursing school and I need to know if anyone else has this problem. I love people. And I want to be a nurse. I'm just wondering if there is anything else extra I can do to keep myself more healthy. Do you just build up an immunity after a while? Any response would be helpful.

[hoolahan, ASN, RN]

Yes, I believe you do build up an immunity after awhile. I asked my pediatrician the same thing. The one thing I always got when the kids were sick was the GI viruses. I am the kind of person, once I start, I can't keep anything down. I learned fast to remain STRICT NPO for the first 24 hours, then only small amounts of flat ginger ale and dry crackers.

As far as getting sick from your kids, that is hard. You are mommy, and they wipe their boogies on your shouldder when you hug them, LOL, you know what I mean. They need you to cuddle them, and that is how you get sick.

The one thing you can try to do is to wash your hands!!! Wash, wash, wash. Turn your head away from someone who coughs, and teach your kids to cover their mouths when they cough, it is not mean, is is polite as well. Take vitamin C and a multivite.

Each time I ever changed units, or jobs, I would get sick, it was like my body had to get recolonized with the unit/hospital flora. Just try to drink plenty of fluids, and eat healthy, it all helps.

I have a friend who used to swear by taking 20mg of lasix (from stock) 1500mg of vitamin C and drinking water, she swore this "flushed" germs from her body before she had a chance to get a full-fledged cold. And the only sick days she ever took were mental health days

[carlalogan]

I have a 10 year old and a 5 year old and it seemed that I would catch every single illness that my kids brought home for many years. I've noticed that when I maintain a regular exercise routine, I am able to dodge more of their yucky bugs and if I do get them, it doesn't get me down for as long. I also take a Multivitamin, 500 mg of Vitamin C, and 400 mg of Vitamin E every day...which I think also helps.

We have also become much more of a handwashing family since I've started into this field of study and I think that has helped alot also. Hard to convince boys they need to wash their hands more than once a week, but we're working on it :) Having Purell Hand Sanitizer with me and in my car helps alot with that.

Good luck to you!

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

I gargle with mouthwash Q2H at the first sign of a sore throat, and wash my hands religiously. Haven't had to take a sick day (knock wood) for almost two years. I did catch a mild case of the flu recently but it only lasted 12 hours. Took me another 24h to fully recover- don't know how people stand it for 5-6 days.

[colleen10]

Hi Jaci,

I was really tired of getting sick so I made a very conscious effort to protect myself. My husband laughs at me but when I clean, especially in the winter, but I give all the door knobs and light switches large doses of Lysol. In the bathroom I Lysol the heck out of everything. The whole toilet and faucet handles.

After I come home from public places like the grocery store (where you touch the shopping cart handles) or church (where you shake hands as a sign of piece) the very first thing I do is wash my hands. I definately wash my hands before I eat or snack on anything. I'm not obsessive compulsive but doing these things has really kept me from getting colds and the like.

Oprah Winfrey once did a show on germs and she had a group scientists from a university go around and swab all kinds of things from bowling shoes to kitchen counter tops, then they put them on petri dishes to what would grow. It was pretty gross. Just watching that would make you want to go through life wearing a plastic suit.

If you are just starting to get into your clinicals I would be a little more worried about what you pick up in the hospital setting as opposed to what your kids will bring home for you. I volunteered at a nursing home one summer and I was continually sick w/ GI and colds for the first month and a half. I haven't heard any of the nurses on this board comment on whether or not they came down with stuff a lot when they started nursing school.

[shootemrn]

I really dont get sick. I work in the ER and everyone that walks through the door is coughing and they never cover their mouths! They actually cough in your face like to tell you "Hey im sick" So I guess after hundreds of micro exposures you build up a immunity system that attacks squirrels in your backyard! :)

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

I started as a new grad on a pediatric infectious disease floor and had an almost constant cold the first winter, but after about a year it took a MAC truck to send me to bed.

Except about 4y in to it I guess I started to feel invincible and caught a case of chicken pox. Got a lot of ribbing for that one.

[TooterIA]

Mine is weird, but i think it works. A while back I read in a magazine that if you eat fresh pineapple it will help ward off sickness. It said that canned pineapple doesnt work because it has been heated up and the good stuff is gone(i forgot what it was that help keep you healthy). so i went to the grocery store and bought a pineapple, having never ate fresh before. oh my god! fresh pineapple is heaven. anyway, now anytime i feel like i am starting to get a cold i eat about 1/3 of a pineapple a day for a few days and i avoid the cold. be careful though, they are hard to cut w/o hurting yourself

also, i drink lots of water and get enough sleep, at least i am trying to w/ clinicals and all

good luck!!

[jobear]

I have reciently read a study about immunity and colds. I don't recall the doctors name that submitted the story, but he said your current immune status has alot to do with it. I.E. If you are drug out you are more likely to contract colds and what not. His suggestion was to eat a balanced diet, take your vitamikns, get adequate sleep, and at the first glimmer of a cold take a booster of vitamin C. He also said to continue the vitamin c intil cold symptoms are gone. Good luck, I know it hard to keep all that up. Stef

[TexasRN to be]

Echinacea, Vitamin C, zinc, and fish oil!!! Works like a charm.

[Agnus]

#1 Wash your hands. Wash your child's hands. Teach him to wash his hands.

Teach him to use a tissue to cough into and sneeze, and teach him to properly dispose of it, and to wash his hands after doing this EVERY time. Be very demanding about washing hands after potty and before meals etc.

Echenacia, get sleep, eat well, exercise every day. Keep balance in you life. Sell the kid they're all a bag of germs anyway. Check on you child care and see that they follow these principles. You know the one wash your hands

[mario_ragucci]

Become one with your immunoglobulins. Put yourself in their plasma. Is it a healthy place in there? Is there plenty of H2O around for them to distinguish self/nonself?

Are you giving them ATP from glucose directly from the sun, or does your diet include mostly plastic wrapped substances? (thats cruel). Do you operate your heart >60% and

EAT - Shop around the perimeter of the supermarket and eat the plants with plenty of color, eat the rainbow :-) Don't forget your proteins. You can't avoid getting sick by taking pills, and your gonna get sick sometimes in order for your immune.sys to calibrate.