How To Keep Your Family Healthy Through The Colder Months
The winter season is fast approaching. This is the time of the year where you’ll have fun with your children, playing around with the snow and make hot chocolates with them. You’ll be able to bond with them and do activities which you can’t normally do during sunny days. You’re excited for all of these things to happen but as a parent, you’re also worried about your family’s health. The winter season makes them more susceptible to flu and other diseases. This is one thing which you don’t want to see – you don’t want any of your family members to get sick. To help keep your family healthy through the colder months, these tips might come in handy for you
1. Maintain Clean Hygiene
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that germs love to breed in dirty parts of your body. And the more germs in a person’s body, the easier it would be for them to acquire illnesses and diseases. Steer away from this by encouraging your family to wash frequently especially with their hands. This should be coupled up with a soap and sanitizer. Whenever you’re out, use wipes and anti-bacterial sanitizer to ensure that their hands are clean all the time.
2. Wrap Up Warm
Instead of solely relying on your home’s heating system, you can keep your family warm during the colder months by layering up. They should use more than one apparel to keep themselves warm. For instance, they can use a shirt, a jumper and a hood while they’re inside the house.
3. Eat Healthily
You also need to boost your family’s immune system during the colder months. This is one way of ensuring that their bodies are strong enough to fight off common illnesses. You can do this by serving more carbs but less chips and crisps during meals. A baked potato is a good source of vitamin C which can help boost the immune system. When it comes to fruits and vegetables, serve a rainbow of colors. This means that you should have a good mix of both fruits and vegetables to make sure the family will get enough dose of antioxidants and vitamins. You should also include fish, nuts and seeds on the family’s meals.
4. Drink Plenty Of Liquids
During colder months, it’s common to experience dry skin since you’re putting your heating system on full blast. Make sure your family drinks a lot of liquid during these months. Water and fruit teas are good options. If your children are picky on what they drink, opt to give them natural fruit and vegetable juices rather than powdered mixes. The latter is full of added sugar and acidity, and can be harmful to their health in the long run.
5. Stock Up Medicines
The winter season can be harsh at times; the wind and snow can become too strong, making it impossible for you to go out. This is why you should always keep your medicine cabinet filled up with cold remedies, ibuprofen and paracetamol. When someone from the family does fall ill, these medicines will help you treat them as soon as possible.
6. Get Plenty Of Sleep
You can use the colder months as an excuse to sleep a little longer. This is the perfect time of the year where you can sleep for more than eight hours because it’s colder and darker outside. And you don’t have to feel guilty about it as sleeping can do wonders to your health.
7. Teach Proper Sneezing Etiquette
When it’s cold, your family can easily catch colds. And while this can be treated with medicines, the virus can easily spread once someone sneezes all over everything. This is true especially with children. You can avoid this from happening by teaching them proper sneezing technique. You should encourage your family to only sneeze in their own handkerchiefs and into their elbows. These are effective ways to prevent the spread of viruses inside the home.
8. Quarantine Sick Family Members
If anyone from the family has got the flu or a cold, keep them away from other family members. Have them stay in one room and let them rest. Don’t let them play around with their siblings. You don’t want an illness to affect everyone in the family, right?
9. Avoid The Screen
The school is out during the winter season – and this can become the reason why everyone in the family will end up spending hours in front of the TV and forget about exercise. Don’t let this happen. The cold months is the perfect time to build a snowman outside, ski and skate! If possible, you can even sign up your children for indoor sports like basketball and swimming.
10. Don’t Do Too Much
Everyone in the family might be available during the colder months but this doesn’t mean that you have to come up with a never-ending list of to-dos. Remember, exhaustion depletes the body and mind, and weakens the immune system. Try to keep your family activities at a minimum and give everyone ample time to rest.
The Bottom Line
Before you prepare what you’ll do during the winter, your family members’ health should be your priority first. All of the activities you’ve planned will be useless if your family member is sick. This can take away all the fun during the winter season, and you’ll be stressed physically, mentally and financially. You can prepare for medical emergencies by acquiring family health insurance for everyone. With this, everyone can get back on track easier and faster. The family can continue to have fun during the winter season because family health insurance can help in more ways than one!
Jessica Wilson
Jessica is a professional health expert who works for some major health industry giants. She currently writes for Membersown and is dedicated to helping people learn more about health related topics along the journey. When she's not a health advocate, she enjoys some down time traveling or talking with family.
