Winter is here, and if you’re concerned about your family’s health, that’s completely understandable. With the current state of affairs and everything that has been happening over the last two years, it’s more than you can do to want to ensure your family stays healthy. Read on to see five ways in which you can keep your family healthy and safe this winter.
Practice Social Distancing
If there’s one thing that was given a priority starting last year, it’s making sure to stand or walk at least one meter away from the person next to you. With almost 50% of all occurrences of the common cold coming up during the fall and spring, it’s good practice to take measures to avoid catching it in all seasons. This will be helpful, especially with the risk of the COVID-19 virus around as well. Make sure that your entire family knows that they need to avoid crowded spaces in order to ensure they are at minimal risk of getting an infection.
Sanitize and Wash Your Hands Frequently
The second thing you can do is to ensure that all the sinks and faucets around your home have handwash nearby. Get small bottles of hand sanitizer to give everyone in the family, and ensure that they know how and when to use it. Take the time to show your children, if they’re younger, how to properly wash their hands. Make sure they know and understand the importance of doing this, and you may all just emerge unscathed after winter has passed.
Schedule and Attend Your Medical Appointments
Seeing a doctor regularly is a great way to maintain your family’s health. Make sure to schedule all your doctor’s appointments and be on time for them, attending them as a family if possible. This will make it easy and less of a hassle than having to take different people to their appointments on different days. With one in every 25 adults of working age in the U.S. facing work limitations due to arthritis, it’s important to make sure that everyone in your home knows the state of their health. Regular appointments for everyone to get their scheduled shots can help alleviate troublesome symptoms or keep known issues in check. This is why it’s important to see your doctor often and especially in winter, which is when most issues rise to the surface.
Eath Healthy Food
The food we eat plays a major role in the state of our health, and in winter, it’s even more important to acknowledge this. Feed your family with healthy food to ensure that they are in good health at all times, naturally. Make it a point to buy healthy foods like fruits and vegetables, and get into the habit of eating a home-cooked meal as a family each day, which may be a bit easier to do in winter. You will find that your family stays healthy and happy throughout this season when you do this.
Mask Up
Finally, always remember to wear your mask, and wear it correctly. With around 20,000 cases of lung cancer each year found to be caused by radon gas, it’s clear to see that wearing a mask while out and about can save you from more than just the flu. While it may be hard to avoid illness-causing gases with a regular disposable mask, it’s certainly going to help considerably when you have one on. Get enough masks for everyone in your family to use, getting small and child-friendly ones if you have smaller children so they’re motivated to keep them on.
With these five tips, you can ensure that your family celebrates the holidays in a healthy state. Keep practicing them and you will likely see an overall improvement in your family’s health through all seasons.
Metro Detroit Mommy writer Kelsey.