Does anyone else keep the kids home to avoid sickness before your Disney Trip?

[honey11dog]

I am so worried that with three kids (8, 5, and 4 mos.), one will be sick on out trip. My son has had 2 stomach viruses in the last 2 weeks. We leave for Disney in 4 days and I have decided to keep them home until we leave. Am I crazy or doing the right thing?

 

[lustergirl]

I am so worried that with three kids (8, 5, and 4 mos.), one will be sick on out trip. My son has had 2 stomach viruses in the last 2 weeks. We leave for Disney in 4 days and I have decided to keep them home until we leave. Am I crazy or doing the right thing?

I can relate to your story. Last year my son had a bad cold and voila'- I caught it but had a sinus infection instead. I sent him to school but your kids' virus is much worse than a cold. For a couple days at disney I was sick and drugged myself up with sudafed really good. Good Luck and you choose what you think is right for your kids.

 

[mommyceratops]

I did the same thing I pulled my DS out of preschool 4 days prior to us leaving and will do the same thing this year when we leave.

BUT my sons school is very cool with taking kids out for vacations so no worries.

 

[Disneyrsh]

Nope, I don't think you're crazy. Every year when we go down we pray they (or we) won't be sick before we leave. And it seems like we're all sick, all winter long! It's been getting better as our immune systems slowly adjust to having kids (I call them 'germ vectors').

Our biggest problem, though, is we catch stuff AT Disney. We usually don't do trips longer than 4-5 days, because inevitably, one of us will be sneezing or puking by that 5th day. And we use hand sanitizer like CRAZY.

I maintain it's not our lame-o immune systems, but that we're incubating super viruses, being all jammed in together at school and Disney.

Howie Mandel, you have competition for the world's biggest Germ O Phobe!

Hmm, next trip, white cotton gloves for everyone?

 

[casey49781]

go to walmart and get some airborne, it helps fight bugs, it has tons of vitamins in it, you can take it even when you are not sick, ecspecially when you are going to be around a bunch of people...

 

[scarboroughmom]

I am not sure that it would be that effective to keep your kids out of school right before your trip. Incubation period for most virus stuff is 10 - 21 days. If your kid is coming down with something right before or shortly after you leave for WDW, odds are they actually picked up the bug 2 weeks earlier.

 

[magicaldisney]

One year we went with my oldest feeling ill (ended up having a stomach virus). He didn't show signs of feeling sick until we got to Epcot. We got off the plane, checked in and went straight over to EPCOT. As we were leaving, and you guys know how packed it is when everyone is leaving, he started feeling sick to his stomach. We rushed through the crowd trying to get him to a bathroom outside where the buses are. Well, you guessed it, my son left his calling card right there where people were getting on the buses. We got him over into the bushes, but he was so embarrassed (he was 12, not a little one!!). Then of course we had to sit and wait for all of the buses to leave for a private van to come and take us to the resort because, rightfully so, they wouldn't let us get on the bus.

Disney was great about it all. The van driver even came to our resort room the next morning to check on him. We laugh about it every year and morbidly go and check out the spot where our son left his mark on Disney.

Long story short......if you can avoid problems without making new problems (i.e. any school issues) you should.

 

[Dina]

I did this!! I thought I was the only one who every did this. I did it before our first trip in September of 2004. My oldest was only in nursery school (just about to turn 4, and I had a 14month old). I kept them home the week before our trip (told the teacher we were going to Disney for 2 weeks rather than a week). I didn't do it for any trips after that, but I remember doing it for that trip. I was so worried that they would be sick (I was afraid that would be our one and only trip since it was DH's first trip, and I didn't know if he would like Disney. So, I didn't want them sick for what could be the only trip to Disney-- luckily he loved it and we're getting ready to go on our 4th trip since that one).

 

[Hannathy]

The only problem with that is for it to be effective you will have to keep them prisoners in their house because if the go to any store, church etc you have negated the effect. I would keep them in their routine and make sure they get plenty of sleep and wash their hands we come down with things easier when tired, stressed etc. So unless you are going into solitary confinement it is innefective.

 

[Carrie772]

Re:viruses. I spray the town with Lysol whenever we go out. It's the least I can do with kids who for some reason have to lick everything they come close to.

I would keep them in too.

 

[dsnymomof4]

I wouldn't let my DDs (8,7,4) go to their cousins house to play 4 days before we left for Disney for fear that they might come down with something. Well, turns out it didn't matter because they ended up with a stomach bug 3 days into the trip! I think if you know someone is sick, then obviously don't let the kids around them. But, really, they can pick up germs anywhere!

 

[tiki23]

Echinacea, garlic capsules, Airborne, vitamins, if you can get any of these down your kids, feed these to them starting at about 10 days out and then through your trip. Funny thing though, I'm always the one who seems to get sick on vacation!

 

[TheZeppo]

Originally Posted by Honey11Dog
Am I crazy or doing the right thing?

You're crazy.

 

[daisax]

Might be you're too conscientious -- the hand sanitizer stuff is nice for specific environments, but if you use it every day, you're probably creating bad immune systems by not letting them get daily exposure to run of the mill germs.

Same with antibacterial this and that -- unless there's a true immune system challenge going on, they might be having the opposite effect of what you think.

 

[sameyeyam]

I think my entire family would think I had plumb gone crazy if I kept everyone home to avoid sickness. But obviously according to some of these posts it is something that a lot of people do. I'm not putting anyone down, it would just never occur to me to keep them home.

What I generally try to do all of the time is make sure my children eat a good variety of healthy foods including veggies, fruits, whole grains, proteins, etc. Then I make sure they take a multi-vitamin everyday. Also, we have bedtimes that we try to adhere to and I try not to have them involved in too many extracurricular activites. I feel that running around trying to be involved in everything and not getting enough sleep runs down their immune system. My 14 & 7yo have not had so much as a cold in the last 2 years.

I also stress hand washing (not to the point of being obsessive) and keeping your fingers away from mouth & eyes. When we are in public places I have taught the kids not to use handrails (unless needed), to open public doors with your shoulder, back or foot, press the elevator buttons with your elbow if possible, etc... Many germs are spread through hand to eye/mouth contact, so just using a little common sense I think can really help prevent alot of disease transmission. I also teach them to sneeze into their arm to avoid spreading germs, etc...

Besides, I really think my kids & I would drive each other crazy staying home for 4 days in a row!

 

[TinkerbellMama]

Personally, I would rather enter the 7th circle of hell than keep my VERY active toddler home before a trip!
Not only would I lose my mind being cooped up in the house with him, and not only would he be abjectly miserable, but it also would not be practical whatsoever. My husband works quite a few hours and there is no way on earth I could cease my regular household duties such as grocery shopping, etc. for several weeks in order to try to prevent illness. We eat right, exercise, go to the chiropractor, and my son still breastfeeds...that's as far as we go with the whole germ-prevention thing! OCCASIONALLY I will wash our hands or use some type of sanitizer...if I remember!
But hey, if it works for you...great! Just realize that a couple of days isn't going to prevent them from catching everything, because many illnesses have a longer incubation period. I'd suggest the Airborne stuff others have mentioned, and if your baby is breastfed, that will also contribute quite a bit of immunity. Good luck!

 

[Disneyrsh]

Airborne has aspartame in it, just so you know.

I'm not a big fan of the junk,er, ingredient.

 

[Lynne M]

Check with your pediatrician before giving your child Airborne. It has huge quantities of vitamins in it; possibly too much for children. I won't take the stuff myself. I've read too many reports of people getting seriously ill from vitamin overdoses.

 

[summfam4]

Most of our trips have been on breaks during the school year so I didn't take them out, but this trip I have made them stay home, no friends over, and we missed our weekly day at the beach. On our last trip it was BIL and me who where sick. The trip before that just me!

 

[LvroftheWorld]

We visited WDW last December. I worried about two weeks before we left about my kids getting sick. DD4 was in preschool and a stomach virus was going around the school. I can handle runny noses, coughs, etc, but throwing up....not so well. Anyway, I kept her home a few days before we left. Our first evening at Disney, we were heading to MK for MVMCP. We waited quite awhile for a bus to come. DS3 was messing with everything at the bus stop...trash cans, pop machines. I was constantly telling both of them to stop touching things. So a bus finally comes and it is pretty full. No one would let us in the front. I thought it was strange because normally people just move back to make room. Not this time. They had opened the back side door to let someone in a wheelchair out. We decided to enter the bus there instead. We found some seats and sat down. I then began hearing a noise that sounded like someone throwing up. I looked to the back of the bus and this poor teenage boy kept dry heaving in a Disney bag. I now realized why no one up front was moving back. My DH laughed because I was being almost neurotic the weeks before our trip trying to keep everyone away from anyone who "might" be sick. And then our first bus ride had someone sick on it!! We didn't end up with a stomach bug, but half way through our trip DS ended up with a fever and cold. Just goes to show you, you can try to keep it from happening all you want...but sometimes, germs and illnesses have minds of their own. We still had a great time. We just had to change our plans around a little bit. I hope you and your family have a great time!