Keeping kids WELL Before Disney

[scottmel]

My BIGGEST fear is my child getting sick before I trip. This Feb. was really bad where we are. Seems like EVERYONE had this 7 day virus of high fever and vomiting..I was a wreck for 10 days BEFORE we left. What I did and SWEAR it helped was AIRBORNE Jr. for 10 days before we left. I had my daughter take it in the AM before school and the PM before bed. All the while her favorite play buddies were sick with this and the kids at school were out with it. I really feel it kept her well. She never had so much as a sniffle on the trip. THen two days before we left for home from disney I started it again to keep her safe on the plane from such illnesses. ON the flight TO Disney it sounded like a sick ward on the plane, sneezing, awful coughing, etc. But we made it! If you can't find Airborne JR. - you can get regular adult AIRBORNE and cut it in half. My husband and I did the regular Airborne a few days before the trip. My girlfriend who has 4 kids, had 3 of her kids come down with this virus and she started the 4th kid on Airborne and he never got sick at all. Just a thought. M

 

[camdensmom]

My ped swears by yogurt. The live cultures do something.

FWIW, I have a friend who's son will eat hardly anything BUT yogurt. This winter everyone in her family has been sick as dogs on a rotating basis with a variety of illnesses and her yogurt-eating son hasn't so much as sniffled.

Not sure if there is anything to it, but I'm sure it won't hurt.

 

[LaraK]

Handwashing is the most effective way to avoid illnesses...get some waterless hand sanitizer and make it a game to see who can use it the most.

 

[lisaross]

took our vitamins for about 2 weeks b4 our trip!

 

[MamaOfTwoPrincesses]

We left on Jan 7th, and I made sure to stay away from the pediatrician's office for a few weeks beforehand. I swear, we always get sick when we go in for well visits in the winter! And lots of hand washing and Purell.

My little one did end up with a runny nose for the whole trip, but she didn't seem to be at all affected by it. Luckily my older dd was FINE.

 

[mtmbyck]

These are all great ideas. You have good reason to be worried. We did MYWWD last year for a week and the night we go their my first DD got sick at MGM (stomache flu) and by night 2 DD #2 got it!! It was almost a complete waste of a trip!!

I will try the yogurt but I am not sure the other medicine is found in Canada. I'll have a look. I have warned them both to wash every hour at school so they don't have the same time this year at Disney!!

 

[amarberry]

My ped swears by yogurt. The live cultures do something.

FWIW, I have a friend who's son will eat hardly anything BUT yogurt. This winter everyone in her family has been sick as dogs on a rotating basis with a variety of illnesses and her yogurt-eating son hasn't so much as sniffled.

Not sure if there is anything to it, but I'm sure it won't hurt.

Like yogurt, a lot of people swear by probiotics which is the live cultures in yogurt and kefir. My DD is a yogurt addict, but I also started giving her a probiotic pill this winter. You can buy them at health food stores. It's cherry flavored, so she loves it. I'm hoping that between the probiotic and her daily vitamin that she will stay healthy for our trip coming up in a couple of weeks.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

I just wish I could go on a trip and not have my kids bring home the "magic" if you know what I mean. No matter how much we wash our hands we alsways end up in the sick ward. It is no fun at all. It almost makes me dread the trip a bit. On one trip they got ear infections and respiratory infections so bad that we spent a great deal of time in Centra Care. This trip even I succumbed to the illness that lingers at Disney. We wipe all the light switches down and the phone etc. but alas we always get sick. We have more antibacterial stuff with us than a clinic. I think there is some super germ that only lives at WDW!!!

 

[becca011906]

we are all sick now... so we better be better by then... I've had it for about 10 days now, dd1 has been sick for only about 3 days, dd2 has been for about 7 days, differant stuff, head cold, dd2 was vomiting yesterday, dd1 said tonight her throat was hurting, so i'm starting us all on yogurt, we already take vitamens... so we'll see.

 

[TheDizMom]

We went the really extreme way when we went in Aug 05. My husband was so worried about it he would not allow me to take my kids anywhere for a week and a half before our trip. He figured if they weren't around anyone for more then a week before our trip they couldn't get sick. Crazy as I thought he was we were illness free for the whole trip. Unfortunately we can't do that this time as they will be in school straight up to the day before we go. May have to try the yogurt thing or the airborne for a week before in hopes we can avoid it this time too.

 

[CleveRocks]

My wife is a pediatrician, and at times like this (a week before a holiday weekend), she gets inundated with visits of parents telling her to make sure their kids don't get sick before vacation next week. She advises the usual stuff of frequent handwashing and avoiding touching hands to face.

Winter time is rough because we're all cooped up inside together so much, so the things we breathe in and out circulate amongst us all.

 

[mericletwins]

Last year there were all kinds of nasty things running rampant two weeks before we left. Pneumonia, strep, stomach virus, etc. I actually had DH keep the kids out of school for the Monday-Wed before we left. Thursday was a half day and they went for that for the Easter parties and then we left that night.

I probably wouldn't have been that extreme, but between 25-50% of each of the kids in my children's classes were out on any given day that week before I pulled them out. I made them wash their hands constantly and told them to do so at school also. I sent Purell in their back packs. Unless the whole school goes bonkers again, I will stick with stressing the hand washing.

 

[epcotfan]

I use ColdFX daily (vary dosage on whether I am starting to feel ill or have been around sick people) I also take 1000mg of Vitamin C if I've been around people who are sick. This combination seems to work well for me. I don't know if ColdFX is available in the States, but I find it much easier to tolerate as it is a pill you swallow. I don't think I could stand having to drink Airborne.

 

[CleveRocks]

Our kids get very few colds or illnesses of any kind, and except for our 4-year-old getting Strep around New Year's our kids are remarkably healthy despite the fact that, in many people's eyes, we do everything wrong.

My wife didn't breastfeed. We don't give our kids any supplements like Viatmin C. They don't get any "probiotics" outside of the yogurt that they love to eat every few days or so. We never use any over-the-counter "alternative" treatments such as Airborne. In fact, unless there is frank illness we don't give them any sort of medication whatsoever, OTC or prescription. They aren't bathed in Purell at all times (they wash their hands at appropriate times, however). We even, gasp, let them eat fast food maybe once a week, and last night we ordered pizza!

Health, or illness avoidance, doesn't necessarily have to come from a bottle.

 

[Evil Princess]

Our kids get very few colds or illnesses of any kind, and except for our 4-year-old getting Strep around New Year's our kids are remarkably healthy despite the fact that, in many people's eyes, we do everything wrong.

My wife didn't breastfeed. We don't give our kids any supplements like Viatmin C. They don't get any "probiotics" outside of the yogurt that they love to eat every few days or so. We never use any over-the-counter "alternative" treatments such as Airborne. In fact, unless there is frank illness we don't give them any sort of medication whatsoever, OTC or prescription. They aren't bathed in Purell at all times (they wash their hands at appropriate times, however). We even, gasp, let them eat fast food maybe once a week, and last night we ordered pizza!

Health, or illness avoidance, doesn't necessarily have to come from a bottle.

People are different though. Some people, like myself, have the WORST immune systems ever.

I cannot tell you how many times I got a cold while working Kidcot, and that's with hand sanitizer by my side. My immune system has always just stunk compared to my other siblings. I was always the sick one.

I started taking airborne the second I feel like I get sick, and it's helped me TREMENDOUSLY.

Honestly, if someone is sick and I'm around them, I'm gonna get it. My body hates me Some people just fight things off and have a higher immune system than others. Preventitive medication can't chnage that. You guys are lucky, I envy you!

 

[TheDizMom]

I was watching the Today show this morning and they said Airborne taken in large quantities could be harmful because each tablet has 100% of your daily vitamin A intake. If you follow Airborne's directions you would get 300% in one day and it can be toxic to your system and cause liver problems. I thought I would try it but have now changed my mind especially since it may not work and liver problems run in my family. I don't think it's worth the risk, especially for my children. Just thought I would throw that out there as I know there was a previous post about using it for 10 days before a trip. I am not criticizing you, as a matter of fact I was all set to follow your advice until I heard this. I am just making sure people are aware there could be some potentially damaging side effects.

 

[CleveRocks]

I was watching the Today show this morning and they said Airborne taken in large quantities could be harmful because each tablet has 100% of your daily vitamin A intake. If you follow Airborne's directions you would get 300% in one day and it can be toxic to your system and cause liver problems. I thought I would try it but have now changed my mind especially since it may not work and liver problems run in my family. I don't think it's worth the risk, especially for my children. Just thought I would throw that out there as I know there was a previous post about using it for 10 days before a trip. I am not criticizing you, as a matter of fact I was all set to follow your advice until I heard this. I am just making sure people are aware there could be some potentially damaging side effects.

I'm no fan of Airborne, and I'm also no fan of dietary supplements unless specifically recommended for a specific condition/deficiency. However, I'm also no fan of TV news misstating facts. If Airborne could be dangerous because of too much Vitamin A, then it would be equally dangerous to eat a sweet potato and a medium-sized carrot, or 3 medium-sized carrots, because those foods also have three times the recommended daily amount of retinol (Vitamin A).

 

[CleveRocks]

People are different though. Some people, like myself, have the WORST immune systems ever.

I cannot tell you how many times I got a cold while working Kidcot, and that's with hand sanitizer by my side. My immune system has always just stunk compared to my other siblings. I was always the sick one.

I started taking airborne the second I feel like I get sick, and it's helped me TREMENDOUSLY.

Honestly, if someone is sick and I'm around them, I'm gonna get it. My body hates me Some people just fight things off and have a higher immune system than others. Preventitive medication can't chnage that. You guys are lucky, I envy you!

Well, your immune system might not be as wimpy as you think. It might just be overwhelmed by foreign invaders.

Sounds like you work at WDW. Every day at work, you're encountering guests from all over the world. Every region of our country, let alone the world, has its own germs. A cold is a cold is a cold, but the cold virus native to Chicago is slightly different from the cold virus native to Indianapolis and so on and so on. Those slight differences mean that, in the eyes of our immune systems, each one of those slightly different cold viruses is like an entorely new and different disease to learn how to fight Our immune systems usually have to encounter a "bug" in order to properly fight it, meaning it's very common to get sick the first time and maybe even the second time its encountered. If your immune system had never encountered a cold bug from Pittsburgh, it makes sense that you got sick when exposed to that bug.

My wife is a pediatrician. We very rarely got sick. But then in her 3rd and 4th years of med school when she started treating patients, she caught some stuff, which was probably from just outside our area, as she went to school at a regional/national medical center. Then we moved from Philadelphia to Cleveland when she started her pediatrics training. Oh man, we both caught EVERYTHING during each of our first 4 seasons (winter, spring, etc.) in Cleveland, 'cause our immune systems had never encountered the Cleveland crud, only the Philly crud. Then after her training was done we moved here to the Atlantic City area, and again, our first 4 seasons here we got really sick with everything until our immune systems learned.

It only happened to us each time we moved to a different state. YOU -- YOU have the different states coming to you! Your poor immune system doesn't get a chance to catch a break! I sympathize!

 

[dijid]

The one thing I have not seen anyone mention that I will swear by is to make sure your children get plenty of rest and sleep - on a consistent schedule. Everyone thinks I put my kids to bed too early (my 7yo is in bed by 8pm at the latest), but no one else's kids have perfect attendence.

My kids get a few spoonfuls of natural, organic yogurt every morning (not the corn syrup laden Dannon type stuff) and we wash our hands with regular soap and water. I don't obsess over germs. IN fact, I think some exposure to germs is what helps harden up their immune systems.

 

[TheDizMom]

I'm no fan of Airborne, and I'm also no fan of dietary supplements unless specifically recommended for a specific condition/deficiency. However, I'm also no fan of TV news misstating facts. If Airborne could be dangerous because of too much Vitamin A, then it would be equally dangerous to eat a sweet potato and a medium-sized carrot, or 3 medium-sized carrots, because those foods also have three times the recommended daily amount of retinol (Vitamin A).

The information came from a nutritionist. She was trying to make the point that taken over long periods of time, it can cause brittle bones and liver problems. That is not exactly the same as having 3 carrots one day. You aren't likely to be doing that for 10 days straight and when taken in the natural form the effects are not that of straight A in a pill form. If one of the major componets of Airborne is A and C vitamins (the other major ingredient) , as you have pointed out you can get that very easily in the natural form and be better off then taking it in Airborne, and have the same results. The only reason I put this in there is since people are recommending its use so much in this thread they should be aware that using it as a preventative, when you are not ill to begin with, is maybe not the best idea.