People!
I'm seriously just laughing at how misperceived my question was by so many. I can't believe how many people automatically assumed we are constantly using Lysol and hand sanitizer at home, frantically trying to avoid every germ on the planet, simply because I mentioned that I take extra precautions when going to DLR.
Again, I have 4 kids...been a mom for a looooong time...our lives are far from "sterile", and I am not trying to create a "plastic bubble" in which my children can live. LOL!!! If that were true, I wouldn't be headed into the parks in the first place.
And to those who are encouraging me to "just do nothing" in order to prevent catching something at the parks...I think you failed to notice that I mentioned I *started* doing this stuff during our DLR trips only a couple of years ago...after years of "doing nothing", and coming home sick every time.
We do not try to avoid every bug that rolls around...Quite the contrary, I want our immune systems to be strong, and to get used. We get sick just as often as most families, and I don't have a problem with it. We don't get flu shots, or avoid humanity
. I was *very specifically* trying to find out if anyone had found a way to avoid catching bugs
in.the.parks. I would prefer to be able to come home from vacation, unpack, do laundry, etc., without being sick while doing it. That doesn't make me neurotic, obssessive, or anything else but someone who wants to be able to unpack, do laundry, etc., without being sick while doing it. Can't imagine anyone *wanting* to do all those things while feeling terrible.
I used to get sick every time I rode on an airplane when I realized that because of the dry air on the plane, I tended to rub my eyes a lot. The eyes (along with the nose and mouth) are all excellent routes of entry for infectious particles. At any rate, I've made a conscious effort to stop rubbing my eyes in general, and I definitely don't get sick nearly as often after a plane trip. Of course, it might be that I've just gotten everything by now and have immunity.
I agree with some of the other posters that stress and lack of sleep can lower your immunity. I know I get pretty tired running around
disneyland, even on half day trips. Of course, it might just be a time of year thing. There's something going around my daughter's school and half her class was out over the course of last week.
I hope you're all feeling better soon!
Thanks! We really pushed ourselves while in the parks, running back and forth (I showed up without ANY kind of plan - so we were just all over the place), and the truth is that we *were* exhausted each night. Not stressed, but definitely very, very tired. Next time we go, we'll have more time, so hopefully pacing ourselves better will make a difference!
Again I have to agree with ski, if you are not exposed to the every day bugson a daily basis immune systems can not build up to be restant enough. Stress beats done the immune systems and when you hit public places with people from all walks of life stuff happens. People who are SAH's and home schooled children(not saying you are) have a greater incidence of this happening, tring to locate the study from about ten years ago..most surface pathogens will die with 24 hours. One of the jobs I have involves seeing ill people all day long, so does my wife and we are rarely ill. Too add a note, I have a daughter who have had arthritis since she was 2.5 years old and she is on very stronge immuno supressants and the only way she can stay well is be exspossed to the general public..she graduates from the University of Washington in a month just turning 21 and has never had a sick day.
Jack
Again, I'm just not sure why people tend to assume home-schooling = staying at home all the time?
We're exposed to the same things everyone else is...at the mall, the grocery store, the train station, the library, the park, restaurants, post office, work, field trips, the DMV, the boys & girls club, etc. We're out all the time...we just don't happen to be getting our exposure in a public school building...but I'm sure we are still exposed to the same everyday bugs as everyone else on a daily basis. I'm not hiding my kids under the stairs, lol.
That's fantastic about your daughter being so well, despite having arthritis and having to take such strong immuno-supressing medication for so long. I'm sure your family is very relieved to see her feeling so well and reaching her goals!
I always have Airborne and/or Emergen-C with me when I travel. On vacations I'll drink one packet of the emergen-c each day for myself. And I'll have DD have a few sips of it too. DH hates it and will only drink it if he starts to feel a cold coming on. So far so good.
I notice a lot of people are mentioning the Airborne....and since we've already tried doing the daily doses of Emergen-C on a DLR trip (without success), I'm definitely going to look into the Airborne before our next trip in May.
Oh, I forgot to add (since you have little ones as well). They don't make the Airborne Jr. product anymore, but (according to the Airborne representative I emailed after I couldn't find the Jr product anymore), the child dose is half a tablet.
Good to know! THANKS!!
I like Emergencc better then Airborne.
Maybe do NOT do the q-tip with salt water, maybe that is pushing the germs up the nose.
It's meant to clean the nose...you just gently swab the inside with the warm saltwater. However, it dried our noses out a lot, and (obviously) didn't do what I was hoping it would (although it may have contributed to our symptoms not being very severe), so I'm not sure it's worth bothering with on the next trip.
I don't think there is anything in particular about Disney that makes one more likely to get sick. We have been to Disney many times and none of us has ever gotten sick. We wash hands (or Purell) after going to the bathroom and before eating (and if anything gross gets on them!), but that's about it. Well, that and we go far, far away from anyone who throws up and any vomit we see on the ground (not usual bc Disney is so good at cleaning up but it happens).
There are germs everywhere - I am guessing it is pure coincidence that you and your kids picked something up at Disney more than once. You could have been exposed at home before you left, on the plane, while at Disney, etc. It sounds like you are already doing everything you can to try to avoid germs. It seems the odds are in your favor now for a sick-free trip next time - have fun!
P.S. If you really want to try something, my friend gives her kids Kick A$$ Immune (by Wish Garden) and swears by it. It smells wretched but she says it works. She gets it at Whole Foods, but they also have it at some pharmacies.
The only thing about Disney that I think makes it not surprising that it would be common to pick up a virus there is simply the huge amounts of people in the parks. People coming in from all over, flying in from wherever they're from (and we all know how common it is to pick up a virus during a flight), people bringing sick kids into the parks because they don't want to spend their entire (expensive) vacation locked in a hotel room. There was just a thread on here recently about a woman who's boyfriend (I think?) had norovirus when they arrived (caught on the plane?), but he went into the parks anyway, knowing he was contagious. I know that's the kind of thing we're dealing with when there...I'd just really prefer to find a way not to catch any of it, so that my after-vacation days (when I have so much to do in terms of unpacking and laundry, etc.) can be sick-free days.
I don't think it's coincidence....since it happens EVERY single time. I wondered the first couple of times, but now...if the very same thing happens ALL ten times you do something, it's hard to see it as mere coincidence. At least, for me it is.
I will read about the product you mentioned, thanks!
I teach preschool and have two children of my own. It seems that no matter how much you try to prevent the kids from getting sick, they are still going to get it. I can see why because I see the things they do all day long. All it takes is for your child to touch the hand rail or the lap bars one time and wipe their hand across their face before the next hand sanitizer spritz to get one nasty little germ. Even touching a chair or bench that another child touched could do it. They are forever sticking their fingers in their noses and mouths then touching furniture (even worse wiping their boogers on the handrails, furniture, and lap bars), and another child comes along and touches that same piece of furniture. Unfortunately, it is not possible to watch them every second.
I used to be neurotic about my kids getting sick too, but I realized the stress was not worth it. We are diligent about hand washing, cleaning the house on a regular basis, and talking to the kids about not putting things in their mouths and being aware of their hands in the faces,
but the Lysoling every surface, and hand sanitizing every 5 minutes was my obsessiveness and had to stop. I was driving both my kids and my husband crazy!
Not sure how I gave people the impression that I was "neurotic about my kids getting sick". I'm not. We get sick. No big deal (aside from the fact that I get nearly no sleep for days due to taking care of kids who feel miserable). I do, however, want to get to a point where heading down to Disneyland doesn't *always* have to mean coming home sick. We just bought AP's and I want to use those puppies, darnit!
I can see how the practices you are describing would get to be very stressful. We don't actually do that around our house. I simply choose to Lysol the hotel room and use sanitizer in the parks for the reasons I mentioned before.
Something that might help is I use Wet ones, hand wipes. To me, it seems to do a better job than hand sanitizer. It's antibacterial and will clean your hands along with sanitize. I also carry around hand sanitizer, but I use the wet ones more often, and it really seems to work.
Thanks for the tip...I've never actually seen Wet Ones...are they like, baby wipes for the hands?
Awww, Mugglemama, I didn't want to read that one of you fell ill yet again on a trip.
I have heard/read about using polysporin inside the nostrils during a plane trip, to battle germs (you are supposed to blow your nose after the plane ride is over) but have yet to try it. I DO use Lysol wipes on the plane to wipe the seat tables, arm rests, seat belts, windows, because that would be something not done very often, and if we are spending a lot of money on the trip in the first place, we also don't wish to get sick. (Which we have been, and faced a $1000 medical bill which thankfully was reimbursed due to our insurance plan.) Besides the expense and cost of being ill, no one wants to go around the parks spreading germs, and no one wants to FEEL sick when in the parks, or traveling home.
We also use hand sanitizer when in the parks, but not at home, just sometimes when out in public if we can't get to a washroom to wash our hands.
Yes, once at the hotel, I lysol the remote control, light switches, and what-not because 'what-not' (nose pickings, fingers just licked after eating food, etc.) just might possibly make it's way over to them!
I might try some emergen C or air borne next time, even if it worked only as a placebo effect, wouldn't hurt.
Good luck on the next trip!
Thanks, Jory.
Zinc, Vick's VapoRub, and Emergen-C are helping everyone around here to move through this thing quickly and feel less miserable in the process. I haven't quite gotten *everything* unpacked yet, and I'm finally on the last load of "vacation laundry", but hopefully I'll feel well enough to finish the last bit of it done before bed tonight.
I will read some info on polysporin, thanks! (the name kind of sounds like an antibiotic product, though...yes?)
What hotel are you staying at? Some hotels (especially motels) really skimp on the cleaning.
We have never been sick from Disneyland, and we go at least a few times a year. But--we also have never been in Jan-Feb. We are going this time of the year for the first time this year (we leave on Friday) and I am a little worried about it. Feb. is prime flu and cold season.
We have stayed at several Anaheim hotels. It doesn't seem to make any difference. And again...I don't really think we're picking it up in the hotel room (I wipe down/spray the room for reasons other than viruses...see previous posts for specifics). Cold/flu germs only live for a short time on surfaces, so we'd have to arrive almost immediately after the previous guests were leaving in order to catch it there. As far as visiting in Jan-Feb...I had not been to DLR in January for about 9 years, as we almost always visit in the Summer. We used to live about 20 miles from DLR and were in the parks every single week, sometimes 2 or 3 times (and almost always during flu season, Oct-May). And I have to say that it never seemed we were picking up any viruses there back then. Then again, we would only be in the parks for a few hours at a time, whereas now we might spend 10+ hours per day, for several days in a row, in the parks. And for the couple of years that we had AP's the parks were not nearly as crowded as they are these days. So, I'm sure those differences were factors in us not getting sick when visiting back then.
I am a mother of preemie twins who are 3 now. I also agree with Ski. We go to disney 4 or 5 times a year since the boys where 3 months, we have only gotten sick once. We don't use hand sanitizers ever, and try to avoid anti bacterial soap. We have never sprayed down a hotel room or cleaned it when we get there. Yes there are gross things on railings and what not, but the same thing is true at home at the playground
:
Yes...there *are* gross things everywhere (again, I've been a mom for 20 years, I'm far from immune to the gross things we come into contact with at playgrounds, etc.). But, just because other peoples' snot (or poop or barf or spit) is everywhere, doesn't mean I want it on my kids. Or on their food. Or in their mouths.
Is it possible you only go during cold/flu season? We find we usually get sick on a trip because we're so tired or stressed from work we are susceptible to germs.
I'm a germ freak with the best of them and honestly I can't imagine going to the lengths you do.
That said - we caught the flu last year at WDW and it makes me scared to go back. It was SOOOOO terrible and the 10+ hour drive home!
But I don't think there is any way to avoid it - those germs are just out there
I'd just prefer to avoid it *on vacation*, so that when I get back, I can feel well enough to do all that I have to do (unpacking, laundry, etc.) Plus, the drive home is pretty un-fun when kids are sick. This was our first trip during flu season in almost a decade (we almost always go during Summer). If we catch it somewhere else a week later...so be it But I'd really love to get to a point where going to DLR doesn't ALWAYS mean feeling crappy when we get home. KWIM?
Stress has been mentioned, but possibly you're doing too much in too little time, everyones body gets run down and exhausted, which makes everything run into overtime, combined with the stress of doing everything...the immune system shuts off and bam, sick.
I won't reiterate what others have said, but the only way to avoid getting sick is to live in a plastic bubble. Or build up a decent immune system. Vitamins might help, but sometimes over cleanliness can be worse off.
Or. if it's happened quite a number of times, consider asking your doctor to run some tests, or if they have any suggestions as to how this could be avoided in the future.
Being sick when away isn't fun, nor is being ill when you return, kind of puts a downer on the trip. My little sister had an ear infection on the flight home, and let me tell you, 12 hours with a crying sister (or with a sore ear!) really isn't the best way to end a family holiday.
Thanks for the suggestions...I assure you my immune system is fine. I don't get sick any more frequently than anyone else (in fact, I get sick a lot *less* than a lot of people in my circle), and I'm not trying to "avoid getting sick" *everywhere*, and at *all* times. No plastic bubbles for us. I, very specifically, would simply like to avoid being sick
when I get home from vacation...because I have so much to do upon arriving home. And yes...as you've stated...the car ride home can be pretty miserable for little ones who are sick.
Perfect reason to go regularily! I will have share it with my hubby later. 
