The flu is a nightmare this year. Hitting everyone left and right and sadly taking the lives of many. With cold and flu season, you often look at how to protect your family from getting the flu. This year I would like to suggest you get together a survival kit to help your family stand a fighting chance and bounce back after getting the flu. Your flu survival kit needs to have a few basic things to treat the worst of the symptoms and plenty of disinfectants to help control the germs when someone falls ill. I also am a big believer in taking a daily dose of elderberry syrup during cold and flu season. Since doing so, symptoms have not been as severe in our household.
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Basic medicines your flu survival kit needs
Two of the worst symptoms are the cough and the fever that leave you in a state of disaster. To help make your entire family more comfortable start by stocking your medicine kit with a large bag of cough drops. Store brands often sell larger bags. A strong cough syrup is a key to keeping comfortable and helping keep down fluids. The youngest members of the family can benefit from natural cough syrups like Zarbees or Hylands.
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Stock both Tylenol and Motrin for each member of your family. If buying infants grab two bottles because the last thing you want to do is run out of something you need while you are too sick to run out and get more. To keep the fever and body aches under control, you can alternate between these two medications.
For older members of the family, you will find classic Theraflu is a great way to help you feel normal in the first day and after the worst of the flu has worked its way out.
Stock immune boosting vitamins. From Airborne to Emergen-C (affiliate link) you need to keep a great stock of vitamins that will help you fight off the flu. Start giving everyone extra vitamins as soon as the first sign of the flu hits the first member of your family so you can fight off the flu easier.
Related Article: How to Make Elderberry Syrup
Stock your home with food and fluids
When you fall sick with the flu, food is not on the top of your list. Having soup and crackers in stock will help keep your family fed when the flu hits. This is expressly handy if the members of your family do not get sick all at once. Whip up a batch of your favorite chicken soup for the freezer or grab canned soup to store in your survival kit.
Gatorade or your choice sports drink are great to have in stock for your flu survival kit. It is common with the flu to find yourself unable to keep even water down, but a balanced sports drink has a tendency of staying where you need it to and making a bigger difference before it comes back up if you cough. Avoid the color red so you can see if you are throwing up blood with the flu.
Stock your home with disinfectant
If you are lucky and the flu hits your home, you may help control the spread of the flu. Stock up on disinfectant wipes and spray for easy germ killing in the germiest rooms of the house. Contain sick members of the family to one area of the house helping keep the amount of germs healthy members of the family come into contact with.
Be prepared to keep everyone busy.
While the flu may leave you feeling under the weather and wanting to sleep most of the day away, you will find yourself awake a good bit and having books, board games, or movies on hand will help you keep boredom under control when the flu has you stick in bed or on the sofa for days at a time.
Michelle D. Garrett is the founder of Divas With A Purpose. She focuses on sharing resources for being purposely productive; setting personal and professional goals and achieving them through daily action; and successfully running a business while focusing on your mental health. Michelle is a full-time entrepreneur who specializes in teaching female entrepreneurs how to show up consistently in their business – online and off.
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