Those pesky germs

[stephk]

Okay so i am not looking for medicaly accurate data... I am wondering what everyone does to rid those pesky germs? Any old wives tales anyone uses or family remedies?


For example, for my family i make sure that when my daughter gets home from school the first thing that she does is wash her face and hands. Also I keep my house at a nice and cool 68 degrees for a couple reasons. I have been told for i don't know how many years (since i was a child) that a cooler house has less germs BECAUSE germs can't grow. ( I know this is probably not accurate but to be honest, my kids are generally sick less often than other peoples children that keep thier homes heated to 70 degrees or higher). Also you sleep better in a cooler home because it is easier to shed a blanket if you are hot rather than shed clothing. And being well rested keeps your body in tip top shape.

When anyone has a fever in my house, to the bed they go for the day. The only time that we get out of the bed is to attend to personal matters or eat, then straight back to bed. The extra rest seems to shorten and lessen the severity of the cold. Oh and the only time that i give medicine (tylenol or motrine) is when my peanuts (aka children) have a fever over 101, and me and the hubby do not take any meds unless the doc has prescribed them. (lets face it, I take enough prescription meds as it is ).

So what do you do to keep the amount of pesky germs down in your house?

[Nakamova]

I have my house kid-proofed. They can't get in.

I rarely get sick, but the times I do catch something, I've found that taking zinc lozenges right away seems to help. Also avgolemono or tomka gai soup (basically chicken soup). If I'm all stuffed up I use a sort of home-made neti pot. It's gross, but it works. I never take any drugstore cold remedies, and I've been fortunate to never have had any antibiotics in my life.

[Endless]

I noticed that when I worked in a hospital, I hardly ever got sick. A lot less than I used to, anyway. And those places are a crawling petrie dish. I even had someone with pnumonia sneeze in my face. I stayed perfectly well. My theory is that continual exposure to germs made my immune system gear up into super-mode.

Call me crazy, but I don't keep the pesky germs down in my house. The dog sleeps in the bed, my neices and nephews and the neighbor kids run wild through the house (on weekends not school days), the neighbor's dogs have the run of the place.... It's one big happy germy place. And I seem to stay healthier than when it isn't.

I think one situation where this is different is when there are kids in school, exposed to colds and flu, and pox, measles, and menengitis from unvaccinated kids, etc. at school. Then I'd have my kids dump their cloths in the laundry and wash their hands and faces upon entry into the house.

It's a different standard than for adults, because vaccination wasn't mandatory for school when we were kids, so adults have either become immune to most things by having it, or they died from it so they aren't here for it to be an issue for them. So we were vaccinated by natural selection. One of my friends had polio, and she can barely walk with two canes. But she's immune to it now, no vaccine needed.

[alivenwell]

I've been told that outside is actually healthier for exercising when the temperatures are more reasonable. We've had an excessively cold outdoor temp for several months now, and nobody has been sick. If I go to the gym, I wipe down equipment before and after I use it.

I run HEPA filters a lot in my house because it gets really dusty fast. I'm not sure why.

[stephk]

my buddy puts baking soda mixed with just enough water to make it stick onto the bottom of her kids feet when they get sick. She also uses it for herself. She says that it pulls all of the ick out

[Meetz1064]

*scratching head*

I haven't heard of that one before, Steph. I wonder how that works......

*pondering*

I may have to go look that up......