5 Tips to Keep Your Family Healthy During Flu Season

Every year, millions of people in the United States get influenza (the flu), particularly in December through January. Flu season is coming up yet again, and now is the time to prepare your family with infection-preventing habits.

Your trusted family doctors, Clifton Etienne, MD, Michael Cavanagh, MD, and Flora Brewington, MD, welcome you to Westminster Family Healthcare in Westminster, Colorado, to get the annual flu vaccine for your entire family.

Urgent care services are also available on weekdays if someone in your family gets sick. By taking these five steps, you can lower your chances of needing urgent care visits this winter for yourself and your kids.

Get vaccinated

Getting the annual flu vaccine is the first and perhaps the most important step you should take to keep your family healthy during flu season.

The best time to get the seasonal flu vaccine is in September or October, so don’t wait to book an appointment for your family’s shots. Getting the vaccine in this timeframe ensures you’ll be protected for the entirety of peak flu season.

Clean the air in your home

Make sure the air in your home is fresh and well-circulated.

Influenza is an airborne virus, which means it travels through water droplets in the air that you can breathe in. These droplets enter the air when someone who has already been exposed to the virus coughs, sneezes, or talks.

By using an air purifier or simply opening your windows occasionally, you can clean the air in your home and reduce your family’s risk of getting sick.

Encourage handwashing

It’s also important to wash your hands frequently, and make sure everyone else in your home follows suit. Washing your hands thoroughly with soap cleans viruses like the flu and other germs off your hands so they won’t be carried to surfaces or spread to other people.

Make sure everyone in the household washes their hands with soap at these opportunities:

After using the restroom
Before and after eating
Before and after being around someone who is sick
After blowing their nose
After coughing or sneezing (and covering their mouth)

Each time you wash your hands, be sure to scrub with soap for at least 20 seconds. It also helps to carry hand sanitizer with you for times when you don’t have access to a sink.

Disinfect all surfaces

On the topic of cleanliness, it’s also important to regularly sanitize the surfaces in your home. Viruses like influenza can cling to doorknobs, handrails, and your kitchen counter.

You should clean and disinfect any surface that sees a lot of hand traffic so no one picks up germs that linger on them.

Avoid close contact when someone is sick

Avoiding the flu and people who have it isn’t always possible. If you know someone who is sick, or if someone in your home gets sick, avoid close contact until they’re feeling better.

If you get sick, kindly stay away from the other people in your family to reduce the risk of spreading the flu around your household.

Get in touch

The Westmed Family Healthcare team can vaccinate you and your loved ones against this season’s active influenza viruses. Call our office today to book an appointment or schedule one online anytime.