3 Gadgets to Get You Through the Cold and Flu Season

Cold and flu season can be tough, especially if you have kids. Tissues and runny noses everywhere, sick days home from school and work – it’s a time of year that’s not only inconvenient, but also downright miserable for the people involved. Here are three gadgets to help you get the whole family through the cold and flu season with minimal discomfort.

Digital Thermometer

When you have a sick child, a digital thermometer is a cold and flu season essential. Because high fevers can be dangerous for young children, you want to make sure to invest in a reliable thermometer, and know how to use it properly.

There are many styles of digital thermometers on the market. Some even connect to apps to make it easy to keep track of temperature history. New temple and forehead thermometers are popular, easy to use on squirmy kids, and surprisingly accurate. Ear thermometers are also a great option. But, there is nothing wrong with using a traditional digital thermometer. When using a thermometer, make sure you know the age guidelines for taking a temperature and how to do it correctly.^[1]

Humidifier

Keeping a humidifier running while your household suffers from the winter plague can help ease everyone’s symptoms. Cold and flu season occurs in the winter, when we usually have our heat turned up, and home heating can be very drying. When your nasal passages get too dry, the tiny hairs that protect them (cilia) aren’t able to effectively do their job. Adding moisture to the air can cut down on the likelihood of crusty nostrils and swollen sinuses, allowing cilia to do what they do best. Moisture from humidifiers can also ease cracked lips from excessive mouth-breathing, sore throats, and help with a dry, hacking cough.

When looking for a humidifier, you have to consider your options, the first of which is, warm mist or cool mist? Cool mist humidifiers are recommended for use with children because warm mist humidifiers heat water to a boil and come with risk of burns. There are a number of different styles to suit your needs and taste, whether you want a chic humidifier for the living room, or a fun, hippo-shaped humidifier for the kids’ room.

Touchless Soap Dispenser

Hand washing is more necessary than ever during cold and flu season. While a hands-free soap dispenser can seem frivolous, it’s perfect for the winter months. Microorganisms, like bacteria and viruses, thrive in bathroom environments and automatic soap dispensers help to reduce the spread of germs from hands swiped across drippy noses to the soap pump. Using touchless soap dispensers may help other family members avoid those germs. They also control the amount of soap being dispensed, reducing soap wastage – although your kids may find the sensor too much of a novelty to resist at first.

There are many models of hands-free soap dispensers available in different styles, including upright and wall-mount. Many of them are suitable for use with various types of liquid soap, so you’re not locked into a certain brand of soap. This is particularly handy during cold and flu season, because you may want to invest in a moisturizing soap, since everyone will be frequently washing their hands.

BONUS: Keep Your Electronics Germ-Free

Chances are your little sickies won’t feel like doing much besides laying on the couch, but if they are using the iPad or computer while they are sick, you are going to want to sanitize them. The same thing goes for your phone, because how often do you deep clean your phone?

When it comes to cleaning a tablet or a phone, first turn the device off. Antibacterial wipes can be very abrasive and damaging to the surface of your phone, so you’ll want to use isopropyl alcohol diluted with water, half and half. Don’t spray it directly onto your phone, but instead onto a microfiber cloth, and then wipe down your device. Be sure not to overdo it with the disinfectant. Once a week should be fine.

When it comes to cleaning your keyboard and mouse, you can use the same technique (especially for a trackpad/touchpad on a laptop), or you can use an antibacterial wipe. Make sure the wipe you are using isn’t too saturated because you don’t want to get any moisture between the keys. While you’re at it, you might as well blow some compressed air in there and get all of the crumbs, etc. from between the keys.

I hope you manage to avoid the brunt of the cold and flu season, but, let’s face it, that can be hard to do with kids. Having a digital thermometer on hand, using a humidifier, and a hands-free soap dispenser can help you feel more in control of the situation.