So parents protect themselves from Kita-virus

In the Morning, a poster in the Kindergarten, I’m afraid as a working mother terribly welcomed me: “dear parents, currently acute in circulation: infectious conjunctivitis, gastro-intestinal skin infection, and febrile infections.”

There was a time in which the display of the currently rampant diseases at the Kindergarten wall is not only a mere warning. It was a Manifesto, a precise prediction of our near future. My sons took everything they could get: Bronchitis, sinus infection, Pseudo-Krupp.

I’m not to become a mother, but a nurse, I had always the feeling. And often, I was after the weeks of the calf coiling, of Consolation, of the Hot-milk-with-honey-cooking flat. The diseases have been passed down in the family, a relay race, the Buggers. An infection was over, brought the children to the next of the Kindergarten.

Ten infections per year in pre-school children normal

“The immune system of the children is at the start of Kindergarten is still immature. The younger the child, the more vulnerable it is for the germs that collect in a facility with many children,” says Wolfram Hartmann, President of the professional Association of child and youth doctors (BVKJ). The immune system is still in training, and only gradually is the child antibodies. “School-age, the large wave of Illness is usually over.” For the children and their immune memory, it is important that you make these diseases.

Ten to twelve infections per year for children of preschool age than normal. Ten days per year can be legally parents of the insured to care for your sick child “call in sick”. And then? It hits the us. I’ve never been so often sick in the first Kita-years of our children.

Stress and lack of sleep can make parents more sick

“There is a connection between the preparedness of the parental body and lack of sleep or Stress. The body’s defenses are weakened,” says Ferdinand Gerlach, President of the German society for General medicine and family medicine (DEGAM).

Children bring different and new viruses with home, which are not exposed to the parents in the office. Add to this that we are with our children, of course, are closer together than with our work colleagues, and as a result, the transmission probability is much higher.

Coughs, Sneezes or physical contact for the transmission of infections. “Rules number one, two and three must therefore be: wash hands, wash hands, wash hands,” says Gerlach, Professor of General medicine at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt am Main. This applies to both children and parents alike. Even if we can’t prevent every infection, so we can protect us against some.

So you protect yourself as a parent in front of Kita-virus

• Wash regularly with soap and water for 15 to 20 seconds, rinse your hands (how, is explained in this Video)
• You use handkerchiefs, toothbrushes, or cold sprays are not together
• You touch as little as possible their eyes, nose and mouth with your own hands
• Keep your distance from coughing or sneezing people
• Get plenty of sleep!
• Avoid Stress, alcohol, and nicotine
• They air a lot (three to four times daily ventilation of 5 to 10 minutes)
• Avoid shaking hands and hugs welcome
• You worry in Winter for a night on the humidification of air against the drying out of the mucous membranes due to dry heating air
• You move around three times per week until the sweating (endurance sports). Hot-cold showers and regular saunas to strengthen your immune system
• If you are over 60 years old or chronically ill, can be a vaccination against Influenza (“Flu shot”) against pneumococcal useful

Measures for children:

Children can be protected by live vaccines against classical viral diseases such as measles, chicken pox, Mumps, rubella, Rota-virus infections and Influenza, the most banal virus infections in the pre-school age but are caused by a virus, against which there are no vaccines. This, due to the group of rhinoviruses belonging to the pathogen-induced diseases are an important Training for the child’s immune system. Ten to twelve infections that are associated in part with elevated temperatures, and even fever, are in the preschool age is normal, and heal normally after eight to ten days.

Measures in the day-care centre:

It is sufficient wash should be opportunities for hands and face, as well as possible, even towels. Normal soap is sufficient, disinfectants are only after consultation with the Department of health is required if in a kindergarten special infections have occurred. All children should have daily at least 30 minutes in the fresh air.

When it comes to a infection:

In General, it is in the Kindergarten-infections in the case of benign diseases, which can be accompanied by fever or dullness, by your own immune system a shot. In these cases, no antibiotics are needed, because these only help against bacteria, while the usual nursery diseases are caused by viruses. During the illness, children and adults should take as much fluid, and only back to work or go to Kindergarten, when the fever has already subsided two to three days.

Editors ‘ note: an earlier Version of the article it was said that working parents could leave ten days per year to care for their sick children sick. It is true, however, that this rule applies only to Insured persons by law. We apologize for the error.