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Sick Week Guide

I just had a fantastically terribly awesome week. It was every bit as confusing and tiring as that last sentence. My son is the best. We are having a blast this week. He is excited to play with me and is at the point where I can finally take off some more of the kiddie gloves. It is a real joy to race, wrestle, and reflect with him. The other side of that coin is that we have both been sick this week. Which meant I was the best dad for the beginning part of the week followed up by the worst, laziest, attempting to survive dad. He had a few days lead time that had him knocked down for Saturday and Sunday, but he was better just in time for me to collapse Monday and Tuesday. The fun wrinkle was that mommy was traveling for work. Thank goodness or I would’ve had to take care of two children.????

Since I spent this week as the best and worst dad. So, much TV watched while I was sick. So I thought I would put together a quick survival guide for those of you still trying to find your bearing out there. There are three keys: rest, cleanliness, and food. Ideally, you aren’t sick at the same time as your kids but hey that wouldn’t be as fun.???? These are all about getting rid of the sick as soon as possible because hopefully, our kids will get sick. Sickness, in its milder forms, is actually a good thing. They build our immune systems so when scarier and stronger stuff comes along they don’t kill us – literally.

Get Rest

Rest might seem obvious for the sick one. We all know the healing properties a good night sleep can give us, but the real key here is resting everyone around the sick person. Everyone resting allows the sickness to end with the initial person. It at least keeps everyone from experiencing the same downtime.

Look, I get it. We live in a society that is hyperactive. The news cycle is 24/7. Social media is 24/7. Our jobs are becoming more and more 24/7. I am no exception here. Writing a blog and books while being a full-time parent isn’t exactly taking it easy. But resting gives us that time to reflect.

Reflect

Snuggle with your little ones. Reflect on how it could be so much worse. For me, I was a sickly little kid, so it’s pretty awesome my guy recovers in just a few short days. You know what, we snuggle and slow down and spend – just – time together. Man, sick days are the worst, but sometimes they can be the best. Who else gets to take care of your kid when they are sick? That’s your privilege as a parent. You know what you are going to probably get sick too. So maybe just slow down for a little bit. Take a few deeper breaths and lean into it.

Who else gets to take care of your kid when they are sick? That’s your privilege as a parent. You know what you are going to probably get sick too. So maybe just slow down for a little bit. Take a few deeper breaths and lean into it.… Share on X

Lean into the TV and board games that nobody makes it through because they’re coughing and falling asleep to fight off that illness. When else are you going to get the time to pour something a little extra into your kid? When they’re well they go to school or daycare and you go to work. Sickness forces us to slow down just a bit. That’s why no one has time to be sick. So make use of the time. Reflect on life. Snuggle. Be home maybe for a change. We spend so much time running hither and thither; we might as well enjoy the big house all that running gets us.

Clean

So, while reflecting and resting may be a bit more spiritual this one is super practical. Clean. Clean everything and clean constantly. I am not normally a clean person – just enough to have company over every once in a while. When sickness comes into the house. The dishes get cleaned, the trash gets taken out and the laundry is done. If you or your kids is throw up sick, I cannot stress laundry enough. You have what your wearing, what’s getting washed, and what’s getting dried. The more you wrestle the cleaning the less the germs spread, the less stressed you will be at home, and the less time sickness lives in your home.

Wrestle

Cleaning is always a wrestling match I am losing, but I put in my best moves when sickness comes to live in our house. Otherwise the healthy ones will drink after the unhealthy ones, the special blanky isn’t clean, and you devolve into madness as the mess piles up. This is where having a healthy partner is excellent, but I fought for cleanliness this week even flying solo. Staying on top of cleaning helps you have more, healthy snuggle time. It also gives you something to do if you are healthy. Productivity makes us feel better and sometimes getting those spots that never get gotten otherwise is super satisfying! Finally got that crockpot sparkling!

Reminder, clean the air. My son and I are coughers, so we leave a trail of bad air around and behind us. Think Pigpen from Charlie Brown. Febreze and Lysol can work. I used (for the first time) some essential oils to help us and see if they would work. They did. For those interested, there is a link below to the exact brand and blend we used. This amazon link is expensive and you will probably be able to find it cheaper elsewhere. But you can use it as a reference. Usually, when I get the gunk, it takes me a solid three days to get better because of the lack of sleep (taking care of a kid plus coughing throughout the night). I was better in an easy two only one bad night of sleep. I am not promising amazing results for you, but it seemed to work for us.

Food

Ok, so eating is a tough one. There is some good data that says fasting is helpful to rid ourselves of sickness. In, my experience 24 hours of light eating close to or a little less than 500 calories a day is helpful. However, after a day maybe two, food tends to come to mind as super important. Getting food in has always been a race for me. Eat as quickly as possible once you feel better and as much as you can while being sick. Don’t force feed, but eat as soon as they have the urge. It’s how I treat myself, and it works for us. What I have noticed is that we only want to eat about 30 minutes after medicine. So the race is to have food ready at that moment when hunger strikes. When you’re sick you only eat when you’re really hungry and it helps to tempt with some good smells from the kitchen. For me, I can never decide what I want, but whatever you just made for yourself looks tempting…

Race

Every person (kid or adult) has their sick foods. A peanut butter and ruffles (Yes, the chip. Don’t judge me.) sandwich with a bean and bacon soup is my go to. My wife loves chicken noodle with a grilled cheese sandwich. My son is more of a pasta kinda man – plain too if he’s feeling really bad – and applesauce. Regardless it’s that stuff that smells good and goes down warm and easy. When he was feeling miserable, where did we go? Fazoli’s. That smell of Italian permeates the entire building. He had a breadstick and half his kid pasta – a smaller amount than usual – enough to get him down for a good night sleep. That’s the key to cleaning and food. They are there to get us to sleep good and let our body do natural healing while removing pathogens from our surroundings. It’s all a race to balance the spinning plates.

On medication

A final note, take your medicine. If you have an infection, go see the doctor. Get your vaccines and yearly check-ups. I am all about augmenting your natural healing abilities which sometimes means antibiotics. Pills might be artificially created, but they are based on natural solutions from nature. All the rest in the world won’t cure many of the nastier bugs. Help yourself out, make that rest efficient, but get rest.

Community

These are what has been working for our family. That could all change when kid #2 gets here. Let me know what works for your family? If you would like to keep up to date on the blog articles, books, and life. Subscribe below.

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