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Dental Hygiene, Kids Free Fun PDF

February 10, 2015 in Children's Health Education

Updated: originally posted Feb. 2012

Hi from The Singing Nurse,

Just created a free dental fun sheet that you can use in a snap. It helps kids learn how to:

1.draw happy and sad faces and

2.choose what makes our teeth happy or sad.

Use it during dental health month to spice up your dental lesson plan. 

The Singing Nurse’s dental hygiene and dentist visit lessons includes a fun game which incorporates my fruit and veggie graphics, and of course happy and sad faces.

Both, “I’m Gonna Brush My Teeth” and “The Dentist is a Good Guy” are fun songs to teach kids about good dental care and that the dentist is a good guy. The easy to follow combo lesson 2 & 3 is available on our “Individual Lessons” page.

Happy Brushing, don’t forget to brush your tongue too.

For Healthy Kids, Ms. Dawn

 Click What makes sad happy teeth to get your free PDF activity sheet.

 

Subscribe for Free Hand Washing eBook and to make sure you don’t miss our updates, notable posts, and helpful resources:

Free PDF’s, Free activity pages for kids and Other creative educational resources, All created to help you educate your corner of the world for life and healthy living. We’d love to connect with you. > > > >

If you have any questions or information you would like to see here, please contact us.

Ms. Dawn, The Singing Nurse

Other resources: Preschool Plan-It with Ms. Cheryl, lots of great activity ideas.

Check out TSN Dental Theme Pinterest Boards.*Dental Hygiene, *Dentist Visit

Make a comment below let us know what you are doing to teach your children about good dental care.

“Be My Healthy Valentine” Poster & Cards for Teachers & Nurses

January 9, 2015 in Children's Health Education

Valentines Day w TheSingingNurse

Hi there my healthy minded friends. Need that special message of healthy living for your students or patient or that special child in your life. Do you need to remind them to not spread their germs around? These two items will do just that in a fun and colorful way. Enjoy my recently created Valentines Poster and Valentines Cards.

“Be My Healthy Valentine”, “Don’t Spread Your Germs Around”, “Wash Your Hands, Cough & Sneeze in Your Shoulder”.

Print as many posters as you like to hang around your school or medical offices etc. It would look really nice if you glued the poster to a burgandy colored paper simular to the dinner mats displayed behind the print-outs. Print the Cards on card stock paper and give them to those special kids in your life.

Free Download!

Other TSN products .

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Ms. Dawn 

While you’re here, Subscribe for your free copy of my Hand Washing Activity eBook!  

Your kids will enjoy the Healthy & Engaging Message!

Hand Washing Activity book sample aug 2013 Dawn Ginese RN resized w TSN

 

 Don’t forget to check out the health songs on the Music for Children page

My Purell Airplane Trip!

November 30, 2014 in Children's Health Education, News - Updates

purell with words

3 Things I do with Purell Hand Sanitizer.

I just wanted to send out a quick post to remind you about the cold and flu season just about to bombard all of us. I was recently away with family for the Thanksgiving Holiday and came home to the snowy bitter cold of the northeast. The snow is beautiful but best when you don’t have to go anywhere.

So what does all this have to do with airplanes etc.

3 things I do with Purell.

1.  I carry purell where ever I go. It is always hanging from my purse for quick use.

2.  My husband and I have this little ritual while traveling. We squirt the Purell on a tissue and wipe down our area in the plane: the arms and buttons of our seats, the levers, the fold down tables and the magazine pocket edges. Read Dr. Oz’s “Toxic Travel-How to Stay Healthy” post where he explains how these areas are especial germy. Really, how clean can the airlines make the planes with only 10-15 minutes in between unloading and loading passengers? Not much…so we sanitize.

3.  I make sure my husband has his own hand sanitizer.

Things to remember, refill your hand sanitizer bottles when you are at home. It would be great to leave a larger bottle in the car so you can refill before you take off on your adventures.

A bonus today is that Purell has a 30 Days of Sharing & Caring campaign going on right now. I wanted to pass it on to you because it would be a great activity to share with your children. They have a printable chart of good deeds to do like: Bake cookies, Share your lunch, Make someone laugh, Donate clothes/coats etc. Purell is also awarding weekly gifts and prizes to participants. The grand prize is $5,000.00.  You can check it out at Purell30DayHoliday.com. Get going quick because it ends Dec. 16th.

Have a Wonderful Christmas Holiday Season.

Ms. Dawn

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Healthy Living ABC Book for Kids in 7 Simple steps

October 29, 2014 in Children's Health Education

Create a Healthy Living ABC Book for Kids

Creating a color rich and picture filled ABC book together with the kids is loads of fun. A Healthy Living ABC Book is even better, which teaches and reinforces lessons for your preschooler in regards to hand washing, brushing teeth and whatever area of healthy living you choose to teach.  Kids will identify with the fun filled healthy habits and become healthy habit ambassadors.  Trust me, they will catch you and remind you of what to do. This is a great way for your children to learn and review their healthy habits a gazillion times over. They will love finding themselves and people they know practicing healthy living.

ABC Healthy Book pagesSo the easiest and quickest way to create your book is by using paper that already has a fun border.Your local office/school supply store and even Amazon have a nice selection of kid/school stationary paper.

You will find suggestions on Page 19 in the Resource section of “The Singing Nurse Health Lessons for Kids”. Examples: B is for Babies are Beautiful, D is for The Dentist helps take care of our teeth. H is for Hands are for washing, W is for Wash your hands with soap and Water, G is for Germs can make you sick. Etc

What you will need:

1. A camera

2. Paper with cool border

3. A ½ inch binder with clear front pocket

4. Page protector sleeves

5. Pictures of healthy activities

6. An A-Z list to write down ideas for your pages.

I. Write down you’re A-Z ideas-this may be a work in progress and don’t be afraid to have more than one page to a letter. Helpful PDF to come…

II. Take pictures during various health lesson times.

Ex: You can teach kids that Carrots have vitamins and that they are orange.

Take pictures in the suggested poses and add the phrases to the pages.

a. Take a picture of kids holding up real carrots- C is for Carrots are a healthy snack.

b. Take a picture of your children tasting carrots-C is for Carrots are yummy and crunchy!

c. Take a picture of a child holding up a carrot and pointing to his eyes-Carrots have vitamins that are good for our eyes.

***Bonus Creative Idea-Make your phrases rhyme, I love educational rhyming and so do the kids. It’s like a sing-a-long book right?

Ex: W is for Washing, hands real clean, keeps those germs away, they are mean.

III. Add pictures to a document page-from one of your picture folders, click on a picture, then right click on the picture, click “copy” and go to your document page and click on your page then right click and choose “paste”, to make picture smaller, click on your picture then hover on one corner and slide it diagonally toward the center of your picture.

IV. Add words to a document page-make sure and have at least 1 inch margins so you can print on stationary paper with borders. Make the print nice and big and colorful.

V. Print pages onto your border paper.

VI. Place your pages in protective sleeves.

VII. Place your pages in a ½ inch binder and your book cover picture in the clear pocket on the front-which allows your cover to be visible; ½ inch binders are usually available in an assortment of colors.

ABC Healthy Living Book Cover

 Let us know how your books turned out. I would love to see the pages you created. Who would be interested in an ABC Healthy Book collaborative project?  Sounds fun to me! If enough participants are interested I will come up with the details and we can get started. Contact me and put “ABC Healthy Book” in the first line of your note.

Please comment below and share with your friends and co-workers.

For Healthy Kids, Ms. Dawn

Other post you may like:

Create a Sing-A-Long Hand Washing Book & more

To help keep this website free, The Singing Nurse is an Amazon affiliate and anytime you start your Amazon shopping from TSN website we will receive a small fee for item you may purchase which does not make your products any more expensive. We only recommend products that we like or have used. We share products that will help enhance your children’s learning experience.
The link below will lead you to lots of cool kid stationary and most of them are “Prime” free shipping. Free is good!

Carson Dellosa Computer Paper   Samples
61Q3V99rshL._SY355_     71KjO7koSBL._SY355_     61FQzmxLOzL._SY355_

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Hand Washing Activity book sample aug 2013 Dawn Ginese RN resized w TSN

 

Create a Hand Washing Sing-a-long Book

September 29, 2014 in Children's Health Education, The Singing Nurse Music

The results you will see from the fun loving activities below are why I love teaching preschoolers how to wash their hands. It’s not only that they will learn how to properly wash their hands, but it’s seeing the light go on in their little heads. And of course, we will have fewer germs flying around that can cause colds and the flu.

Rubba Dub Dub, Handwashing song

The number one action we can take to help stop spreading germs and those dreaded runny noses this year is washing our hands. 

I would like to share with all of you teachers, parents and healthcare providers how to create memorable learning experiences that will get your kids happily washing their hands. And… being healthy, not ill and cranky!

This will be a series of posts, so please subscribe so you won’t miss the fun. You will also receive a free, very colorful downloadable/printable “Hand Washing Activity eBook”.

 I will start with Option 9 & 10 from “The Singing Nurse, Health Lessons for Kids” curricula as a starting point. I love making and using visuals with kids.

Option 9 in “TSN Health Lessons for kids”, in lesson 1.

Take pictures of your children at hand washing time, create a class book or poster so the children can find themselves, or create a slideshow with “Rubba Dub Dub “ in the background.

Option 10 in “TSN Health Lessons for kids”, in lesson 1.

Create an ABC Health Book…

An added option: Adding words and editing pictures.

Take pictures like I have above and add little sayings. A future post will describe how to do this.

So for our 1st post today we will look at Option 9:

1. Create a Sing-A-Long Book: Take a bunch of pictures of your kids during hand washing time:

Keep in mind all the actions to washing hands and the lyrics to the song, see below.

Take pictures of: Turning the water on, “make some soapsuds”, “rinse your hands”, picture of kids pointing up with 1 finger, “wash your hands” (picture of several children or your whole classroom with hands raised)

Add (copy and paste) each picture to a document page and add the phrases to the bottom of the page. This can be done easily in “word”. You can add fun borders too or use colorful stationary paper that already has a cool border.  If you need help with “word”, please comment below.  A detailed “how to” can be a future post.

Download the song from the player here

Download from CDbaby

Download from iTunes

Song: Before singing the song show and say to the children “this is how an Opera singer sings”, hold hands to your chest and sing a little operatic scale (“We will waasssh our hands”…like the one in the song)Ham it up a bit, here’s your big chance to belt it out, the kids will love it. When the song starts you can pretend to turn on the water, pump some soap into your hand and start to rub your hands together. At the end of the song pretend to take a paper towel to turn off the water and dry your hands and then throw the paper towel in the trash.

1.  Rubba Dub Dub- Dawn Ginese 2003 Lyrics and Motions  

Rubba Dub Dub (echo) Rub hands together as if washing hands, rub between fingers etc. continue through 1st verse.

Make some soap suds (echo)

Rubba Dub Dub (echo)

Make some soap suds (echo)

Rubba Dub, Rubba Dub, Rubba Dub, Rubba Dub

Make some soap suds

Rinse your hands (echo) Hang hands down letting the water rinse the soap off, flip hands back and forth, continue through 2nd verse.

Rinse the soap suds (echo)

Rinse your hands (echo)

Rinse the soap suds (echo)

Rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse,

Rinse the soap suds

What is the one thing that can make your hands clean? Hold up one finger.

(Wash your hands) Raise both hands, open and shut them on each word.

We will waaaaaaaaaaaaash our hands. Hold hands to chest like an opera singer, tilting head back and forth.

 2. Create a Classroom Poster: You can use the same pictures and solicit pictures from family and friends so the children can find and point out people they know that also wash their hands. This is similar to where’s Waldo right? It’s fun! Trim your pictures, paste them to your poster board, add words like “We wash our hands to wash germs away” or “Rubba Dub Dub, make some soap suds”.

3. Create a slide show: Again you can use the same pictures. If you are at a preschool program make sure and include the teachers, assistants, the director and school nurse. If you need help with this, comment below and I will create a post on how to do this.

 Download the song from cdbaby or iTunes or directly from TSN. This lesson is also available as an individual lesson download if you prefer.

 For Happy Healthy Kids,

Ms. Dawn

 Option 10 Post : How to Create an ABC Health Book

Can’t wait? I understand, here’s the whole downloadable book; more info on the ABC book is on page 19 in the Resource section of “The Singing Nurse-Health Lessons for Kids”. See more detail.

Please comment below if this post was helpful to you. Please be a sweetie and share on Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook. Thanks!

Remember to Subscribe to receive your awesome “Hand Washing Activity eBook” Hand Washing Activity book sample aug 2013 Dawn Ginese RN resized w TSN

 

 

Your Emergency Room Bag, 10 essentials for a germ free visit!

April 15, 2014 in Children's Health Education, Creative Adventures

Your Emergency Room Bag, 10 essentials for a germ free visit!

While away on a family vacation, we ended up in the emergency room and I decided that we needed an emergency room bag.

Fun Emergency Room Bag!

Today’s post is a fun parent/family activity that will remind us how we can be prepared for an ER visit. We can all benefit from helpful information to insure our health and safety. Designing and creating an Emergency Bag is a fun relaxing way to spend time together while discussing health related topics.

We all know how a pregnant woman has her hospital bag ready when her big day arrives unexpectedly? Let’s make sure we are ready with our bag too.

The early childhood center I previously worked for had such a bag for each classroom. The Emergency Bag was brought on field trips and visits to the playground. A family Emergency Bag will help your family be ready too. I will walk you through and explain why I include each item.

Items #1 & 2-bring sanitizing wipes & hand sanitizer. I observed one person carrying a bucket at one point, I assumed in case he needed to vomit, yuck! There are lots of germs lurking around the ER waiting room. I started to wonder how often the tables and chairs were wiped down. In the 4 hours we were there I saw no cleaning going on. A little preparation goes a long way, so bring these items just in case the hospital hand sanitizer dispenser is empty. Wipe down the seat and arms of your chair to insure your area is clean.

Item #3-zip lock bag with a few masks just in case you are near someone coughing, sneezing, blowing their nose or vomiting. While I did notice masks on the wall in a dispenser, you can assume they were for the workers, but what about us well folks waiting in the ER. Prevention goes a long way.

Items #4 & 5-bottled water and healthy snacks. Include a couple bottles of water to keep everyone hydrated; soda from a machine is not as quenching as water. Snacks like prepackaged health bars and almonds are satisfying during a long wait and can be stored in your bag and changed periodically.

Item #6-important information sheets or small notebook. I would include: important ph #’s like your family physician, work and family #’s, you know the ones that are really important. Include a copy-of your Insurance card- both sides, because each includes lots of phone numbers. Keep a health history/summary and allergies for each family member in your bag. You ask in this day and age why bring anything in a hard copy? How many of you have all your important numbers and health histories memorized? And for those of you who store your info on your smart phones, what if your cell phone goes dead or you have no reception?

Item #7-quiet activities for the you and the kids (coloring books, crayons, small books, a mini-etch-a-sketch, small hand held games)

Item #8-change & money (for the snack machines and cafeteria)

Item #9-simple first aid kit (band aids, surgical tape, 2×2’s tissues, surgical glove etc.) these can be placed in a small Ziploc bag.

Item #10**Item Reminder, your Cell phone and charge cord: I always carry my charge cord with me, I think most people do, just a reminder in case your phone goes dead.

While doing some research for this post I came across lots of interesting info like germ zapping robots in hospitals and the creepy truth about the different antibiotic resistant bacteria around us, especially where really sick people hang out. One thing is for sure; if you have a life threatening health issue by all means go to the emergency room where they are equipped to treat you.

If you are in need of medical care for minor situations, it might be better to try your local urgent care facility. Call 911 and they will direct you.

Check out KidsDoc symptom checkers app by healthychildren.org from the American Academy of Pediatrics. It is also available in Spanish. This app has loads of really helpful information, from everyday childhood illnesses with symptom descriptions and easy to follow first aid for injuries. Its easy to search the app by body part, by alphabetical index or by keyword search.

Fun activity for your family or parent group

Emergency Bag contents

Make an Emergency Room Bag

Items you will need:

1. Pre-made washable cloth bags from your favorite craft store.

2. Cloth paints or permanent markers

3. Ziploc bags

All your bag content:

1. Hand sanitizing wipes.

2. Hand sanitizer

3. Face masks

4. Bottled water

5. Healthy snacks

6. Important Information sheets, copy of both sides of Insurance card.

7. Quiet activities

8. Change & money

9. Small First Aid Kit

     a. Band aids

     b. 2×2’s

     c. Surgical tape

     d. Tissues

     e. Surgical gloves

10. Cell phone and charge cord

Decorate your bags with cloth paints or markers, make it fun and display your healthy life style. I feel using a cloth bag is a good choice so it can be washed after your ER visit. Let’s hope you won’t ever need it, but, it probably is inevitable that one day you will pay a visit to the ER.

It would really be fun if you would take a picture of your bags and send them to TheSingingNurse@gmail.com and we will display them. Have fun, be healthy and be ready!

For Life and Healthy Living,

Ms. Dawn

How did your emergency room visit go? What would you have done differently? Everyone can benefit from you experience, please comment below. Comments by Nurses and emergency room personnel also welcome.

Another germ related post you may enjoy about health promotion, hand washing with PDF’s about germs etc..

Free Hand Washing Activity eBook.

 

Keeping Moms & Kids Active During Bad Weather & Covid19

January 27, 2014 in Children's Health Education, Creative Adventures

The Singing Nurse Health Tip #1(updated 5/24/20)

What do you do on a snowy, windy, damp rainy or cold day?. Now we can add Covid19 to the list of situations that can keep us inside. How do you keep active in bad weather when you just want to curl up in your PJs? How do you keep your kids moving but not bouncing off the walls and driving you crazy? I pulled together a video from my archives that can help. The video shows a simple way to create an obstacle course and counting your laps. You can create an obstacle course to help you get moving while the little ones are sleeping or vamp it and make it appropriate for your young children. Keep it safe and keep it simple when doing an obstacle course with your kids. Put on some of your favorite music and get moving.

Watch the video below for a little encouragement and ideas.

I have also included a link here to which I will call “Busy Moms Keep Active sheets pdf”. You can tape the action sheets to your walls to create little stations of activity for you and the kids. Make sure and use blue painters tape if you decide to write the words on the walls as I did in the video. Blue painters tape comes off nice and easy.

You can write with blue painters tape like I have done below.

push ups picture

head and shoulders knees and toes

   jump 10 x picture    Or you and the kids can design your own action sheets, or print and use the simple ones I have created here. Busy Moms Keep Active sheets pdf.

pic of PDF active pics lighter crop w WS

I don’t know about you but it has been really cold here in the northeast. And, I know that even the slightest cooler weather often drives us all inside.

If you create a fun obstacle course I would love to see it, send me a picture. What would you add to an obstacle course to make it fun and educational for your kids?

Have Fun, Be Healthy,

Ms. Dawn

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A New big kids (parents) CD is now available. My husband and I just released it. Great musicianship and I love the songs Check it out here. → “TRANSITIONS” CD

Prepare & Promote Good Health

November 20, 2013 in Children's Health Education, Uncategorized

Squirrels prepare for winter!

Prepare & Promote Good Health?

Squirrels are known to gather acorns to get ready for the big wintry cold season ahead. They scamper around in the leaves and race up and down the trees to get prepared, it is just in them.

Well, like the squirrels, we want to get ready too; it is just in us to protect the health of our families. We would be honored to help prepare you and your children for the cold and flu season coming soon. Burr!  And, we’d love to partner together with you to promote healthy living to the public.

Go here to learn how The Singing Nurse can help prepare your family/students.

We’d love to hear your ideas. Please respond below in the comments box.

We all know the feeling when we are caught in a tight space and the gentleman next to us starts coughing, blowing his nose and yes, spreading those yucky germs around. People can be very inconsiderate by not protecting the public from their germs. So it is our job as conscientious parents and teachers to teach our children healthy consideration for the greater public health good and seize teachable moments as good public health ambassadors.

“Healthy”, what is it? The Merriam-webster.com dictionary meaning says:

1: enjoying health and vigor of body, mind, or spirit

2: revealing a state of health <a healthy complexion>

3: conducive to health

“Consideration”, what is it? The Merriam-webster.com dictionary meaning says:

1: continuous and careful thought <after long consideration he agreed to their  requests>

2 : a matter weighed or taken into account when formulating an opinion or plan <economic considerations forced her to leave college> b : a taking into account

3: thoughtful and sympathetic regard

4: an opinion obtained by reflection

“Healthy consideration”, what is it?

So, as we reflect on enjoying health, we make a continuous thoughtful regard and “do something”,  and take action on our reflection.

Some of our thoughts on Healthy Consideration and the actions to take:

Healthy consideration is:

Covering your cough or sneeze with a tissue.

Sneezing or coughing into your elbow or shoulder.

Washing or sanitizing your hands if you coughed or sneezed into them.

Staying home from work away from others while you are sick.

Keeping your child home from school if they are ill.

Staying away from shopping or going to large gatherings such as kid activities or your house of worship when you are ill. 

Promoting healthy consideration and wellness to others:

We most likely will be in a position to encourage someone to stop spreading their germs around. We may have the opportunity for a teachable moment while handing someone hand sanitizer or a sanitizer wipe when you see they need to clean their hands.

Remember to do it as sweetly as possible with bushels of “consideration”, taking into account that they most likely are not feeling well.

Creative ways to promote healthy consideration:

Print up business cards(you can let your children create messages) or print on a sticker and stick it to a small bottle of hand sanitizer or pre-packaged handwipe with a healthy message like:

1. Please Cough & Sneeze in Your Shoulder “Don’t Spread Your Germs Around”.

2. Sorry you’re not feeling well, please cough or sneeze in your shoulder.

3. Sorry you’re not feeling well, please don’t spread your germs around.

4. Sorry you’re not feeling well, please accept this hand wipe to wipe the germs away.

5. Not near a sink, please accept this hand wipe to protect all of us from germs.

Some TSN ideas: Check out our Health Promotion pins 

New TSN Health Promo Pin

New TSN Health Promo Pin

 

We Living Healthy, please “Don’t Spread Your Germs Around”

Sing & Learn w Us, Hear the ♫ Song @ TheSingingNurse.com

 

We Living Healthy, Hand Washing is Important, ”Rubba Dub Dub”

Hear the ♫ Song @ TheSingingNurse.com

 

Here are some comments that others have said about promoting good public health.  Below are some #hashtag ideas for twitter searching. We’d love to hear yours too. To follow TSN on twitter click here.

A young family man/professional working in NYC suggests:

“How about something edgy like”
#keepyourgermstoyourself
#sharehealthnotgerms
#germspreaderssuck
#curbyourgerms

Check out TSN health lessons for kids, click here.

Have a happy healthy winter,

Ms. Dawn, The Singing Nurse

You may have some ideas to promote healthy consideration, what do you plan on doing to promote healthy living with your family this cold and flu season?

You may like these posts : reasons to wash hands…Check out these Hand Washing Videos, one by Miss Leslie too.

#1 H1N1

#2 Rhinovirus

#3 Strep Throat

#4 Influenza (flu)

Originally posted by Dawn Ginese Here @ The Singing Nurse

 

 

 

 

 

Got a Cold?

November 18, 2013 in Children's Health Education

First posted in Feb, 2012 but unfortunately true this week. Worth the reminder because the cold season is back again. Slight different events but situations and reasons the same. 🙁 Read on for cold info, remedies, and a simple soup recipe. Hope you stay well…

Yes, yours truly Ms. Dawn has taken a fall… probably from that Rhinovirus going around. Do you think it might have anything to do with cuddling and one too many smooches from the grand-kids on Super Bowl Sunday? The grand-kids have been laying low with colds for the past two weeks. It did not help that my husband came down with it first and lacked the “listen and do”, advice of The Singing Nurse. Please,  “cough or sneeze in your shoulder”, “and if you forget, wash your hands”, and I’ll add another, “please, try not to breath on me”.

Sad but true, no matter how hard we try to keep ourselves healthy, stuff still flies. Actually it really does fly, the germs are airborne when we cough and sneeze and can go as far as 12 ft and that’s pretty far.

So how did I start to feel? This may help you especially if you work with children in close proximity or with fragile patients as I do.

Symptoms:

1. My neck started to ache. This is a big clue and in the nursing world, we call it malaise. You start to feel achy and just not feeling up to snuff.  This is usually the first sign of illness that begins the intrusion on your healthy space and you are probably the most contagious at that time.

So what did I do?

I started wearing a face mask at work. I made every effort to not get too close to my patient, especially his face, and of course I washed my hands frequently. Hand sanitizer is a great back-up measure to have available.  Water, soap and friction are your best bets to prevent the spread of germs. And always…..cough or sneeze in your shoulder and…you guessed it, wash your hands again.

Well, now that we have these crummy little colds:

My husband is on antibiotics because his cold developed into bronchitis. Bronchitis is an inflammation of the brochioles which is part of your lungs. Many people have a tendency to develop bronchitis especially people with asthma.

So what are some home remedies to care for and help alleviate your cold and that general stuffed up feeling? Please if you are very ill or have a fever, check with your doctor to receive medical advice and treatment.

1. Drink fluids…We enjoy hot tea with honey and lemon. I put a pot of soup on which is a great way to get your fluids and take in Vit C rich veggies. The recipe is simple and it is good to have these items on hand during the cold and flu season. Of course if you are totally miserable please don’t feel guilty about opening a ready made can of soup, more power to you.

1 Knorr vegetable mix packet: this one also makes a great dip.

Cut up a handful of baby carrots, 1 medium onion, 1 red potato, fresh cilantro, 2 cloves of garlic and add a couple chicken bouillon cubes to about 5-6 cups of water in a pot.

Bring to a boil and then simmer until veggies are done. The whole process takes about 45-60 mins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. I like to take vit C or one of those special fizzy packets you mix with water that has vit C in it at the first sign of a cold.

3. Rest is the best way for your body to heal. Your body is working hard to fight off the germs. I know it is very difficult to rest when you have the responsibilities of work and young children. I used to put up a gate in a safe room that the kids could play in while we watched a DVD, listened to music, read books or watched cartoons. We rested and hung out together.

4. My husband likes to breath in warm steam to help open his airways.

Below are a couple of links you may enjoy about colds.

More interesting facts about cold symptoms and germs.

Home remedies by Donna Cordillo R.N.

About the lungs from KidsHealth.org

And just in case you have not heard The Singing Nurse songs about not spreading germs and washing hands, you might want to check them out, they are great for teaching your children how to protect themselves from germs. The songs are educational and entertaining and your kids will become little “Don’t Spread Your Germs Around” advocates.

Please add a comment below about your winter blues and what you are doing to stay healthy.

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 Ms. Dawn

 

Happy Global Handwashing Day!

October 13, 2013 in Children's Health Education

So here you are looking for some creative ways to show the kids how to wash their hands and The Singing Nurse wants to help.  Teaching our preschoolers and young children about proper hand washing is a great start to living a happy and healthy life.  When we are knowledgeable about being healthy and not spreading our germs we are being good neighbors too. I have gathered some of my own hand washing posts and would love to share other great resource from cyberspace to help you with your preparations. 

Yes, Oct. 15th is set aside by the CDC as “Global Handwashing Day” It is so true that many illnesses and deaths are being prevented by good hand washing. 

This is the link to the CDC where you will find loads of info.

I love this video about hand washing in India, they make a hand washing contraption that is very creative. Try and make this with your older kids, it would make a wonderful science project. 

Post by The Singing Nurse:

 ♥ Cool Hand Washing Videos
 ♥ Cool Books about Hand Washing
 ♥ Hand Washing Activity eBook
 ♥ Fun Green Germ Activity
 ♥ Hand Print and Washing Fun
 ♥ Family Germ Game

Happy Global Handwashing Day to you!

Ms. Dawn, The Singing Nurse

Don’t forget to subscribe to receive your free Hand Washing Activity eBook