2nd night of sleepless agony as I watch my kids in their painful state of cough, colds and fever. Every 4-6 hours of medication (4 types of syrups and drops each kid), praying they get better each time. Nursing my baby as much as I could while putting vapor rub and wet towel over Ate to keep her fever low and keep them as comfortable as I could.

Hubby’s flight is at 8am – off to Shanghai as his work demands. He has to be in the airport by 6am, he has no sleep too, he did a great job helping me with the kids.

It’s so painful to see your kids suffer in sickness. I hate you common colds, infact,  I hate any kind of sickness. It gives so much stress, not only emotional and physical but financial as well, we gave the clinic yesterday HK$ 610 for their checkup. Is there a way to prevent this? In my search for the answer, over the internet of course, I did find a few advices on how to prevent common colds from kids, i hope this reminds me next time what to do.

My goal is to prevent cold and flu since there seems to be no known cure for these. Living a healthy life is one of the ways to fight and prevent getting sick. The most effective way for preventing the flu is to get the flu shot. It may not be natural, but it works better than anything else. But there are other ways that can be done as well. Here are some suggestions I found from the www to prevent getting colds and flu, not just for kids, but for adults as well.

•1 Wash Your Hands
Most cold and flu viruses are spread by direct contact. Someone who has the flu sneezes onto their hand, and then touches the telephone, the keyboard, a kitchen glass. The germs can live for hours — in some cases weeks — only to be picked up by the next person who touches the same object. So wash your hands with soap often. If no sink is available, rub your hands together very hard for a minute or so. That also helps break up most of the cold germs. Or rub an alcohol-based hand sanitizer onto your hands.

•2 Don’t Cover Your Sneezes and Coughs With Your Hands
Because germs and viruses cling to your bare hands, muffling coughs and sneezes with your hands results in passing along your germs to others. When you feel a sneeze or cough coming, use a tissue, then throw it away immediately. If you don’t have a tissue, cough or sneeze into the inside of your elbow.

•3 Don’t Touch Your Face
Cold and flu viruses enter your body through the eyes, nose, or mouth. Touching their faces is the major way children catch colds, and a key way they pass colds on to their parents.

•4 Drink Plenty of Fluids
Water flushes your system, washing out the poisons as it rehydrates you. A typical, healthy adult needs eight 8-ounce glasses of fluids each day. How can you tell if you’re getting enough liquid? If the color of your urine runs close to clear, you’re getting enough. If it’s deep yellow, you need more fluids.

•5 Take a Sauna
Researchers aren’t clear about the exact role saunas play in prevention, but one 1989 German study found that people who steamed twice a week got half as many colds as those who didn’t. One theory: When you take a sauna you inhale air hotter than 80 degrees, a temperature too hot for cold and flu viruses to survive.

•6 Do Aerobic Exercise Regularly
Aerobic exercise speeds up the heart to pump larger quantities of blood; makes you breathe faster to help transfer oxygen from your lungs to your blood; and makes you sweat once your body heats up. These exercises help increase the body’s natural virus-killing cells. Get your child to do regular exercise like walking and playing outdoor games. Exercise will build up immune cells in the body.

•7 Boost the Immune System
The best cold cure and prevention is to boost the immune system. Frequent colds, flu and even tiredness indicate the immune system is weakening. Give them a quality multi vitamin and mineral.

•8 Stay away from people who smoke or are having a cold.
Virus can travel up to 12 feet through the air when someone sneezes.

•9 Encourage a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables.
They are a rich source of immune boosting nutrients. It has been recommended for children to consume 5 or more servings of fresh fruits and vegetables.

•10 Avoid giving kids sugary drinks and sodas.
It can lead to obesity and also depletion of calcium in the body.

But what to do once your kid caught colds and flu? Here are some tips to ease the ill effects and symptoms:

What To Do When Your Child Gets The Cold