Sick Day Survival Stash

February 20, 2020

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Before we get started on this I am not a doctor and you should always consult your pediatrician if your child is sick especially if they aren’t drinking or has a high fever. It is that time of year everyone is sick and once one person catches something everyone will so it feels like it never ends! Because of this I keep a sick-day survival stash because I am not going to take my sick kids or sick self to the store to buy the necessities. So what do I keep in my sick day survival stash?

**I know with the COVID-19 spreading many of these items might be out of stock at your local stores and that can be scary at the end of this post I list a bunch of places that stock many of these items that are atypical so they may have some left. All of the products are linked to Amazon as well. All of us need to stick together during this time. Always feel free to comment if you are struggling to find something and hopefully I can help or another mom can**

My sick day survival stash

Tylenol & Motrin

Tylenol/Motrin – I always keep a new unopened box of Tylenol and Motrin (Adult, Children and Infants since we have all different ages in my house) in my sick-day survival stash for when someone gets a high fever. Depending on the person’s age you may need to treat a fever with Tylenol to bring it down. As a rule (this does not apply to young babies) we treat a fever once it reaches 102-104* or if the fever is making your kids so uncomfortable they can’t sleep and won’t drink anything. If the fever isn’t bothering them that much and it isn’t above a 102-104* we don’t treat with medication because a fever is needed to fight the infection. —— So, why you do need Tylenol AND Motrin in your stash? Because sometimes a fever won’t respond to just Tylenol. Once my son (10 months old at the time) was super sick with a 103.8* fever and his fever was still at 102* after we gave him Tylenol. He was still miserable so his pediatrician said we need to start alternating Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours to treat the fever. **If a fever doesn’t respond quickly to this course of treatment it is time to head to the ER**

Pedialyte packets and popsicles

Pedialyte packets and popsicles – I have a full box of Pedialyte packets that you add to water in my stash at all times. When your kid is sick the most important thing is they stay hydrated and my son doesn’t like to drink when he is sick. So, we give him a full glass of water with a half of a Pedialyte packet and keep pushing these fluids. This is an easy way for us to get him to drink because he doesn’t get juice unless it is a treat at home so adding a juice like-flavor to his water helps so much and keeps him hydrating easier than plain water

Thermometer

Thermometer – We have two thermometers at home a forehead one and an underarm/under tongue/ rectal thermometer. For infants, the most accurate way to get a temp is rectally. So, when my baby is sick we use the rectal one. For toddlers and up it isn’t really safe to take their temp rectally since they are completely mobile and won’t sit still for a rectal temp so we use the forehead temp. We have tried several and this one is our favorite forehead thermometer. When looking for a thermometer you want to look for accurate and fast. If your thermometer takes 30 seconds to get a reading it is going to be very hard and full of fighting every time you need to take a temp. So I recommend you look for a thermometer that can get an accurate reading in 5 seconds or less.

Gel Ice Packs

Gel Ice Packs – I am not sure why but for my son ice fixes everything. So, when he isn’t feeling well and/or has a fever an ice pack is the perfect way to help him feel better. We use the gel packs so they aren’t hard or super cold on him so he can hold it himself because he is at the age where he can do EVERYTHING himself.

Favorite Foods

Favorite Foods – This you can’t keep in our stash unless it is homemade so you can keep ingredients on hand but for my son, his favorite food is muffins (or muffies as he calls them). So, when he is sick I make him his muffies and add veggies to them so when he refuses to eat anything but muffins he is at least still get nutrients. Try and modify whatever your child’s favorite food is so it packs as many nutrients as possible. Do they love smoothies? Add green spinach and avocado to them. Do they love chicken nuggets? Get the veggie nuggets. Do they love Mac N’ Cheese? Mix in peas/carrots into the Mac N’ Cheese. When your kids are sick it is better to not fight about healthy foods and give them a healthy version of what they already love. Win –Win. For infants that are already starting solid foods I would recommend bottles/breastfeeding exclusively while they are sick and skip the solid foods so they get as many fluids as possible.

Clorox wipes and antibacterial soap

Clorox wipes and antibacterial soap. When hand-foot-mouth hit our house I am pretty sure I went through 3 containers of Clorox wipes to help prevent the spread. But, the most important thing to prevent the spread of illness is proper hand-washing. So, once one person is sick you have to be on your kids about proper and consistent hand washing (even more than usual. Boy mom over here hand washing is an everyday topic but even more when someone is sick)

When your kids are sick it is like sick day survival mode. Do what you can to keep everyone healthy and happy if that means lots of movies and cuddles and not lots of vacuuming and dishes so be it! We are all doing our best and motherhood is exhausting when your kids are healthy so cut yourself some extra slack when they are sick. You got this! Check out my post about surviving your baby’s first cold https://snoozymomma.com/2020/01/10/ten-cold-remedies-for-babies/

** With the COVID-19 craziness, I know a ton of places are sold out of all of the necessities. But, I have had a lot of luck at not typical places that people are running to, to buy up everything