Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

How to manage if I get this flu?

106 replies

Redonionsalad · 10/12/2025 20:50

I’m a single parent, no support nearby.
I keep reading with this new flu strain people can’t get out of bed for a week or more.

I’m in panic mode as how on earth will I look after my DC (5 and 7) if I do catch it?!

OP posts:
thetallfairy · 11/12/2025 15:31

Vaccine booked in for today

Just realised it takes 10-14 days for it to work

I'm wearing masks in the meantime

KitsyWitsy · 11/12/2025 15:45

I had my jab yesterday. Wish it didn’t take so long to work. I’m very concerned this year.

I got that first defence too!

Eyeshadow · 11/12/2025 16:01

I thought there was a mix match in the vaccine which is why it’s not as effective as the strain is slightly different to what they predicted.

I think a lot of people never worried about flu (myself included) unless they were older or immunocompromised.
But since covid and seeing how quickly that spread and the illness and damaged it caused, I feel people are a lot more careful.

I still don’t think it’s anything to worry about though and there are much worse illnesses you can get.

Try and stay healthy, be sensible, try and put away £50 or so for emergencies but don’t let it stop you living your life.

Itsnotallaboutyoulikeyouthink · 11/12/2025 16:07

I can’t believe all of these replies feeding into this posters health anxieties.

Op you will just cope. I know it doesn’t seem like that way now but when you are in these situations you just do. I had flu when I was pregnant with my daughter and I also had a toddler and a husband that did night shifts.I just coped and got on with it. Im now a solo parent who has migraines that if I didn’t have kids I would be bed ridden for several days per month with them. I’m not though as I just have to get on. I’d try and ignore most of these posts there going to make your worries worse not better.

TappaMcFeety · 11/12/2025 16:07

Really good suggestions already on this thread. I live alone and this flu doing the rounds made me stop and think how I would cope if I got it. So I’ve stocked up on toilet roll, milk, cat food, easy meals in the freezer, some sweet crap for quick easy calories in the cupboards and of course painkillers.

Dillydollydingdong · 11/12/2025 16:14

I've got it but it's on its way out after 2 weeks. The main symptoms were sneezing, coughing and total tiredness. I nap every afternoon ATM. The doctor prescribed antibiotics. Good luck.

Gettingbysomehow · 11/12/2025 16:22

I've got it now, I've been unable to go to work for a week. I had the vaccine, it made zero difference. I could get out of bed but get tired very easily and needed an afternoon sleep. I could have managed with kids but they would have been plonked in front of screens and tv all week.
My sister had it and she has a 2 year old.·she did manage but it was tough.

Boomer55 · 11/12/2025 16:27

Redonionsalad · 10/12/2025 20:50

I’m a single parent, no support nearby.
I keep reading with this new flu strain people can’t get out of bed for a week or more.

I’m in panic mode as how on earth will I look after my DC (5 and 7) if I do catch it?!

We’ve all done it. Hard but you just manage somehow. It passes.

Member984815 · 11/12/2025 16:35

Get the vaccine , stock up on paracetamol and ibuprofen and cough bottles. Buy a tub of vicks vapour rub. I have it at the minute and am coming near the end of it rest and fluids are all important, hopefully you have someone to help with the kids. It's exhausting and the catching up on housework , because we all got it together, is taking it out of me.

SlowSloth26 · 11/12/2025 16:43

YorkshireGoldDrinker · 10/12/2025 21:16

Get the flu jab, I guess. You'll still get flu, but it won't knock you for six. Vaccinations are watered down versions of the virus that encourage an immune response to take the edge off, you will still feel like crap, but you won't lose the will to live.

I got the flu jab for the first time this year because I'm pregnant, my immune system is under a load as it's protecting my baby, which then leaves me vulnerable to things like colds and flu. I'm just getting over a cold now, so what I was told checks out.

Get the flu jab if it's offered by the NHS (you can actually buy it for £21.95 at Boots even if you're not considered vulnerable) and keep your medicine cabinet stocked up (you should be doing that anyway with all kinds as you never know what you might get struck down with).

You'll be fine.

Edited

I realize this isn't the main focus of this thread but can I just say well done / thank you for getting the flu jab while pregnant. I had the jab with my first pregnancy and in subsequent years, and then last flu season (2024/2025), between one thing and another, I just never got around to it. Really, really stupid of me, I know, but it was just sheer disorganization, not due to an anti-vax stance or anything like that. Then in February of this year I found out I was pregnant - but my daughter had already brought home the flu that week...she and my husband were OK after a few days, but I got really, really sick (I'm talking 4 days in bed with a 40 degree fever that wouldn't break). The pregnancy seems to be progressing fine, until a routine scan at 17 weeks showed my son had died a month prior. There was no other cause found (nothing genetic, no infection visible, no malformations) so it's highly likely that the very high fever I had damaged the pregnancy in some way - and there's scientific evidence that supports this (high flu caused by flu in early pregnancy has been linked to 2nd trimester miscarriages). I will spent the rest of my life regretting being too disorganized to take 15 minutes to get the jab last year - but I hope my story can encourage and validate others' decision to do so while pregnant.

Blizzardofleaves · 11/12/2025 16:53

Well I have had it op, and was hospitalised. It’s really bad. I am healthy and fit, so no reason to suspect it would make me so ill.

If you start becoming ill go straight to bed, don’t even try to work through it, my dh did this and it really helped make it less serious. Rest early on, and properly.
Day and night nurse on a loop
Do you have any family or friends you can call in an emergency? Their father?

Otherwise keep the house fully stocked with food that is super quick to prepare. Keep water bottles, a charger by your bed.

Blizzardofleaves · 11/12/2025 16:59

Itsnotallaboutyoulikeyouthink · 11/12/2025 16:07

I can’t believe all of these replies feeding into this posters health anxieties.

Op you will just cope. I know it doesn’t seem like that way now but when you are in these situations you just do. I had flu when I was pregnant with my daughter and I also had a toddler and a husband that did night shifts.I just coped and got on with it. Im now a solo parent who has migraines that if I didn’t have kids I would be bed ridden for several days per month with them. I’m not though as I just have to get on. I’d try and ignore most of these posts there going to make your worries worse not better.

Edited

I think pp are being honest, it’s better than fake reassurance. Op can then prepare. I have had flu, and Covid several times and none were anywhere near as awful as this.
I caught Covid straight afterwards whilst being in hospital with the flu, it’s just a horrendous cycle. Do what you can to avoid it.

BlueberryOats · 11/12/2025 19:43

Timebudda · 11/12/2025 14:52

Yeah I heard.
Absolutely ridiculous tbh.
The world's gone mad.
Know one seems to cope anymore with normal things.
Im starting to be embarrassed to be British.

It's not that though. We are in a cost of living crisis when lots of people cannot afford to take time off work and lose earnings, have unreasonable work deadlines etc.

Plus you can't deny the fact that the hospitals are very busy so people are thinking ahead to try and avoid getting really illl- seems sensible.

Plus families are more fragmented. Some people live alone.

If people get overwhelmed by it, they just need to step away from news and social media, hide threads about it.

Other than that there's useful info on here about what to do.

I had it two weeks ago and I posted multiple threads because I didn't know what to do. I barely speak to my mum and paracetamol wasn't doing anything. I didn't understand the array of things to take, as last time I had flu was a decade ago and I was much younger and just toughed it out.

At 45 I was worried about it going to my chest plus now have an underlying condition.

I learned about different types of cough medicine - who knew that some of them suppress a cough and some thing mucus, and you can sleep better if you take something to suppress a cough at night. I also worked out that anaesthetic throat spray was also a god send and stopped me waking every 2 hours to cough and vomit - gets very exhausting after day 2. But you can't take that for more than 3 days so you need strepsils too. And nasal rinse helps clear out mucus and make breathing feel easier. And a friend told me about Tesco Whoosh - I couldn't even walk to get loo roll but I could order online and have it delivered in 40 mins.

Luckily I had a cold and had an inkling something was coming so I stocked up on meds but often flu comes on very quickly.

I just wanted to post the things that helped In case it helped anyone else.

ShowOfHands · 11/12/2025 20:34

Flu isn't necessarily "deadly" as is being claimed on here. Lots of research shows it can be completely asymptomatic in many people and mild in others. There's nothing wrong with sensible precautions against all viruses during the winter months and making sure you're prepared in a reasonable or appropriate way.

The scaremongering on this thread is ridiculous however. We have a lot of flu cases at school. Some staff/students are feeling rubbish, some have a sniffle. I bet others of us have it and don't even know.

HoneyParsnipSoup · 11/12/2025 20:40

Get yourself and your kids jabbed if not already done.

Keep the following in the house:
Paracetomol and calpol
Diarolyte
Lemonade (a couple of 2L bottles)
Multipacks of ready salted crisps
Freezer food for the kids that can be put straight in oven but also things like packets of brioche and bananas - not great nutritionally but they can just open and eat

Make sure your kids know how to use the Alexa or your mobile to dial 999, and that they know your address. Write it on a label somewhere they can find it. I recently spoke to a paramedic who said it was shocking how many kids don’t know their own addresses.

All take high strength vitamin C.

HoneyParsnipSoup · 11/12/2025 20:43

ShowOfHands · 11/12/2025 20:34

Flu isn't necessarily "deadly" as is being claimed on here. Lots of research shows it can be completely asymptomatic in many people and mild in others. There's nothing wrong with sensible precautions against all viruses during the winter months and making sure you're prepared in a reasonable or appropriate way.

The scaremongering on this thread is ridiculous however. We have a lot of flu cases at school. Some staff/students are feeling rubbish, some have a sniffle. I bet others of us have it and don't even know.

I don’t think it’s scaremongering for single parents to worry about coping if they had flu.

A couple of months ago I had awful D&V when DH was away, I kicked myself for not having basic supplies in.

Having a basic plan and some supplies is sensible, being able to hydrate yourself and manage fever at home will also help the NHS

Bingbongbangbop · 11/12/2025 20:45

P00kyW00ky · 10/12/2025 21:00

You will not be able to parent children with this flu. It's deadly. My sister her hubby and 3 year old couldn't get out of bed

Not everyone who catches the flu will be this ill, just like any virus you can be anything from A symptomatic to needing hospital intervention. The vaccine and hand washing will limit symptoms.
I was a single parent and people just muddle through 🤷‍♀️

CharlotteCChapel · 11/12/2025 20:47

DS seemed to have the flu but it changed every day, one was extreme sore throat, another blinding headache, another day with weakness. Ive had the jab and although I was ill too it was manageable.

StarsTwinklingPomanders · 11/12/2025 20:49

@HoneyParsnipSoup well on a different thread someone from the NHS is saying staff are not vaccinated themselbes

ShowOfHands · 11/12/2025 20:50

HoneyParsnipSoup · 11/12/2025 20:43

I don’t think it’s scaremongering for single parents to worry about coping if they had flu.

A couple of months ago I had awful D&V when DH was away, I kicked myself for not having basic supplies in.

Having a basic plan and some supplies is sensible, being able to hydrate yourself and manage fever at home will also help the NHS

I said there's nothing wrong with having plans and taking precautions. You've essentially agreed with me.

I was referring to the posts saying "you won't be able to get out of bed" and "it is deadly, you won't be able to do anything". THAT is scaremongering.

Bingbongbangbop · 11/12/2025 21:01

Eyeshadow · 11/12/2025 13:36

Your kids are old enough that they don’t need constant supervision.

I always had a credit card for emergencies.

Save up money so you can get takeaway and food delivery if needed.
Perhaps write a list of things you’ll need to buy if you get ill but can’t think straight - bread, milk, ready meals, cereal, paracetamol, toilet roll etc

Buy some bread and freeze it and a couple of tins of beans.

Worst comes to worst your kids will live off sandwiches and cereal for a couple of days, the house will be a mess and they’ll have loads of screen time but they won’t mind any of it.

You can just lie on the sofa and doze all day.
Just remember to keep your fluids up and have paracetamol and ibuprofen every 2 hours.

8 paracetamol in 24 hrs and 6 ibuprofen.

Tosserneighbour · 11/12/2025 21:07

Just make an appointment online with Boots to get the flu jab. Mine cost £17.

BurntBroccoli · 17/12/2025 20:01

I’m really worried too as I live on my own with no family nearby. Last time I had flu I couldn’t move even to get a drink of water for the first 12 hours.

BurntBroccoli · 17/12/2025 20:03

ShowOfHands · 11/12/2025 20:34

Flu isn't necessarily "deadly" as is being claimed on here. Lots of research shows it can be completely asymptomatic in many people and mild in others. There's nothing wrong with sensible precautions against all viruses during the winter months and making sure you're prepared in a reasonable or appropriate way.

The scaremongering on this thread is ridiculous however. We have a lot of flu cases at school. Some staff/students are feeling rubbish, some have a sniffle. I bet others of us have it and don't even know.

If they are able to go to school it’s not flu.

KilkennyCats · 17/12/2025 20:24

BurntBroccoli · 17/12/2025 20:03

If they are able to go to school it’s not flu.

But it can be, that’s the point.