MNHQ needs your avoiding/surviving winter sniffles advice and tips.

[AbbyMumsnet]

It's that time of year when the lurgies hit with a vengeance. So, regardless of whether you've survived unscathed so far or spent New Year's Eve under the duvet, clutching a hot water bottle, we'd appreciate your advice/tips etc on how to avoid colds, sniffles et al - and how to lessen the impact if you or your family does get hit by a horrible bug. What weird concoctions do you take? Cider vinegar? Sambucol? Whiskey? Do you swear by echinacea or some other strange herb grown in a yurt? And what happens in your home if ebola, sorry, we mean man-flu, strikes your poor partner becomes ill? Do world's collide? Do let us know your thoughts.

Thanking you kindly.

Man flu. Just shoot them.

Avoid bugs by staying in your house and never ever going out where you could come into contact with other people who might be ill.

Avoid it by stockpiling dry goods, freezing vast quantities of milk and cheese and sealing off your house from october to march.

be sure to have lots of board games and books.

Hot steamy baths and whisky macks always help (not recommended for toddlers)

Wash your hands frequently and teach your family to do the same. Keep surfaces including piano keys and computer key boards clean and dry.

Use tissues to cover nose and mouth when coughing and sneezing, and either flush them, or place in a sealed bag and take out to the bin regularly. Snotty tissues festering in a warm waste paper basket breed germs.

Don't shake hands if you have a cold.

I don't know how to avoid one but vicks vapour smothered over the ball of the foot and instep at night, then put socks on if possible. Aids breathing. And also, eat lots of kiwi fruit (loads of vitamin C)

Move to a warmer country

stick ill people in one room to whinge together about who is worse, and never, ever, under any circumstances, pass it on to your MIL, or else hell will break loose!

For colds/sore throats/sore chests etc this always works (even for dh who somehow always manages to get the worst version going round): cup of tea (any type) and then add 2tsps of manuka honey, few slices of fresh ginger and a few slices of lemon?tastes really lovely but also clears these things up really quickly (works for headaches too).

Try and get as much sleep as you can! (see here)

Manuka honey. Thats it.

WASH YOUR HANDS and everyone else's religiously.

Loads of garlic, VitC, elderberry extract and sleep.

don't help in a school.

At the first sign (if I remember) I take 1G of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) daily. I'm sure when I do this, it's a 'lighter' and shorter cold than when I do.

Nothing more than honey and lemon drinks for the DCs, a good cold builds their immune system

Like MCKenzie, I also use Vicks on the soles of feet over night to ease irritating coughs for me and Dcs.

than when I don't. obv

Get the flu vaccine, it is not just for grannies you know!

Saline water (1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp bicarb in 1 litre tepid water) breathed up to clear sinuses

Vit C

Chicken Soup

Echinacea. I take it for a month around September time to boost my immunity. You can also get the drops for children.

I haven't had so much of a sniffle all over the winter!

Start taking a multi-vitamin in late September (bit late now but it does help ime)

Wash hands regularly, don't use tissues until they are sopping wet with snot - throw them away!

Keep warm, buy a couple of wheatbags for when you are shivery or your chest hurts if you have a bad cough.

Karvol capsules/olbas oil sprinkled on a muslin and placed over the headboard (or tied round cot bars for older babies) helps with breathing if you are bunged up.

And glycerine mixed with lukewarm water is good for when your throat is really irritated by a hacking cough (and cold drinks are better than hot ones for an irritated throat)

Assume your dc and dh will get better before you, so make sure you get plenty of rest! [hollow laugh]

Eucalyptus is great for coughs, in fact it's the only thing that works. Send them to bed with a glass of warm water mixed with honey, and put 2/3 drops of eucalyptus in a bowl of steaming hot water near the head of their bed so they can breathe it in during the night.

A hot bath with eucalyptus in it works too.

Also tonic - once the kids are ill they don't eat, it can take them ages to get back on their feet, tonic helps put the vitamins and minerals they need in their bodies to build their immunity back up again.

And during winter - make sure they drink plenty of water!

Wash hands after every time you come back into the house from outside. Keep nails very short. Ensure everyone in the house blows their nose into a tissue and throws it straight in the bin. Wrap up well (hat, scarf, gloves, thick socks) when you go out to avoid variations temperature. Wash gloves, scarves and hats very often. Stay inside in the warm if you get a bug.

as someone earlier suggested, become a hermit!

vit C (1000mg) daily, either prophylactically or at the first hint of a sniffle.
Echinacea - tea or tincture
Sambucol if a cough or sore throat included
Lots of garlic (I mean LOTS!)

If really desperate, syrup of onion - cut an onion in half, add a tbsp of sugar to each cut side and stand them in a bowl, cut/sugar side up. the sugar will slowly pull the onion juice out of the onion and form a thick sticky syrup. It sounds vile but doesn't taste too bad and works very well for bronchial coughs and sore throats

lots of fluid
DON'T go to work if you feel ill - stay at home and get rid of it.

For bunged-up nose - best advice is to keep breathing through your nose - sounds mad but it does work! The second you give in and breathe through your mouth, your nose will block completely.

Essential oils: eucalyptus, rosemary (not at night, can make you cough), ravensare - use in an oil burner or steam inhalation.

Stay AWAY from the GP surgery - that's the biggest hothouse for catching new germs!

Menthol crystals
50 p form that weirdy section at your local pokey pharmacy with the woman who smokes too much behind the counter.
get said crystals, put in bowl of hot water, towel over head and prepare for take off.
they will BLOW YOUR HEAD OFF

vapour rub on the feet works so well with snuffley little ones. Its the only way i can get mine to sleep through the night.