Staying Healthy Over the Holidays

How did your family fare through the holidays?  Did any of your soldiers lay by the Christmas tree with a fever, or did anyone succumb to the “Christmas Flu” as a few of my mommy-friends on Facebook called it?  Our family of five didn’t do too bad.  At about 3am on Boxing Day I wondered if we were going to end up in the ER when my toddler’s classic croupy-cough started but thankfully it settled down!  And for that, I’m thankful!  It really feels like we’re playing Russian Roulette when we get together with family over the holidays – surely someone is going to get sick with everyone in such close quarters.  Another concern is food-safety with, literally, too many cooks in the kitchen!

When more than one person is responsible for cooking and cleaning, things can easily get overlooked.  My husband and I made a major faux pas on Christmas Eve when we prepared a breakfast dish for the following morning:

While our breakfast was saved and didn’t cause any illness, there’s many points to consider over the holidays and beyond to help keep your family germ-free and healthy in the kitchen.  HygieneCouncil.org even has a great info sheet packed full of tips and info to help families.

Here are a few tips I learned that stood out for me:

– Store food in the fridge at 5°C, don’t overfill and make sure cold air can circulate. How packed is your fridge over the holidays?! Yikes mine too!
– Don’t leave cooked food sitting at room temperature for longer than two hours. My mom is really bad for this and we always argue about it – she’s been hosting family gatherings for years and that’s just what you do – leave food out for people to eat all day. It’s just not safe (I win.)
– Re-serve leftovers only once. Even if it’s really really good – it could be really really bad for you if you keep reheating food.
– 9 of 10 kitchen cloths have unsatisfactory or worse levels of bacteria. I knew it!! Kitchen cloths drive me nuts and I only use one per day. The Hygiene Council recommends using disposable cloths or soaking reusable ones in disinfectant overnight to clean them.
– High chairs or places where children eat have worse levels of bacteria than toilet flushes. Ohmergerd!! I totally put my highchair tray in the dishwasher after reading that fact. And shuddered.

You can find these and many more tips on the HygieneCouncil.org site.  I bookmarked it!

Hopefully your holidays have been germ-free or at the very least with minimal coughs and snotty noses!

Disclosure: I am part of the Lysol® Healthy Families Ambassador Program by Mom Central. I received compensation as part of my affiliation with this group.  The opinions on this blog are my own.