Taking care of a sick toddler isn’t fun. But taking care of two sick children is worse. It means more misery and sleepless nights — and for you, more missed days of work.

So short of ordering everyone into hazmat suits, what are you supposed to do the next time one of your kids comes home from daycare flushed and feverish? How can you protect the rest of the family and prevent germs from spreading?

“I know some parents who just give up,” says says Tanya Remer Altmann, MD, a pediatrician and author of Mommy Calls:Dr. Tanya Answers Parents’ Top 101 Questions About Babies and Toddlers. “They assume that once the virus is in the house, everyone’s going to get it. But there are some precautions that can help.”

Containing a virus isn’t easy — especially within a family. But here’s some advice from pediatricians and experts on infectious disease on how to prevent germs from getting the rest of the family sick.

Tips to Prevent Germs from Spreading

Get your kids to wash their hands. Yes, this one should be obvious. But it really can’t be stressed enough: hand washing is a crucial way to prevent germs from spreading. About 80% of infectious diseases are spread by touch.

“Two of the most important things we’ve done in medicine are getting people vaccinated and getting them to wash their hands,” says Robert W. Frenck Jr., MD, professor of pediatrics at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Infectious Disease.

When you have a sick toddler, germs can get absolutely everywhere. That means that your healthy child is bound to pick them up on his hands. But as long as he’s washing his hands regularly, the germs might not make it from his hands into his eyes or mouth.

If kids are going to wash their hands, teach them to do it right. Experts recommend scrubbing hands for 20 seconds or so — as long as it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice. The type of soap doesn’t matter — to prevent germs, the regular stuff will work just as well as antibacterial soap.

When warm water and soap aren’t available, use an alcohol-based sanitizing gel — just make sure to rub your hands together vigorously for about 20 seconds until the gel evaporates.

Wash your own hands. To prevent germs from spreading, the same advice goes for you too. Don’t get so focused on wiping down your sick toddler’s toys that you forget to wash your own hands. It’s important for a couple of reasons. First, you don’t want to get sick — taking care of a sick toddler while being sick yourself can be punishing.

But second, if you’re not washing your hands, you could actually be the one who infects your healthy child — even if you don’t get sick. All it might take is for you to pick up your sick toddler’s tissues and then make your healthy kid’s lunch. Bingo: you’ve got two sick children.

Step up your disinfecting. Even if you’re not germ-obsessed usually, now might be a time to focus more on disinfecting surfaces in your home. It can help prevent germs from spreading.

“I think when one child is sick, some extra sanitizing around the house can definitely help prevent other family members from getting it,” Altmann tells WebMD.

What should you do? You could wipe off surfaces that your sick toddler has touched — like doorknobs, tables, and handrails — with a disinfectant. Many plastic toys can be thrown in the dishwasher, and many stuffed animals in the washing machine. If your sick toddler is suffering from vomiting and diarrhea, take extra care to disinfect the toilet, floor, and sink in the bathroom.

That said, don’t make yourself crazy in your attempts to prevent germs from spreading. You don’t want to spend your days following your sick toddler around the house, spraying everything in her wake with disinfectant. Besides, it won’t work. There’s no way that you’ll be able to eradicate all of the germs anyway.

Practice good diaper hygiene. Be especially careful with dirty diapers now — particularly if you have more than one kid wearing them. The changing table could be a spot where your kids exchange germs. So you could decide to use the changing table only for your sick toddler and change your healthy kid somewhere else. Or you could always lay a fresh blanket over the changing pad when putting a diaper on your healthy child.

Don’t allow sharing at meals. Mealtimes may usually be chaotic, with your kids regularly swapping silverware, cups, and food. For now, do what you can to prevent that.

Keep the bathroom hygienic. While germs generally don’t live on towels very long, they can live long enough to make a healthy kid sick. So launder them regularly. You may even want to switch to disposable paper towels for a week to prevent germs from infecting other family members. By the same token, consider replacing the bathroom water glass with disposable paper cups for a while. And get your child a new toothbrush after he’s been sick.

Consider a quarantine? Obviously, you can’t imprison a sick toddler in his room until he’s better. But you can try to reduce the contact between your sick kid and your healthy one.

“You can try to separate your kids a bit,” says Altmann. “For instance, you might try to keep them playing in separate rooms more than usual.”

Still, it’s often not feasible and your kids may resist. If that’s the case, don’t worry, says Laura A. Jana, MD, a pediatrician and coauthor of Heading Home with Your Newborn and Food Fights. As long as your kids aren’t getting in each other’s faces — and everyone’s washing their hands — it shouldn’t be a big deal. “It’s fine to have your sick child sitting with his siblings in the same room watching a movie,” Jana tells WebMD.

How to Prevent Germs When a Parent Is Sick

What if you or your spouse is the sick one? How can you protect your kids?

• Focus on washing your hands. Hand washing is the key way to prevent germs from spreading. You should be doing it regularly anyway, but step it up when you’re sick. If you’re laid out on the couch, keep a container of antibacterial gel in your robe pocket and apply it before touching the kids.
• Dispose of your tissues. Before you had kids, you might have spent sick days on the couch with a pile of used tissues on the floor next to you. That’s not a good idea now. Throw your tissues directly into a trashcan nearby — preferably one with a lid or one that’s placed off the floor.
• Keep breastfeeding. Some women worry about breastfeeding when they have a cold or stomach virus — will it make the baby sick? But experts say that breastfeeding when you have a run-of-the-mill virus is a good idea; in fact, the antibodies you pass on might help protect your baby from getting sick.
• Avoid preparing food — if you can. It’s not always an option, but if you can have your spouse, older child, or other family member take over the meal preparations and lunch packing for a few days, it’s a good idea. If you have to prepare meals, just be very careful to wash your hands before and during cooking.
• Take precautions, but don’t go overboard. Short of leaving the house for a week, how else can you reduce the odds that your kids will get your cold? You can try to make a few minor adjustments to prevent germs from spreading. For instance, you could kiss your kids on their heads rather than their cheeks for a few days. You could ask your spouse to do bedtime stories and baths for a few nights. But obviously, you can’t be so careful in your efforts to prevent germs from spreading that you feel like you’re shunning your kids.

Preventing Germs: The Odds Are Against You

While trying to prevent germs from infecting the rest of the family is a noble goal, remember that the odds are against you. Even if you’re careful, once a virus is in the house, it’s very hard to contain.

“When one of my kids gets sick, I always try to prevent it from spreading to the other,” says Altmann. “But three out of four times, the other one gets it anyway.”

Frenck agrees. “Remember that with a lot of these diseases, you’re contagious before you even have any symptoms,” he tells WebMD. Even if you take every possible precaution the moment you notice that your baby is feverish, it may already be too late. So don’t beat yourself up if you’re unable to prevent germs from spreading in your home.

“Parents aren’t being bad parents if their kids get colds, or ear infections, or diarrhea,” says Frenck. “It just happens.”

Women who suffer from spider veins are more likely to hide their legs behind long skirts or stockings in order to avoid the embarrassment of showing off their marked veins. This problem is preventable, though.

Spider veins tend to appear mainly on the legs, although technically, they could occur on any part of the body. They look like a fine web of dark red, purple or even blue lines under the skin and are not as pronounced as varicose veins.

However, they still can cause considerable discomfort. Some women complain that they are extremely painful.

Keeping up great circulation in your legs is the first step to being able to prevent spider veins. You can do this by not using tight clothing on your legs, which might cut off the circulation and encouraging blood flow to the legs. This might be in the form of a daily leg massage or exercise. Simply walking or jogging a little each day reduces your risk of developing these unsightly veins.

Your mother may have told you that crossing your legs would cause varicose veins. She was right. Cutting off the circulation to your lower leg and foot is the perfect way to create a varicose vein problem, since both spider and varicose veins are caused by lack of blood flow. Increasing the blood flow to the areas most at risk will help prevent problems later on. This is good advice to follow even if you are very young, as it can prevent spider veins once you get older.

Maintaining your weight at a healthy level is also very important since extra weight puts extra pressure on your legs and may result in spider veins. This is particularly true during pregnancy when you would gain anyway. Keeping the weight gain to the recommended amount during pregnancy ensures that you are spider vein free after the baby is born.

Avoiding salt in your diet can keep swelling and hypertension to a minimum as well. These conditions often go hand in hand with spider veins and varicose veins. Adding more Vitamin C and E is also a great natural way to reduce swelling in the legs and may work to prevent vein disorders.

If you do end up with spider veins, despite all your attempts to keep your circulation high and eat well, there are still alternatives. Surgery is the most invasive, where the veins are actually removed. This is usually reserved for problem veins that don’t respond to other treatments.

Another treatment is to inject the offending veins with a special liquid that causes the veins to scar up and close. This forces the blood to be redirected and leaves the area clear. The procedure is painless, but may need to be repeated several times. Also, laser surgery may prove effective and is the least invasive of all treatments for spider veins.

If you wish to prevent or treat spider veins, try the tips above before heading to your doctor. While the preventions given are usually quite effective, it really depends on you and your lifestyle as well as your genetic makeup.

a/ You should be brushing at least two or three times a day. Brushing your teeth is one of the most effective ways for removing plaque from the exposed surfaces of your teeth. Contrary to what you might think, a gentle brushing with a soft-bristle toothbrush is just more effective than a vigorous scrubbing with a stiff-bristle toothbrush.

b/ You have to brush your teeth within an hour of eating or drinking anything that may stain them.

c/ You also need to remember to have dental cleanings at least once a year.

d/ Brush your teeth for 3 minutes. Brushing must be a 2-3 minutes activity with special care to clean on the inside surfaces of the teeth. Using a fluoridated tooth paste is recommended.

e/ When you brush, position the head of the toothbrush toward your gums at a 45 degree angle. Move the brush back and forth gently in short strokes. In the same gentle back and forth motions, brush the outside areas of your upper and lower front teeth. Then brush the biting (chewing) surfaces and the inside (the side facing your tongue) of your upper and lower back teeth. The next step is to brush the inside areas (the side facing your tongue) of your upper and lower front teeth with the tip of the brush using gentle up and down strokes. In the end brush your tongue. This will fresh your breath and remove bacteria.

f/ Floss daily. Brushing alone isn’t enough to clean all of the plaque from the surface of your teeth. Interproximal areas (those places in between your teeth) are spots where the toothbrush can’t reach and plaque can build up. These are areas that are more susceptible to cavities.

g/ Use your teeth only for chewing food (cracking nut shells, chewing pen caps and tearing off clothing tags can crack enamel, dislodge fillings or loosen teeth).

h/ Another simple tip to make your teeth a topic of envy among others, is to eat sugarcane daily.

i/ Change your toothbrush every three months.

Some remedies for yellow teeth:

- Rub the white part of an orange peel along your teeth.

- Brush your teeth with baking soda.

- Using a Q-Tip, dab hydrogen peroxide onto the surface of your teeth, being careful to avoid your gums or you might have irritation.

- Strawberry pulp is supposed to have a natural bleaching effect, and it tastes better than baking soda.

- Salt can be used to brush your teeth. You can also try mixing salt, baking soda and water together. But be careful, because the salt is very abrasive and could cause mouth pain and weakened enamel.

- Rinse your mouth with a vinegar/water solution. Use white vinegar instead of the red vinegar.

- For yellowish teeth treatment, you can also rub together a mixture of turmeric powder, powdered salt and lime juice on it. Repeating this process for about 15-16 days will bring back the natural glow.

- Drink white wine and light spirits as vodka, instead of red wine, rum or whisky.

- Eat white meat instead of red meat.

- Prepare white sauces instead of dark sauces.

- Drink white grape fruit instead of purple grapefruit.

- Have vanilla ice cream instead of chocolate ice cream.

Here, some cleansing foods for teeth:

Vegetables and fresh fruits like orange, melon, pineapple, pear, tangerine, grapefruit, canned fruits, natural fruit and vegetable juices, carrots, cucumber, broccoli, celery and tomatoes can help you naturally clean your teeth. Grains and some bakery like sugar free cereals, butter free popcorn, bread and cookies are other solution which makes our teeth look healthier and brighter. Milk and milk products (skimmed milk, skimmed yogurt and fat free cheese) as well. Meat, seeds and pizza also do not harm the color of our teeth. Chicken, turkey, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and nuts are good cleansing foods. Follow these nutritional tips for white teeth and will not suffer yellow teeth.

Dental myths about teeth

- White teeth are healthier teeth

We might think they look pretty, but many specialists say that teeth aren’t meant to be pure white. You can help to keep your teeth as white as possible by brushing regularly with a fluoride toothpaste and flossing. Avoiding food and drinks which can stain teeth, such as tea, coffee and red wine, will also help to keep them white.

- I have to see a dentist every six months

It depends on your oral health. Usually the dentist recommends how often you should come in for check-ups.

- Bad breath is only caused by not brushing your teeth properly.

In fact, 85-90% of bad breath also called halitosis is caused by bad oral hygiene. But smoking, certain foods and, rarely, an underlying disease can also make our breath smell bad. Regular brushing, flossing, eating and drinking healthily and taking plenty of exercise are the best route to sweet-smelling breath.

And the protection may not be down to caffeine since decaf coffee has the greatest effect, say researchers in Archives of Internal Medicine.

They looked at 18 separate studies involving nearly 500,000 people.

This analysis revealed that people who drink three or four cups of coffee or tea a day cut their risk by a fifth or more, say researchers.

The same amount of decaffeinated coffee had an even bigger effect, lowering risk by a third.

Type 2 diabetes usually starts after the age of 40 and develops when the body can still make some insulin, but not enough, or when the insulin that is produced does not work properly. Type 2 diabetes is treated with a healthy diet and increased physical activity. In addition to this, medication and/or insulin is often required.

If the findings prove true, doctors may well start advising people to put the kettle on as well as take more exercise and watch their weight, say the researchers.

When the authors combined and analysed the data, they found that each additional cup of coffee consumed in a day cut diabetes risk by 7%.

Lead researcher Dr Rachel Huxley, from the University of Sydney in Australia, said because of the finding with decaffeinated coffee, the link is unlikely to be solely related to caffeine.

Instead, other compounds in coffee and tea – including magnesium and antioxidants known as lignans or chlorogenic acids – may be involved.

Special brew

“The identification of the active components of these beverages would open up new therapeutic pathways for the primary prevention of diabetes mellitus.

“If such beneficial effects were observed in interventional trials to be real, the implications for the millions of individuals who have diabetes mellitus, or who are at future risk of developing it, would be substantial.”

Dr Victoria King, of Diabetes UK, said: “Without full information about what other factors may be influencing the type 2 diabetes risk of the studies’ participants – such as their physical activity levels and diet – as well as what the active ingredient in tea or coffee appears to be, we cannot be sure what, if anything, this observed effect is down to.

“What we can be sure of is that the development of type 2 diabetes is strongly linked to lifestyle, which means that many cases could be prevented by keeping active and eating a healthy balanced diet that is low in fat, salt and sugar with plenty of fruit and vegetables.”

1. Keep germs away from your mouth and nose. H1N1 spreads just like the flu, so wash your hands often. Use soap and warm water for 15-20 seconds. Scrub your fingernails, get in between your fingers, and don’t forget your wrists.
2. Keep alcohol-based hand sanitizer nearby in case you need to cleanse. Even a week after swine flu symptoms are gone, sufferers can still spread the virus. H1N1 may live on objects for up to 8 hours after being touched.
3. Follow the basic rules of cleanliness. Wash your hand before you eat. Sanitize often and avoid touching your mouth and nose. If you catch the swine flu, stay at home. Cough into your elbow and sneeze into tissues, then sanitize.

Drinking green tea has been associated with lower risk of dying and heart disease deaths, Dr. Toru Naganuma, at Tohoku University School of Medicine in Sendai, Japan told Reuters Health in an email correspondence.

The current study, Naganuma said, suggests drinking green tea may have a favorable effect “for particular cancers.”

After gathering information on the diets and green tea drinking habits of a large group of Japanese adults aged 40 to 79 years old, Naganuma and colleagues followed the group for development of blood and “lymph system” cancers. The lymph system is a major component of the body’s immune system.

The 19,749 men and 22,012 women who participated in the study had no previous history of cancer, Naganuma and colleagues note in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

During 9 years of follow up, 157 blood, bone marrow, and lymph system cancers developed in the study group.

Naganuma’s team found that the overall risk for blood cancers was 42 percent lower among study participants who drank 5 or more, versus 1 or fewer, cups of green tea daily.

Drinking 5 or more cups of green tea daily was also associated with 48 percent lower risk for lymph system cancers.

These associations held up in analyses that allowed for age, gender, education, smoking status and history, alcohol use, and fish and soybean consumption.

The researchers also observed reduced risk for blood-related cancers among obese study participants, who are “considered to have higher risk of these cancers,” Naganuma said.

The investigators say further studies are needed to confirm the health benefits of drinking green tea, and to determine whether daily consumption might prevent certain cancers.

SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, September 15, 2009

Almost 500, 000 different women lose their lives to heart disease annually: Women who are moms, grandmas, aunts, sisters, and daughters. The good news is that heart disease is the most preventable cause of death in women. Heart disease prevention is easy, if you follow a few simple tips:

1. Don’t smoke or if you already do smoke, quit. Smoking is the leading cause of heart attacks and other heart diseases including hypertension or high blood pressure. If you smoke, think about it: Do you really want a cigarette to decide when it’s time for you to go? Start today to take steps to quit smoking.
2. Exercise, exercise, exercise At least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity such as walking or other aerobic activities, on most days helps prevent heart disease. If thirty minutes is too long for you, start with 10-minute increments during the day. Increase your exercise time by 5 or 10 minutes every other week or as often as you fell comfortable. Believe it or not, before you know it, you’ll actually look forward to your exercise time.
   Tip: If you have high blood pressure when you begin regular physical activity, make sure that you monitor you blood pressure regularly. You’re new; healthier, physical condition may mean that you no longer have high blood pressure. Never stop blood pressure medication without see your healthcare provider, first.
3. Eat a healthy diet and maintain a healthy weight. A healthy diet is one that includes plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables, lean meats, whole grains, and dairy. This is an essential part of heart disease prevention, as well as overall good health. Read the USDA’s 2005 Dietary Guidelines http://www.healthierus.gov, and use the tools available at MyPyramid.gov to learn how to follow an individualized eating plan and exercise routine.
4. Use alcohol only in moderation. Women should limit themselves to one alcoholic beverage per day. Of course, not drinking alcohol at all is even better.Following the four steps outlined above will reduce your risk of heart disease substantially. Another benefit of following these heart disease prevention steps is that you’ll also be preventing or reducing your risk of obesity, stroke, high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, and many types of cancer.