Your Sick Day Survival Guide

When your child wakes up with a fever, life gets messy in a hurry. Suddenly you’re rearranging your schedule, backing out of plans, and frantically trying to keep yourself healthy. Here’s how to stay calm—and gainfully employed—while serving as nurse, chef, and playmate to your adorable but highly contagious offspring.

- Elizabeth Jenkins

1 Contain the germs

Since 80 percent of infections are passed through direct and indirect contact (getting sneezed on, sharing utensils, even cuddling), this is the perfect time to get in touch with your inner clean freak.

WITH ALL THE BODILY functions going on in there, the bathroom can be ground zero for germs. If possible, give your sick child her own designated bathroom for the duration of her illness, especially if there’s vomiting or diarrhea involved, suggests Philip M. Tierno Jr., PhD, professor of microbiology and pathology at NYU School of Medicine. “If it’s necessary for the child to share a bathroom, disinfect it after each use,” he advises. Keep a pack of disinfectant wipes in the bathroom to clean down the toilet seat, flusher, and faucet. Melissa Slawsky, a mom in Orlando, Florida, keeps her sick kid from passing germs around the family by replacing hand towels with a roll of disposable paper towels.

GERMS CAN ALSO spread when you pick up those used tissues that inevitably pile up all over the house. One mom’s clever solution: “My kids carry their own tissue box around, as well as a plastic baggie so they can dispose of their used tissues,” says Fairuz Abdullah, a mother of twins in San Francisco.