Am I paranoid...

Hello everyone, I need opinions. As I am sure you all know, there are all sorts of bugs and viruses floating around this season. My boys started the year with pneumonia and croup and recovered well from tHose. We recently were hit with a stomach virus that was highly contagious and hit the boys, and my daughter. It tried to get me but I sucked it up and pushed through. Anyway, the experience has left me a little crazy when it comes to sickness. During that time, one son woke up vomiting and having diarrhea and two days later, the other as well as my daughter :bad: Although we have recovered, I still have a slight issue with checking on them when I hear them at night, as I fear going through all this again, it was bad and I had a great deal of sleepless nights caring for them along with my other kids, which include a 3 month old, and the hubs. I have been vigilant in fighting any reccurence, the carpets and upholstry have been cleaned, the washer/dryer cleaned and sanitized, Lysol out the wazoo, I threw away toothbrushes and everything. Anyway, my niece and nephew recently contracted a similar virus, about a week ago. They are older and are both fine now. My sister is having girl's noight in with the kids at her house tonight and I am scared to death. She does NOT clean like I do at all and is probably content with them just feeling better. I doubt that she has disinfected or anything. I don't want them to catch anything that may lingering, but I'd like to go. I am having a hard time asking her to at least spray Lysol. When I told her of my anxiety, she suggested I take something. I wanted to scream "NO...YOU NEED LYSOL!!!" :gah: So my question, Should I trust that the cooties are gone, or stay home? Am I being paranoid?

 

Personally, I would stay home. We had 3 days of the flu here and it was just the 2 kids. I couldn't handle having something like that come into my house again so soon, and that was at Christmas. If it was meeting the kids out (like taking everyone to the movies) I'd be okay with that, but if you know she doesn't sanitize then I'd hold off. Maybe I'm paranoid too, but I just couldn't do it. Your littlest can suddenly "get a fever" and you need to stay home. :spiteful:

 

I remember hearing that bugs only live on surfaces up to 8 hours? Maybe 3 days to be safe? But if her kids haven't been sick a week it might be okay now. However, your little ones are younger and may be too weak to endure any exposure for another week or so. I tend to be super paranoid too! Paranoid of yet another week of sleepless nights!

 

Unfortunately there is no way to tell someone they need to clean their house better that won't be taken as an insult. I do feel for you though. We are in the middle of if right now. I just got back from the hospital with my 5 year old (dehydration). My 7 year old is passed out on the living room chair, one of my 2 year old twins has diarrhea and threw up this morning and my other twin has croup. I feel like I'm living in a giant petri dish right now...I don't think I"m going to let anyone in here for a whole month. It's probably better to be safe than sorry...it's one thing when it's just you getting sick but when it's your whole family, etc. etc. I would ere on the side of caution and skip your night out.

shannon

 

Personally, I would suggest a different venue, LOL. No, seriously I would be concerned about being around the bug again. I'd really suggest waiting it out one more week just to make sure everyone is completely better. Maybe that would be taken better than begging her to disinfect? Sorry you all have been so sick. I completely understand!!!

 

I don't think you are being paranoid. I am NOT a germaphobe at all, but last winter was horrible for us. Non-stop illness from two days after Christmas until mid-March (croup, stomach flus, colds, etc etc.). Terrible. We were pretty much holed up in the house until Spring, even the children's librarians noticed our absense from the library. I did this to protect others from our germs, but also because I didn't want to pick up one more thing from other germy kids.

The upside (knocking madly on wood), is this winter has been MUCH better.

 

You know even if we don't go I still feel like I should try and advise her to sanitize. Doin't get me wrong, her gouse is clean enough. It's just in times like these, we forget secret places for germs like remotes, telephones, doorknobs and such. Even video game controllers. I just don't think she has thought of those places and although I have decided to hang at my mom's instead, I'm stll gonna have to warn her.

 

I don't feel that you are paranoid for not going, since I would stay away at least a week from any home or people who had the stomach flu, but I do feel you are a bit paranoid about sanitizing or lysoling. In my opinion, many people are too concerned about sanitizing things, and it is only making bugs more resistant. I have a lot of experience with this, and it is part of the reason I spent 7 weeks in the hospital shortly after delivering my children. Two and a half years later I am still dealing with sensitivities and allergies to a lot of chemicals that are in products such as lysol. There are also many interesting studies done on alcohol hand sanitizers that support the fact that they shouldn't be used often since simple hand soap is more effective. So I take that to say cleaning with natural soaps is probably just as effective as sanitizing with something like lysol. The chemicals that are in lysol are appalling and I don't believe that society fully understands the long term damage they can cause us or our children. There are other natural alternatives that can do a good job, without using chemicals. Additionally, you may believe you are doing a good job disinfecting your house, but most bugs have a life cycle that despite our best efforts, can't be changed. If I had someone tell me that I had to disinfect my house or use lysol, I would laugh and ask them "What medical research supports the use of lysol?" This is simply my opinion and I understand many people feel otherwise, but I thought at least I'd post since you asked. Hope you enjoy your evening, whatever you decide to do.

 

Is she the type of person who'll take your advice kindly? Even if you mean well, you'll probably end up offending her, and won't change her behaviour. If it was me, I'd skip the party and not say anything. If her house was filthy or she was asking for advice, I might say something... but not if she isn't.

 

I kinda agree with Lydia. Although i do use lysol wipes or spray when my kids have a stomach virus, I don't deep clean my house at all. And I avoid antibacterial soaps/sprays/gels like the plague! Even my dermatologist thinks those types of things are over used and over rated.

That being said, as long as you are happy with your decision not to go, that's what matters. I probably would have gone But, we've also had a wicked bout of sickness ever since this fall, when my 4 yr old started preschool. She's brought home every single bug and shared it with the twins. We had at least 6 rounds of stomach virus's the last year, my older ds has had strep 4 times, I've had strep, the flu went thru the house a couple weeks ago, and along with all the other various random fevers, runny noses, and coughing. This has been a year from hell for us! I normally have very healthy children, but because the twins are so young and all these illness's are "new" to them, they are catching every single thing that goes around. So right now, I'm avoiding taking them places that I know don't clean properly, at least until we can catch our breath from everyone being sick!

 

I also agree with Lydia
I work in a nursinghome and we had a VERY bad virus going around.
The doc said, the best thing to do was wash your hands with lots of normal soap and rinse for 10 sec.
some virusses don't "die" with alcohol. I did both..just incase hahahahah

But I was very aware of caring this virus around so I stayed away from lots of friends with little kids our who work in healtcare places

so better save then sorry is a good thing here

 

We just got back from 2 nights in the hospital with Ellie. She started out with a cold and quickly turned into asthma. It was pretty scary. There were so many kids in there with all kinds of respiratory issues. We got home yesterday and I started with a stomach bug. Must have caught it in the hospital. No fun. I'm staying away from germs for a while. Can't wait for spring to open the windows. I don't think you are paranoid either.

 

Thank you all for the feedback. I didn't go to my sisters house, went and saw my mom instead. Feel good about the decision. As for the disinfecting, please believe I'm not a Lysol freak per se. I usually am good with just handwashing and such. The cleaning of the carpets/upholstry had more to do with sick accidents. I felt deep cleaning was in order as far as that went. My paranoia really had more to do with all the lack of sleep from being up with the boys. That and the fact that when it started I didn't even know what was happening, I just woke to find one of the boys laying in sick... :bad: and it went downhill from there, to the point of nightmares. Anyhoo, I think I will be heading to see my sis next weekend. Wish me luck!

 

:grouphug: been there done that and TOTALLY understand. Hope you guys continue to be well. :grouphug: