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Parenting

Mom's viral post about keeping sick kids home is one that all parents need to hear and heed

Her post has been shared more than 174,000 times.

Samantha Moriá Reynolds/Facebook

Samantha Moriá Reynolds's advice on sick children.

It's cold and flu seasons, folks. During this time of year, we're all on a mission to avoid the demon viruses that threaten to invade our bodies and wage Armageddon on our immune systems.

But no matter how much vitamin C we consume or how diligently we wash our hands, we still have to rely on others to be smart about exposing people to their sick germs.

And that goes doubly for kids, who inexplicably do things like lick their own palms and rub communal crayons under their noses.

That's why a mom's recent Facebook post about keeping kids home when they have a fever has been shared more than 170,000 times.

Samantha Moriá Reynolds shared a photo of a thermometer with a temperature of 101.4 with the following message:

This morning, Sam woke up and noticed her son wasn't feeling well.
Sam took her son's temperature, and wow! A fever.
Sam gave her son Tylenol and then...
Sam did NOT send her son to school.
Even after the fever went down a couple hours later, Sam did NOT send her son to school.
Sam missed work knowing that the well-being of her son and the kids who attend his school is more important than work missed.

Sam's son was invited to THREE birthday parties over the weekend. Sam's son has been so excited to go, but he will unfortunately also have to miss them because Sam's son is SICK. Sam knows passing along a sickness would not be a great birthday gift regardless of how bummed her son may be.

Sam knows her son is still contagious until he is fever-free, WITHOUT medication, for 24 hours. If Sam's son is running a fever at 7am on Sunday, Sam's son will also not be attending school on Monday.

Be. Like. Sam.

Some parents will give their kids fever-reducing medication, the fever will go down, the kid will feel a bit better, and off they go to school.

But fever meds like Tylenol don't do anything to kill the virus that's infecting the kid's body. They just mask the symptoms of the illness and provide some relief to a miserable kiddo.

If a fever goes down with medication, the child is still sick and still contagious.

The same goes for adults who try to tough it out by popping a Dayquil before heading off to work. If you want to infect your coworkers and make them hate you, keep doing that.

Granted, some parents may have a hard time finding childcare or taking time off work, and there's a lot to be said for employers being understanding and granting leave to care for sick children. Our whole society needs to work together on this front to make sure people don't feel like they have no choice but to send a sick kid to school. But that starts with parents insisting that their feverish kids stay home from school until they are no longer a threat to other people's health and well-being.

The truth is that the plain old flu already kills thousands of Americans every single year. This season, more than 8,000 people have already died from flu and flu complications, and we're still in the thick of the season.

The best way to keep illness from spreading is to stay away from other people when you are sick and to keep sick kids home until they are fever-free for 24 hours.

Be like Sam. Keep sick kids home. It takes a village to keep us all healthy.

This article originally appeared on 01.30.20

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parenting

Family

How one mom is coping with not being able to protect her preemie daughter from germs.

True

As the thermometer drops outside and the bare trees begin to collect snow, I take a deep breath.

Despite the beautiful winter landscape, the first thing that comes to my mind is that we are officially in cold and flu season.

A little over three years ago, I gave birth to our daughter, who was more than 17 weeks premature. Our surviving triplet spent nearly four months in the neonatal intensive care unit, and when she finally came home, on oxygen, we avoided germs like it was our job.

Image by Stacey Skrysak, used with permission.

Being a micro-preemie, our daughter is more susceptible to getting sick, so we spent the first few years of her life avoiding illnesses. Giant bottles of hand sanitizer and a sign that our daughter is more susceptible to illnesses greeted guests when they entered our home, we kindly said “no” to friends who were not vaccinated, and our daughter only left the house for doctor appointments. The doctors had warned us that a simple cold or the flu could land my daughter in the hospital or, even worse, could kill her.

After essentially living in a bubble for more than three years, our daughter started preschool this past fall.

Image via iStock.

The days of isolation suddenly turned into a jam-packed adventure filled with recess, music, and crafts. But with the excitement came fear, on my part — the school setting is a cesspool of germs. I could no longer shelter my daughter.

It was a learning curve for this first-time mom. But rather than be a paranoid parent, I decided to be proactive.

I realized that the classroom setting, coupled with coughing kids, would create a cycle of illnesses. Once my daughter came down with a virus, it would most likely pass over to me, then to my husband. Once we all felt 100% healthy, the next virus would soon plague our family and start the whole cycle all over again.

Image via iStock.

After a few weeks of never-ending sickness, I learned my lesson — and took action.

In anticipation of future colds, I printed out our trusty medicine dosage chart from the makers of Children's TYLENOL®, hung it inside our cabinet, and bookmarked the HEALTHY ESSENTIALS Program® page.
The thermometer went front and center in our daughter’s room, and boxes of tissues began appearing throughout the house.
We all received our flu shots, and we make sure to wash our hands often, especially when my daughter first gets home from preschool.

I also found ways to help my child better understand different ailments.

She loves her pretend doctor’s kit, complete with BAND-AID® Bandages and pink sparkly tools. We introduced the kit over a year ago, when she was constantly being poked and prodded by doctors. Many kids have a fear of needles and of the doctor’s office as a whole, so this is one way to help ease the nerves. By spending countless hours checking our blood pressure and heart, my daughter has no fear of going to the real doctor. Plus, she’s more in tune with her body and can tell me when her ears hurt or if she's struggling with her breathing.

Above all, I learned the best way to help my daughter is to watch for signs and trust my instincts.

Each time she comes down with a cold, I know that sleep, a humidifier, and a box of tissues is the best remedy. If she’s wheezing or acting lethargic, or if I have any other questions or concerns, then I know it’s time to call her doctor. Every child is different, but the more you can read into their symptoms, the easier it may be to treat them.

Image by Stacey Skrysak, used with permission.

As I stare outside at the cold and dreary day, I’m ready — bring on flu and cold season! We got this.

We’re loaded with all the health and wellness products we need, and even if an illness knocks us down, you won’t see me complaining. A day home from school to cuddle and hold my daughter sounds good to me. She won’t stay little forever. I need to cherish these precious moments, for some day, those hugs will be few and far between.

Family

A comic explains the screwed-up reason people complimented this girl for being sick.

'Health comes in lots of sizes. Beauty comes in many forms.'

In the world of body compliments, there's an unfortunate pairing that still exists:

"You look great — have you lost weight?"

The seed of dieting was planted in America back in the 1830s by a minister named Sylvester Graham. He suggested eating a simple grain diet would encourage health and temper libidos, while a fatty diet would encourage sinful behavior. It marked the beginning of fad diets in America, which would eventually lead to an unhealthy focus on slenderizing.

While we know now that skinny absolutely does not equal healthy and attractive, the over 180 years of brainwashing has done enough damage to the point where we rarely even question what's underneath the skinny.

Case and point, illustrator Miriam Caldwell's poignant comic on how an illness that made her lose weight opened her eyes to the body issues we project on each other — and how to see past them.

Comic by Miriam Caldwell. Used with permission.

"Nobody can tell how healthy a person is from looking at them except a doctor and the person themselves," Miriam wrote in an email, explaining that she wants her comic to "move the focus back to how we feel rather than how we look."

Compliments are great and all, but at the end of the day, it's how you see yourself that matters most.

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Stop complimenting women for being tiny - Upworthy ›

Heroes

Scientists make hilarious movie posters to punch disease in the face.

Right now, the world of infectious disease is looking incredibly optimistic.

A lab tech preps a test. Photo by Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images.

I know that might sound kind of weird. We don't often hear the words "infectious disease" and immediately feel all excited and hopeful. But we're actually making tremendous, tangible, changing-someone's-life progress every day.

"The more time you spend with folks working in the field, the more optimistic you become," said Trevor DeWitt, who works at the Center for Infectious Disease Research (CIDR), a research institute headquartered in Seattle.

In fact, the fight is looking so strong that the scientists at the CIDR decided to illustrate their battles in the style of epic movies.

Inspired by the fight against disease — as well as comics and classic movies — the center teamed up with a creative partner to created four colorful posters that capture the field's passion and optimism.

The posters help show how, though we laypeople might think of studying infectious disease as a never-ending, depressing slog through test tubes, microscopes, and hospital sick bays, this fight is actually every bit as exciting as any epic movie battle scene.

Check them out:

1. You can't run forever, HIV!

Image from the Center for Infectious Disease Research, used with permission.

Oh, by the way, this optimism isn't just horsefeathers.

Because while HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) once seemed insurmountable, today better education, better prevention, and new, better antiviral medications are putting this disease on the run. We may even see a HIV vaccine in the near future!

2. Time's up, malaria!

Image from the Center for Infectious Disease Research, used with permission.

Over 3 billion people are at risk of contracting malaria, which is a parasitic infection carried by mosquitoes. That might seem too big to fight, but actually, in the last 15 years, our hard work has been able to drop incidence rates by 37% and death rates by 60%!

3. Good riddance, tuberculosis!

Image from the Center for Infectious Disease Research, used with permission.

Tuberculosis is a bacterial disease that often attacks the lungs. It killed about 1.5 million people in 2014. That's a lot, but the World Health Organization has set a goal to eliminate 90% of infections by 2035, and with international support and a suite of powerful antibiotics, we might be able to pull it off!

4. You're finished, sleeping sickness!

Image from the Center for Infectious Disease Research, used with permission.

Sleeping sickness is a parasitic infection carried by tsetse flies, which are found in sub-Saharan Africa. Thanks to sustained control efforts, cases have been steadily dropping — between 2000 and 2013, the new-case infection rate dropped 73%!

This fight is proof that when we all join forces, there's very little we can't do.

"The pace of discovery is quickening every single day," DeWitt said, noting the ability to share knowledge, inspiration, and technology has completely changed the infectious disease game. "From our view, there's never been a better time for scientific discovery than right now."

The center hopes that by publishing these posters, they can highlight a few of the less flashy, cable-newsy diseases. But more than that, they hope these posters help people become inspired to join the fight, whether through science, the creative arts, or simply pushing the government for more scientific funding.

DeWitt also said they're hoping to publish another poster series soon. And I, for one, can't wait to see them.

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Werner Herzog motivational posters are hilarious - Upworthy ›

The bride wore white. Her attendants wore scrubs.

It wasn't the first wedding to take place at the hospital, but this was a celebration of love close to 50 years in the making, and nothing, not even cancer could stop it.

Photo by John Maniaci/UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

It was a wedding some 47 years in the making.

Bob Ceplina met Denise Rheaume in northern Wisconsin way back in 1969. He first saw her while out for a beer one night with his buddy.

"A little thing with hair down below her belt," he told Upworthy. "A hippie chick."

A shy guy, Bob got up the courage to go over. He saw a man who looked to be bothering her, so he told him she was his girlfriend.

"As I saw her, I knew it was it," he said.

Bob and Denise dated off and on but lost touch for close to 40 years — until this past July, when Denise left a note on Bob's door, inviting him to call her.

She was newly single. And he had never stopped thinking about her.

It didn't take long for them to fall in love all over again.

Denise's daughter Megan helps her mom get ready. Photo by John Maniaci/UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

But when Denise went in for a routine surgery last October, her doctor discovered she had leukemia.

Denise underwent chemotherapy and received a stem cell transplant. Bob got down on one knee to propose in February, and the couple planned to wed this summer.

But the new stem cells were killing the cancer and her immune system, and her condition quickly worsened.

"On Mother's Day weekend, we thought she was going to die," Bob said. But he spent that Saturday holding her hand, talking to her and feeding her ice chips. Before long, he saw the light return to Denise's eyes.

"They gave her a new drug too, so we'll debate as to which was most effective," Bob said with a laugh.

Photo by John Maniaci/UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

With the future still uncertain, Bob and Denise asked if they could get married at the hospital.

Bob thought it would be a small affair in Denise's room. But the staff and team at University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center had much bigger plans.

One of Denise's nurses informed nurse manager Vicki Hubbard about the impending nuptials, and soon the staff was in full wedding planning mode. In just over a week, they pulled together a wedding to remember.

With help from her daughter and the nursing staff, Denise got dolled up for her big day.

The staff decked out her room, now a bridal suite, with decorations, flowers and balloons.

Photo by John Maniaci/UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

A frequent volunteer in the wing, who just happens to be a cosmetologist, did Denise's makeup.

Photo by John Maniaci/UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

But she hardly needed any makeup; she was glowing all day long.

Photo by John Maniaci/ UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

Her dress was perfect for the unseasonably warm Wisconsin day.

Photo by John Maniaci/UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

And nurses styled a wig from the Carbone Cancer Center's wig salon.

Photo by John Maniaci/UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

Before long, it was time to head down to the ceremony!

Photo by John Maniaci/UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

As the bride and her attendants rolled through the wings, patients, nurses, and staff popped out of rooms to see the happy processional.

Photo by John Maniaci/UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

Meanwhile, friends and family gathered at the Haberman Terrace, one of the hospital's outdoor spaces.

Hospital staffed tracked down flowers, supplies, serving tools, and even wedding decorations and tablecloths of their own to lend to the effort. (They had to be secured to the tables just incase a Med Flight helicopter arrived during the ceremony.)

The hospital's art coordinator is a harpist, and the twinkle of beautiful music floated through the courtyard.

"Patients and staff were watching the wedding from the fourth level and up," Denise's daughter, Megan Rheaume-Brand, told Upworthy.

Photo by John Maniaci/UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

When the bride entered, Bob was overcome with joy.

Seeing his bride for the first time was his favorite part of the day. "She deserves this. She really does," he said.

Photo by John Maniaci/UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

The ceremony was a celebration of love incorporating a wide array of faith traditions. Led by Rev. Andy Jones of St. Andrew's Episcopalian Church, Denise's sister-in-law read from the Bible, and a nurse delivered a piece by the dalai lama. A friend of the couple even performed "a song of love and healing on an Ojibwe hand drum," Megan said.

Photo by John Maniaci/UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

Between, family, friends, and hospital staff, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Photo by John Maniaci/UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

Soon, Bob and Denise were pronounced husband and wife.

Before the celebration began, Denise took a moment to thank the crowd of friends, family, and hospital staff.

“I want everyone to know that while cancer kills, love heals," she said.

Photo by John Maniaci/UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

Soon, the party was in full swing. The happy couple celebrated with carrot cake...

Photo by John Maniaci/UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

...lots of laughter...

Photo by John Maniaci/UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

...and a champagne toast or two.

Photo by John Maniaci/UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

Banners reading "Best Day Ever" flapped in the breeze, and it was. The happy couple was overwhelmed with gratitude for the effort the staff put in to make their day one to remember.

"They did a phenomenal thing. We weren't expecting that," Bob said. "That made it so special. We're still smiling."

A few weeks later, Denise is getting stronger everyday.

Buoyed by love, top-notch medicine, and lots of support, she's come a long way since her close call on Mother's Day weekend.

"She's doing so well. It truly is a miracle how fast she's improving," her daughter Megan said.

Now a newlywed, Bob drives hundreds of miles back and forth to the hospital in Madison from the couple's home in Rhinelander, but he has no complaints.

"She's worth it, totally," he said. "Your first love is always the best, ya know?"

Photo by John Maniaci/UW Health/Carbone Cancer Center/Flickr.

UPDATE: Sadly, Denise Rheaume passed away on June 24, 2016. Our condolences to Bob, Megan, and Denise's wide circle of family and friends.

sickness

Mom's viral post about keeping sick kids home is one that all parents need to hear and heed

Her post has been shared more than 174,000 times.

That's why a mom's recent Facebook post about keeping kids home when they have a fever has been shared more than 170,000 times.

But fever meds like Tylenol don't do anything to kill the virus that's infecting the kid's body. They just mask the symptoms of the illness and provide some relief to a miserable kiddo.

Be like Sam. Keep sick kids home. It takes a village to keep us all healthy.

How one mom is coping with not being able to protect her preemie daughter from germs.

As the thermometer drops outside and the bare trees begin to collect snow, I take a deep breath.

It was a learning curve for this first-time mom. But rather than be a paranoid parent, I decided to be proactive.

I also found ways to help my child better understand different ailments.

Above all, I learned the best way to help my daughter is to watch for signs and trust my instincts.

As I stare outside at the cold and dreary day, I’m ready — bring on flu and cold season! We got this.

A comic explains the screwed-up reason people complimented this girl for being sick.

'Health comes in lots of sizes. Beauty comes in many forms.'

In the world of body compliments, there's an unfortunate pairing that still exists:

Scientists make hilarious movie posters to punch disease in the face.

Right now, the world of infectious disease is looking incredibly optimistic.

In fact, the fight is looking so strong that the scientists at the CIDR decided to illustrate their battles in the style of epic movies.

1. You can't run forever, HIV!

2. Time's up, malaria!

3. Good riddance, tuberculosis!

4. You're finished, sleeping sickness!

This fight is proof that when we all join forces, there's very little we can't do.

Their unconventional wedding was the perfect new chapter to this 47-year love story.

The bride wore white. Her attendants wore scrubs.

It was a wedding some 47 years in the making.

But when Denise went in for a routine surgery last October, her doctor discovered she had leukemia.

With the future still uncertain, Bob and Denise asked if they could get married at the hospital.

With help from her daughter and the nursing staff, Denise got dolled up for her big day.

Meanwhile, friends and family gathered at the Haberman Terrace, one of the hospital's outdoor spaces.

When the bride entered, Bob was overcome with joy.

Soon, Bob and Denise were pronounced husband and wife.

A few weeks later, Denise is getting stronger everyday.

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