1. Skip to navigation
  2. Skip to content
  3. Skip to sidebar

Topics:

The cold facts

How to keep your kids healthy this winter

By
//
Originally published in Today's Parent December 2009

Guess what? Chest rubs can do more harm than good and your gran’s favourite folk remedies really do work. Read on for more “cool” facts about keeping your family well this winter.

Are cool-mist vaporizers really better than the steam type?
They probably work equally well at easing stuffy noses, though each has pros and cons, says Jonathan Kerr, a family doctor and spokesman for the College of Family Physicians of Canada. Steam vaporizers are risky because they can cause burns to curious toddlers — but the heat also discourages the growth of potentially harmful bacteria and mould. The cool-mist ones are safer, but Kerr notes that they don’t disinfect, so they need to be washed with soap and water at least twice weekly to prevent bacterial buildup.

Do kids really need sunscreen in the winter?
Yes, particularly if they’re skiing or playing outside in the snow. While the sun’s damaging ultraviolet rays are weaker in winter, “they bounce off of the snow, almost doubling the amount hitting your skin,” explains Ian Landells, a paediatric dermatologist in St. John’s and spokesman for the Canadian Dermatology Association. Downhill skiing presents an extra peril, he adds; the higher the altitude, the stronger the UV radiation.

Does going outdoors without a coat really make kids catch cold?
Viruses — not chilly weather — cause colds, stresses Henry Ukpeh, a Canadian Paediatric Society spokesman and Trail, BC, paediatrician. However, a recent study helps explain why colds are so much more common in wintertime: Flu viruses, which cause cold-like symptoms, survive for much longer in dry winter air, meaning kids are more likely to breathe them in or pick them up from surfaces like doorknobs and keyboards. Plus, nippy temperatures make noses run; infected kids who mop at the mucus with their hands can leave tiny drops of virus-laden liquid in their wake for others to pick up. (There is one sliver of evidence suggesting we might be more susceptible to cold viruses when we’re chilled: Ukpeh notes a study in which subjects who soaked their feet in icy water were more likely to come down with colds than people whose feet weren’t dunked.)

Subscribe to Today's Parent for just $14.95* That's only $1.25 an issue!

May We Also Suggest...

What do you think?