Fighting Germs While Flying

It seems like every time we fly my son catches some kind of illness and ends up sick as a dog at the end of our vacation, this isn't that big of a surprise since airplanes are teeming with bacteria and viruses. I was desperate for him to stay healthy this trip so I did my research and used what I learned on both our flights and the steps I took actually seemed to work. This was the first time that my son did not end up sick after flying so I thought I would share the steps I took to keep my family and myself healthy while flying.

Precautions Before We Left:

1. We all got our flu shots from our doctors.

2. I made sure that we all took our multivitamins daily.

3. I bought my son Mott's For Tots Immune Support Fruit Punch and had him drink a glass or two a day.

Precautions On The Plane:

1. With the Clorox travel cleaning wipes I brought in my carry on bag I wiped down all our arm rests and tray tables. Since my son was sitting in the window seat and felt the need to put his face against the glass to look outside and found it very amusing to open and close the shade I wiped them off as well.

2. They say that the airplanes ventilation system recirculates the air in the plane so when the person in the seat across the aisle from you coughs their germs fly right onto you....gross! So I just turned off mine and my sons vents. Since my husband was hot and needed the air to cool down I had him point his vent so the air was blowing onto the middle of his chest. 

3. I made sure that we kept our hands clean throughout the whole flight. My husband and I used an alcohol based hand sanitizer and I wiped my sons hands using Wet Ones antibacterial hand wipes.

4. I bought a couple bottles of water after we got through security and made sure to keep my sons cup full. The cabin pressure inside the plane dries out your mucous membranes making them more susceptible to germs so staying hydrated will help the membranes stay moisturized. 

5. I tried my hardest to keep my son from touching his mouth, nose and eyes since the oral and nasal route are the main ways a virus gets into your system.

6. I absolutely did not use the seat back pocket and made sure none of us touched the magazines they keep in there, this is one of the germiest places on a plane.
"We've seen passengers shove used tissues, dirty diapers, banana peels, sunflower-seed shells, and general trash into the seat pockets on a plane. And that black hole of grossness definitely isn't deep-cleaned between flights. We recommend that you don't put anything in that pocket—it's like storing your stuff inside a public trashcan for the duration of your flight." www.smartertravel.com

7. Another one of the germiest places on a plane is the bathroom so after using it I washed my hands really really well and used a paper towel to open the door. Then when I got back to my seat I slapped on a glob of hand sanitizer.

My germ fighting weapons!

"The greatest wealth is health."  
-Virgil