Keep your sickness to yourself! (my rant for the day!)

There's an epidemic of sorts in my neighbourhood. It started a few weeks before Christmas, and it has just reared it's ugly head yet again. What is it? The stomach flu!

I'm calling it an epidemic because I really don't know what else to say, there are some families here that have been 'hit' with this 'bug' 3 or 4 times! (Yes you read that right, 3 or 4 times!!!) I just can't believe it, I really can't. I heard a few stories of people (kids and adults) being so sick that they are literally in the washroom every 2 hours throwing up (despite not eating -this to me is pretty serious, especially when it is for 3 or 4 days in a row!) And don't get me started on why these people are still going to work and sending their kids to school!
There are so many reasons that this epidemic bothers me.

Oh where do I start???
-The fact that people try to 'suck it up' and go to work or send their kids to school. ????? How do you expect your body to heal itself when you don't give it the rest it needs?
-Swallowing assorted pills and liquids to help relieve the symptoms does nothing NOTHING good for you or your body in actually fighting the infection. Your body needs rest, Vitamin C, soup, tea, and plenty of water, and of course, MORE REST! (maybe throw in there some oil of oregano, or echinacea and maybe zinc... depending on what ails you...)
-If you are green in colour, your child has a fever, if you have been throwing up or just don't feel completely healthy you need to listen to your body and give it rest and time to heal. Trust me, and trust your body, it knows how to do it, and given the right environment it WILL do it.
-So many days my kids came home to tell me who threw up in class today, and who left early because they weren't feeling well. Then the next day they would be back at school, obviously not completely healthy, but still back. Tell me this, is your job more important then YOU, is your child's grade 2 xmas party more important then a HEALTHY child? Is the health of all the other children in the class not important to you?

  *here's a true story, a mother at the school here was complaining one morning about how lethargic her kid was, she said she thought he was coming down with something, so she gave him a pain reliever, some cough syrup and (and I'm quoting her here) "a bunch of spoonfuls of sugar to try to wake him up'  SERIOUSLY????? I felt like grabbing that poor 4 year old and taking care of him...*

So, you all may be wondering how we fared over the holidays. Well, to tell you the truth I'm pretty sure the 'bug' did 'hit' us. My youngest was first, he had a stomach ache all day, and was resting and drinking a lot of tea and water. He threw up once in the morning, and because I made him rest some more, felt better by the afternoon. My oldest son had a stomach ache the next week at night, he threw up twice in about 2 hours and slept without incident that night, only to wake up feeling great. Both my husband and I had a stomach ache for about 36 hours, but that was the extent of that.

If anyone is interested in what we do when things are going around here is it...
We all triple our Vitamin C intake (for my kids they get 500g 3X day, my hubby and I take 1000g 3X day)
We add either oil of oregano 3-5 X  day (if we feel we may be catching 'it') or echinacea 3-5 X day(early prevention)
We also make 100000% sure that we do not miss our regular supplements (which are multi vits, probiotics, vit D and fish oils)

being sick is something that happens to everyone, whether you get really sick for a week, or just don't feel yourself for a few days. My rant here isn't about being sick, it's about not taking care of yourself or your kids when you are sick! Stay home, stop eating sugar, sleep (don't just sit and watch tv, actually sleep!), don't medicate yourself to get rid of the symptoms instead give your body the things it needs to fight the actual invaders! Keep your sickness to yourself too, please stop sending your kids to school when they are clearly ill, you are doing a disservice to everyone else!

Grrrr, I think that's it......
for now?

Irony? just saw this article in the globe and mail.... it may not be just me, what do you think?