Mommy Bits

Last week I wrote about how my entire family was under attack by different variations of the flu and other viruses going around.  Whatever it was that we had, it hit hard taking down my Mom, Dad, brother & cousin as well as my 7yr old.

Luckily for them, and for me, last week I had the good fortune being invited by Walgreens to participate in a webinar, “Fall & Winter Wellness with Dr. Gwenn O’Keeffe.”  If you are not familiar, Dr. O’Keeffe, is a pediatrician, parenting expert, and the CEO of Pediatrics Now, an online health & wellness resource for parents.

Throughout the call Dr. O’Keeffe, shared tips for family fall & winter wellness, and she also answered our questions about the flu and in particular, seasonal flu shots and H1N1 flu shots. Some of the things I learned:

• Cold & Flu season runs October to April
• H1N1 seems to target kids and young adults under 24
• H1N1 is not seasonal. It can be contracted anytime of the year
• If you haven’t gotten your seasonal flu shot yet, you can get both the H1N1 and seasonal vaccinations at the same time
• More than one million people have come down with the H1N1 virus

I was only able to participate in 1/2 of the session, but check out the blog Carolina Mama for a great recap and list of tips and insights from the call.

Thank you to Walgreens for inviting me to participate. The information provided by Dr. O’Keeffe will prove invaluable as we continue navigating cold & flu season (though March!!).

Disclosure: As a thank you for participating, Walgreens sent me a wellness basket with some essentials for fighting off the flu.  Items included a Walgreens gift card, Kleenex, Campbell’s soup, hand sanitizer and more.  I am sure these items will come in handy over the course of the next few months!

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Related posts:

1. Battling Germs One Room at a Time
2. Tis The Season….
3. The first big snow of the season
4. No More Cold Medicine for Toddlers and Babies