GIVEAWAY ~ What Are You Doing to Stay Healthy During Flu Season? (CLOSED)

This is a hot topic right now.

The flu and H1N1 (swine) flu.  It dominates the news every night.  I watched recently as a little 5 year old girl died from the H1N1 flu right here in San Diego.  As the proud owner of a 5 year old, I couldn’t help but be effected by the story.  A perfectly healthy kindergartner, dead.

It’s serious stuff.

Just about 2 days after that story was all over the news, NayNay woke up with a fever.  Both twins were coughing and had a runny nose, but Nay had the fever.  Was I worried?  Holy heck ya!  How can you not be worried?  I called the pediatrician to ask if he needed to be seen.  I’m sure the nurse deals with crazy over-reactive moms all day long but she was very nice and just told me to keep an eye on him.  If his fever got too high or couldn’t be treated with Tylenol then call.  Also if his breathing became difficult.  Otherwise, just sit tight.

Sitting tight is hard.

Luckily for us, it was a quick cold that passed as fast as it arrived.  The next day he was fever free and acting his normal crazy self.

But it brings up the question:  What am I actually doing to keep my boys healthy.

I chose not to give them the H1N1 vaccine.  The lack of testing on it scares me worse than the flu.  So instead we are being obsessive about washing hands and hand sanitizer rules the roost.  Is it enough?

My Optum Health has published a great resource on the Flu, including H1N1.  There are tips for preventing the spread of the virus as well as ways you can treat it.  Of course, washing hands is at the top of the list in prevention, but there are lots of other tips, too.  Information about facemasks and home disinfection is also talked about.

Check it out to see what you can be doing to keep your family safe.

My Optum Heath has also teamed up with The Sneaky Chef, Missy Chase Lapine, to help make your kids as healthy as possible.  Missy’s cookbook,  The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals teaches you delicious and fun ways to sneak healthy stuff into your kids’ meals.

With over 75 simple recipes, The Sneaky Chef is chock full of proven strategies for ingeniously disguising “superfoods” in kids’ favorite meals. Like blueberries hidden in burgers, broccoli in meatballs, cauliflower in mac ‘n cheese, and wheat germ in cookies (they can’t see or taste anything different!).

This cookbook is essential for mom’s to have on hand.  I know that the twins are both very picky eaters.  If it’s not shaped like a dinosaur or a macaroni, they won’t eat it.  Missy has a recipe for adding cauliflower in mac and cheese that is DELICIOUS.  My kids have no idea that there is anything healthy in their food.  She also has a brownie recipe that includes blueberries.  I can’t wait to try that one out.

They are working together to try and get the essential vitamins into your kids in order to give them the best chance at preventing and fighting off these colds and flu’s.  I know that eating processed chicken dinosaurs and plain mac n’ cheese is certainly not doing my boys any favors.  Agreed?

Thanks to My Optum Health and The Sneaky Chef, I get to give away a copy of this very cool and essential to have on hand cookbook.

First Mandatory Entry

I really just want to know what everyone is doing in their house to prevent the flu and keep your family healthy.  Leave me a comment letting me know.  I think we could all use as much help as possible with this.  Did you vaccinate, why or why not?  Have you experienced the H1N1 virus?  What can you tell us about it?  I just want a conversation to go on so we can all do the best by our children.  Together.

Extra Entries for This Contest Only

1 – Tweet the giveaway: (one comment per tweet, unlimited.  But PLEASE don’t spam your followers.  So annoying!)

GIVEAWAY @mommy23monkeys @myOptumHealth @sneakychef Stay Healthy During this fall Flu Season http://tinyurl.com/yl8aurn #fallflugiveaway

2 – Become a Twitter Follower of @sneakychef (get one extra entry)

3 – Become a Twitter Follower of @myOptumHealth (get one extra entry)

This giveaway will end November 15th at 10pm Pacific Time.  Winner will be chosen using Random.org out of all eligible entries.  Winner will be notified by email and have 72 hours to reply before a new winner is chosen.  Good luck!

**Contest extended until the 15th