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Cold & Flu Season: What I Keep on Hand
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items Cold and flu season is not the time to discover the thermometer is dead, the tissue box has three tissues left and nobody bought cough drops. 😂 This is the kind of stuff I like having in the house BEFORE somebody wakes up feeling miserable: the basi...
Sections
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Check First
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For the Actual Cold & Flu Part
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When Your Nose & Throat Have Had Enough
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Hydrate, Eat Something & Get Comfortable
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Try Not to Share It With Everybody
Check First
The boring little things nobody thinks about until someone feels terrible. I like having these in the house before I am standing in the medicine aisle trying to think with a headache.
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A thermometer is one of those things you assume you own until you need it and cannot find it. Check the battery now, not at 2 a.m. 😂
Equate Digital Thermometer – Oral, Rectal, or Underarm, 30-Second Reading
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This checks for COVID-19 plus flu A and B at home. Useful information to have when several different bugs are making the rounds.
Flowflex® Plus COVID-19 and Flu A/B Home Test Kit - (1 Pack) 3-in-1 Antigen Rapid Test, FDA Authorized
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A two-test combo kit is handy to keep tucked away so you are not shopping for a test after symptoms have already started.
BinaxNOW™ COVID-19 & Flu A/B Combo Rapid Self Test, 2 Count – Results in 15 Minutes
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Measures blood oxygen and pulse rate at home. This is a monitoring tool, not a diagnosis, but it is useful information to have when you are sick.
Equate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter, Heart Rate Monitor and SpO2 Levels
For the Actual Cold & Flu Part
A few common OTC options for the medicine cabinet. Check active ingredients carefully, follow the label, and do not accidentally double up ingredients across combination products.
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Daytime and nighttime formulas together means one less thing to figure out when you already feel lousy. Read the labels carefully because combination cold medicines can share ingredients with other products.
Vicks DayQuil & NyQuil SEVERE Cold & Flu LiquiCap Medicine, 24 count
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For chest congestion, this is the kind of medicine people are very happy to discover is already in the cabinet. Use it exactly as directed.
Mucinex 12 Hour Max Strength Expectorant, OTC Medicine for Excess Mucus Relief, FSA/HSA, 14 Tablets
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A basic fever and aches option to have around. The big thing here is checking other cold medicines for acetaminophen before taking them together.
Tylenol Extra Strength Acetaminophen, Easy to Swallow Caplets, 100 Count
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Another basic medicine-cabinet option for fever and aches for people who can take ibuprofen. Follow the package directions and your own medical guidance.
Advil Pain Relief and Fever Reducer Coated Tablets, 200 Mg Ibuprofen, 100 Count
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The economy bag is exactly what I want during cold season because somehow cough drops migrate to every purse, nightstand and coat pocket in the house.
HALLS Relief Honey Lemon Cough Drops, Economy Pack, 80 Drops
When Your Nose & Throat Have Had Enough
This is the comfort section: softer tissues, saline, steam and the things that make congestion and a scratchy throat a little less miserable.
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Regular tissues are fine until you have used approximately 400 of them. 😂 Lotion tissues are a much kinder choice for a nose that is already mad at you.
Puffs Facial Tissue Plus Lotion, 4 Mega Cube Boxes, 72 Tissues Per Box
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Classic sick-day cabinet stuff. The smell alone somehow announces that somebody in the house has officially caught something.
Vicks Vaporub Cough Suppressant Chest Rub Ointment, Original, 6 oz
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A hot shower already feels good when you are stuffed up; the menthol-and-eucalyptus vapors make the whole thing feel much more like an event.
Vicks VapoShower Tablets, Menthol Scent Soothing Non-Medicated Shower Steamers, 3 Count
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This one is non-medicated saline with Vicks vapors. Nice to have a drug-free option in the pile when your nose feels completely over the situation.
Vicks VapoMist Saline, Gentle Saline Mist With Soothing Vicks Vapors, Non- Medicated, 1.7 oz
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Dry bedroom air and a cold are a terrible combination. A warm-mist humidifier is the kind of thing I would rather own before somebody is congested and trying to sleep.
Equate 1.3-Gallon Warm Mist Humidifier
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Made for compatible Vicks humidifiers and vaporizers, with up to eight hours of aromatic vapors. Very much a nighttime sick-room comfort item.
Vicks VapoPads Calming Menthol and Lavender Scent, Cold and Flu Relief, 12 Count, VSP30FP
Hydrate, Eat Something & Get Comfortable
Nobody wants to cook a beautiful dinner with the flu. These are the easy sick-day things I would stock so water, electrolytes, something warm and a little comfort are already handled.
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Electrolytes are easy to forget until you realize you have been living on three sips of water and half a cracker. Keep a bottle around and future-you has one less errand.
Pedialyte Essential Rehydration Electrolyte Drink, Strawberry, 1 Liter
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Is chicken noodle soup legally required during cold and flu season? Maybe not. But I am not interested in testing that theory. 😂
Campbell’s Condensed Chicken Noodle Soup, 10.75 oz Can
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For tea, toast or a spoonful when your throat is unhappy. It is inexpensive, keeps well and belongs in the cold-season cabinet.
Great Value Honey, 12 oz Plastic Bear
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Warm tea, blankets and going to bed ridiculously early is sometimes the entire plan. This one is caffeine-free, which makes sense for the nighttime pile.
Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Caffeine-Free Herbal Tea Bags (40 Count)
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Not cold medicine, just comfort. When everything aches and you are camped on the couch, an XL heating pad earns its place in the sick-day setup.
Equate XL Electric Heating Pad, 6 Heat Settings with Auto Shut off, 12 x 24 in
Try Not to Share It With Everybody
A couple of boring household basics for the part where one person gets sick and the rest of the house would very much like not to join them.
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For the high-touch stuff: handles, counters and the other surfaces everybody touches without thinking. Follow the label for proper disinfecting contact time.
Clorox Disinfecting Wipes, Fresh Scent, 35 Count
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Put the pump somewhere people will actually use it. Not glamorous, but neither is having the entire household sick at the same time.
PURELL® Advanced Hand Sanitizer - 12 fl oz Table Top Pump Bottle