Swine Flu News Updates for the Sandwich Generation

Thank you for sharing...

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post, which is at no additional cost to you. :)

Are you in the throes of dealing with Swine Flu? Are you wondering if it is still around? Do you think you or one of your aging parents or grandkids has it? First and foremost for the first and last questions is to make sure you call your doctor and get their recommendations.WebMD has a fascinating article on where the latest Swine Flu outbreaks are After you talk to them, if you want more info (or while you are sitting on hold 🙂 ), and the fact that college campuses are showing up as a signal for the hot spots.

A friend who has been dealing with it commented that he just wanted to know what Swine Flu complications to be concerned about. Turns out WebMD has an article with excellent tips to cover that as well, along with who is most at risk.

For the latest news on what medications are or are not being recommended, you can head over to the Wall Street Journal to read Swine Flu Update: Most People Don’t Need Antiviral Meds. There you’ll find an easy to read and understand summary of the CDC’s newest guidelines about the use of antiviral medication like Tamiflu.  The article also lists warning signs to watch for in children, so if you have a grandchild with the Swine Flu and you want more information after already talking to your doctor, this would be a good resource!

If you don’t have the Swine Flu and the grandkids are coming to visit, Flu.gov has created four short videos with tips for kids on how to prevent Swine Flu and other germs – starring everyone’s favorite Muppet – Elmo!  I bet your grandkids would have fun watching these a few times, and as they do so, some important lessons will wrap themselves around their adorable little brains. 🙂  Here’s one:

Be sure to check out the other three at the Flu.gov site.

While there, I discovered they also had a fun contest for the best videos to help educate young and old alike and we get to pick the winner. Educational videos were submitted, the best were weeded out, and now we get to pick our choices for best (or worst). My favorite video was Flu Sounds with Chainsaw as a close runner up. I was looking for ones that will hold a person’s attention while teaching them. These two kept my interest and made me laugh. I’ll stop my TIVO for commercials that make me laugh! That’s why I LOVE The Mac vs. IBM commercials!

Flu Sounds did all that AND got their point across very well. Chainsaw also accomplished all that, but most of the educational meat was at the beginning so I gave Flu Sounds the #1 spot in my voting. My least favorites, being a grandma, included Bagman – Kids might not understand it’s not serious and put plastic bags over their own heads, putting themselves at much worse risk from suffocation than from the flu! I also did not care for Hazmat – as I would rate it (on my conservative grandma scale) PG-13 for a bathroom scene and drinking scene.

You can vote for the Swine Flu prevention videos every day between now and September 16^th.  I just voted for ones listed above. Per their directions, “the order of the videos is randomly generated each time you visit the page. Voting is a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down for each video (at the bottom left of the currently playing video), and you are allowed one vote (up or down) per video per calendar day.” This would be a fun activity to do with our grandkids one or more times during the next few days. They’ll have fun voting AND be learning important health facts while they are at it. As I said above, I would personally avoid Bagman and Hazmat.

Let us know what you voted on and why. We’d love to hear your completely G-rated opinions as well. 🙂 🙂 🙂

And now, I’ll leave you with my favorite video from the contest:

PS Isn’t this a cute way to teach our grandkids about healthy habits to avoid everything from the swine flu to plain ordinary colds.