Educators Guide To Staying Healthy During Winter

With Winter just around the corner, it's important to take precautions to stay healthy during the cold season. It's easy for some of us to fall sick with viral infections especially when it's so easy to catch amongst the children at work. Here are some strategies on how to overcome the winter season, while working.

Preventing Common Cold, Flu and Infections

During winter colds and flus and the most common to catch. To protect yourself:

get immunised
when coughing or sneezing cover your mouth and nose with a tissue
throw tissues in the bin after using them
wash your hands often throughout the day
use hand sanitisers
avoid touching your eyes, nose, mouth since this helps germs spread easily
disinfect tables and toys daily to stop the spread of germs

Cold and Flu Symptoms

Colds are fairly common, and can be caused by any one of many cold viruses. Flu is caused by just 2 or 3 different strains of one virus each year and usually causes a more severe illness. The symptoms of flu come on suddenly with a high fever and affect your whole body – not just your head and chest like a cold.

Cold Symptoms include:

low or no fever
mild headache
sneezing
mild cough
slight aches and pains
mild fatigue
sore throat

Flu Symptoms include:

high fever
headache - can be severe
sometimes sneezing
dry cough - often can become severe
body aches and pains
extreme fatigue
sometimes a sore throat

How long are you contagious for?

With a cold you are contagious for about two to three days before developing symptoms and this contagious period can last until all symptoms are gone.

With flu you are infectious up to 24 hours before developing symptoms and for at least 7 days after (can be up to 14-21 days in children). For both colds and flu the greatest risk of spreading the infection is when symptoms are at their worst -day 2 to day 4 of illness.

Taking Sick Leave

If you have cold or flu like symptoms it's important to stay home and isolate yourself from others to avoid affecting them as well. Going to work, when you are sick is going to spread to others and make you feel worse. Don't try and "cover up" symptoms just to go to work. If you're sick, stay home.

Full time and part time employees (except casuals) are entitled to sick leave and you may have to give evidence such as a medical certificate to get paid.

you should get 10 days each year of sick leave when working full time or
pro rata of 10 days each year depending on hours worked part time

Eat Nutritious and Healthy Foods

Eating food high in nutritional value will give your body the vitamins, carbohydrates and fats needed for nourishment. Many vitamins are important for wound repair and immune function.

Try to include foods in your diet that are:

high in antioxidants, protein and fibre
high in vitamins B, C, D and E
low in sugars and fats.

Such as:

Foods rich in vitamin C:
- guava
- red and green capsicum
- oranges
- kale
- kiwi
- broccoli
- brussel sprouts
- grapefruit
- strawberries
Foods rich in vitamin A:
- carrots
- sweet potato
- kale
- spinach
- apricots
- broccoli
- butter
- eggs
- winter squash
Foods rich in zinc:
- spinach
- kidney beans
- flax seeds and pumpkin seeds
- garlic
- lima beans
- peanuts
- dark chocolate
- chickpeas
- brown rice

Drink Plenty Of Water

During the cold months it's easy to forget to continue drinking plenty of water throughout the day. It's important to keep yourself hydrated to keep your skin healthy, flush out toxins and ward off winter bugs.

Try sipping warm water in a flask throughout the day and even add a little lemon, honey or ginger to it to enhance the flavour and add in those extra vitamins and goodness.

Stay Warm

While working it's important to keep yourself warm. Wear layers, which can be easily removed depending on the temperature throughout the day. While wearing work uniforms, wear singlets or long sleeved thermal tops under work shirts, wear tights under long pants (it really keeps you warm), wear thick socks with enclosed shoes. Also when going outside don't forget to wear a scarf. It's important to keep your chest closed.

Following these simple strategies will help you to stay healthy during the winter season.

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