H1N1, Disney, and flying?

[KAT1811]

I'm a bit worried about flying on Saturday to Disney with all of the H1N1 scare going on. I'm not typically a worrier but with all the media hype I'll admit I am a bit freaked out. We have three small children flying with us (almost 5, almost 3, and 7 1/2 months) and our oldest (12 1/2) is arriving later on with my parents. I plan on wiping down the arm rests, tray tables, seatbelts, and anything else in the immediate vicinity. Are there any other suggestions out there that people are doing to help protect themselves? Thank you!

[faline]

The most you can do, in reality, is to wash your hands frequently and/or utilize alcohol based hand sanitizer. The only other step you can take is to keep space between yourself (3 - 6 feet) and others who appear to be ill.

[disneykid@hrt]

I know it can appear a bit kooky, but my pediatrician totally told us to wear the masks on our last flight. Of course my 21 month old was not having any part of it!

Just channel your inner Michael Jackson...
The hand sanitizer comes in convenient travel sizes that even have little straps to hook to the outside of your bag so your not digging. Good luck!

[prprincess]

Same here. We leave on Monday and I'm a little bit worried since by boys haven't been able to get their H1N1 vaccination. Like you, I will try my best to wipe things down and keep the boys clean, but so much is under our control.

I hope all of our families come back well, and I hope that you have a great time on your trip!

[John]

Gotta live your life - just wash your hands and carry some pocket sanitizer.

Enjoy your vacation and try not to think about it too much.

[DisneyBarb]

I'm not a worrier myself, but it is in the back of my mind for our trip in 2 weeks...washing your hands and santizing is the only thing you can really do.. Wearing a mask is another option, not crazy although it may feel that way!

Also, keep up the antibacterial once you hit the parks, after rides, after going through turnstiles, handling money.. sounds like a pain but it will be second nature.

Don't worry too much because you don't want it to ruin your trip for something that might not ever happen!

Have fun and good health!

[fanofdisney]

We will be using hand sanitizer too. I hope we aren't all killing all our good bacteria but it's what is recommended right? Anyway, I also found a product called pre-fenz and on the label it says:
Alcohol free hand sanitizer
Safely kills bacteria viruses and fungi for 24 hours with 1 application
Protects through 10 hand washings
PrefenzBotanicals provides safe, all day antimicrobial protection from all strains of staph, strep, E coli, drug resistant MRSA strains and more.

I like it because I feel like I don't have to reapply every time I touch something. I hope all of you and your families stay healthy!

[#1donaldfan]

Gotta live your life - just wash your hands and carry some pocket sanitizer.

Enjoy your vacation and try not to think about it too much.

John, you hit the nail on the head....I totally agree....live your life and try not to worry too much....

....I'd much rather get something horrible while at Disney, than at work or a grocery store, which is just a likely....RIGHT !!!!

[BraddyB]

You'll be fine, just remember to wash your hands and use common sense. Everyone is so worried about h1n1...the traditional flu kills 36,000 people a year and 60,000 people die a year from pneumonia. This is just one more thing for the media to make bigger than it really is. Remember SARS, West Nile Virus, and Bird flu. Relax, make sure everyone washes their hands, stay away from people who are coughing and sneezing, and most importantly........Enjoy your trip !!!!!!!!

[Lisa and Alan]

I can tell you what we have been doing for years. Either my husband or myself goes onto the plane early, when they pre-board for families with small children. The other stays back waiting with our daughter. The one that goes on early pulls out the zip lock bag with clorox cleanup wipes and cleans the seats, seatbelts including latches, armrests, tables, window shades and back of the seats in front of us. We also pull out all of the reading material that is in the pouch behind the seat in front of us. Once the rest of our family has boarded, we all use anti bacterial gel one last time once seated. Believe it ,or not, we actually have it timed really well. We don't leave a line backed up behind us. I also do the same as soon as we enter out hotel room. I wipe down all door handles, toilets including handle, faucets, remotes, phones (even though we don't use the phone, I know kids still pick them up). I rewash anything that we may be using in our villa, like glasses, plates and utensils. I hope this helps. I can tell you I absolutely feel that we have been less sick on trips since using antibacterial wipes on the plane and in our resort. Good Luck and have fun.

[ajpa]

I know it can appear a bit kooky, but my pediatrician totally told us to wear the masks on our last flight.

That makes sense since the virus is airborne. What kind of masks did the ped rec?
I am considering this -- even if it looks weird. My dd & I just had what was probably h1n1 2 weeks ago -- it was mild but we were still completely miserable. Since so far both the h1n1 & regular flu shots are all out here, if we don't get shots by trip day I would rather look weird for a couple of hours than be miserable for a week.

[BIGDOG]

I do not know if this will help any one, in no way am I MAKING LIGHT OF THIS FLU PROBLEM. My kids and myself are all just getting over this H1N1 ****. My 7 year old got it first from school then like a good little brother passed it along to his big sister 16 and when she was done handed it down to her little brother of 5. When they all had thier fill they figured don't leave dad out and tossed it over to me. With gods blessing we have all fully recovered and are getting better each day. It only started Sunday 10/25 and passed thru all of us in only like 24-48 hours. My kids Dr. confirmed it to be the h1n1 perscribed meds for kids and had to keep kids from school still into mid next week. I am only posting this because my wife practically bathed my kids in hand sanitizer daily. They washed hands every 30 mins she had it in the car on her key chain you name it she took all precautions. We still got it (but she did not) I want you all to know I have taken nothing but tylenol and advil and have gotten over it with no other meds. I find it no worse then any other time I have been sick. Now I know it effects persons with certian health issues differently those folks should use caution. My wife took care of the 4 of us all week all day and has not effected her at all. She is a little tired and catching up on some sleep now. DO NOT LET IT RUIN YOUR VACATION IF YOU ARE GOING TO GET YOU WILL. Good luck.....Oh any according to the kids DR. YOU CAN ONLY GET THIS 1 TIME SO WE ARE ALL SET...

[faline]

That makes sense since the virus is airborne. What kind of masks did the ped rec?
I am considering this -- even if it looks weird. My dd & I just had what was probably h1n1 2 weeks ago -- it was mild but we were still completely miserable. Since so far both the h1n1 & regular flu shots are all out here, if we don't get shots by trip day I would rather look weird for a couple of hours than be miserable for a week.

If you're going to wear masks, my understanding is that the kind that ties in the back of your head fits closer and offers more protection than the kind that loops over your ears.

[javamama]

As an airline employee, and a mom with two little ones in school after reading up and talking to my pediatrician. Unless you basically where a respirator onboard the plane those little masks aren't going to help. The hand sanitizer with 60% or more alcohol will kill germ/and viruses--so that's what I buy. I wash my hands constantly, and my kids hands also--I do the "happy bday" song twice. They both been sick twice already this school year, I haven't yet---knock on wood! I'm in the airport 4/5 days a week on a plane 3 times a week, if it's going to happen it's going to happen. Last May we were at Disney during the fist Swine flu mayhem, and we were careful we did get sick(I did and my 2 year old did, and my dad got the shingles) if it was related I don't know? G/L

[wdwfan]

We just returned from our trip. We washed our hands frequently and carried hand sanitizer. When we stood in lines we kept our hands off the rails and tried to avoid touching the handrails when boarding rides. (that's not always easy, so just used sanitizer). I took clorox wipes with me and as soon as we arrived in room, I went over everything, knobs on drawers, phone, sink handles, toilet seat, light switches & Especially the remote. Maybe a little overboard, but makes me feel better.
Walking in the parks I only heard very few people coughing and didn't really notice anyone sick. I wouldn't worry about it, just enjoy your vacation!!!

[Belster]

Wal-mart has mini bottles of lysol spray. I brought a couple with us last week on our trip and sprayed down the room with it.

[gueli]

I agree with john about living life to the fullest, but...
I will not hesitate to wear a mask on the flight down to WDW. It almost always seems that after I leave the plane I get sick. I will not care as much if I can recoup at home, but not at the parks.
I also agree with the wash hands, etc.

[hardingella]

Here are a few tips I have read to try and Avoid H1N1
1.Try and keep you immune system up (plenty of sleep,eat well and healthy,mulit vitamins)
2.Drink plenty of fluids(hot drinks appantley can get rid of the germs in the back of you throat)
3.Gargle with warm salt water(for same reason as above)
4.Clean your nostrils with a cotton bud dipped in warm salt water.
5.Regular hard blowing of nose
6.60% + alcohol hand sanitizer.

I have heard that the face masks are useless as the virus are smaller than the mask holes.

[BMan62]

It is a flu (influenza virus) and should be treated just like the typical yearly flu -- wash hands, cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze, stay home when you have symptoms, etc.

IMHO, people are taking the media reports and creating a panic that need not occur.

[mudpuppysmom]

We just returned about a week ago. I had not even thought of any type of illness happening while we were on vacation, but it did happen. On day 2 DS#1 came down with the super high fever, chills and lethargy......from what I understand -- this is H1N1, but it was not confirmed -- our peed called it "parainfluenza". I took DS to the urgi center by Crossroads (as instructed by our health insurance co) and they tried to extort $450 from me just to LOOK at DS, so I again consulted his peed back home who told me to just monitor DS's behavior and fever and let him rest -- which is what we did, for four days!

After DS#1 got over his illness, DS#2 started, just not with the super high fever.

Our vacation was not ruined by any means, it was just severely modified -- we had one day where we had no sick kids and that was great. The other days we just did what we could with who we could (we took turns, DH more than me though, staying at the hotel with the sick kid).

We wash hands FREQUENTLY, we hand sanitize frequently, we cough into our sleeves and sneeze the same way, we try to avoid people who are coughing/sneezing and I also try to keep hands off the queue handrails (it's futile, really). With all the precautions we took, we still had an illness hit us while we were there. I feel that DS had this illness before we left though, even though we took precautions before we left too.

I don't want to rain on your vacation by any means, I am just pointing out that even if you take precautions you cannot guarantee wellness -- being sick happens, it just so happened that with us, it happened on vacation.