Tag Archives: COVID-19

Día de los Muertos During COVID-19

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have issued guidance that can help keep your family safe and healthy while celebrating Día de los Muertos. Celebrations must be done differently this year in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The CDC points out that if you have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, you should not participate in in-person Día de los Muertos festivities. There are safer ways to celebrate the holiday. The CDC recommends these lower risk activities: Preparing traditional family recipes for family and neighbors, especially those at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19, and delivering … Continue reading →

Halloween Safety During COVID-19

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have posted information parents should consider before making decisions about how to celebrate Halloween this year. The purpose of these guidelines is to prevent the spread of COVID-19. According to the CDC, if you may have COVID-19, or you may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, you should not participate in in-person Halloween festivities. You also should not give out candy to trick-or-treaters. The following activities are lower risk: Carving or decorating pumpkins with members of your household and displaying them Carving or decorating pumpkins outside, at a safe distance, with … Continue reading →

“Zooters” and Homeschool Pods

The new school year is starting, and it comes with incredibly difficulty choices for parents. Should you send your children to school, and potentially put them at risk for catching COVID-19? Do you have the means to become an unpaid teacher’s aide and guide your elementary school children through a virtual school day? Some parents are solving these problems with “Zooters” and homeschool pods. What is a “Zooter”? It is a word created by Elyssa Katz, who lives in Santa Monica, California. She is in the process of trademarking the word. She is also a mother of three, who understands … Continue reading →

Summer Fun During COVID-19

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Are your kids sad because they cannot go out and enjoy the summer activities they were looking forward to? They aren’t the only ones! The COVID-19 quarantine is hard for kids of all ages (and many adults) to adjust to. Here are some ideas to try that might improve your children’s moods. Parents can start by asking their child, tween, or teen how they are feeling. Get them talking about their emotions. Being able to share what they are thinking and feeling can make people (of all ages) feel heard and understood. Little kids will enjoy splashing around in a … Continue reading →

Summer Camps and COVID-19

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The summer weather has arrived. Your kids might want to go to summer camp – especially if they do that every summer. Parents need to keep in mind that COVID-19 is still spreading, and that there is no cure or vaccine. There are things to consider about summer camps and COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have some guiding principles to keep in mind about summer camps and COVID-19. These guiding principles are not meant to replace any state, local, territorial, or tribal health and safety laws. According to the CDC, the more people a camper or … Continue reading →

How are Your Kids Coping with Quarantine?

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Many states issued “stay at home” orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose, of course, was to slow the spread of the virus by encouraging people to stay at home. The virus is still out there, and quarantine efforts can return if cases go up again. Children and teens are experiencing a variety of reactions to being quarantined. WebMD mentioned 14-year-old “Grace” (not her real name) who said she noticed that she felt more relaxed than usual after one week in quarantine. “Grace” attributes this change to having her school-related stress reduced with online classes just two days a week, … Continue reading →

How to Cope with Quarantine Fatigue

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You and your family may have been under “stay at home” orders since the middle of March 2020. Hopefully, you have all been washing your hands correctly (and often), and maintaining at least six feet of distance between you and the other people while grocery shopping. You followed the recommendation to wear cloth masks when you are outside. The goal is to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Since then, some people have started feeling what is being called quarantine fatigue. According to psychotherapist Paul Hokemeyer, PhD, quarantine fatigue stems from that emotional exhaustion the COVID-19 pandemic has placed … Continue reading →

CDC Recommends Kids 2 and Older Wear Cloth Face Masks

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that children who are two-years-old and older wear cloth face masks. It may not be easy, at first, to get little ones to wear the cloth face masks. But there are things parents can do to make the masks less scary. CDC says: Children 2 years and older should wear a cloth face covering their nose and mouth when in the community setting. This is an additional public health measure people should take to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in addition to (not instead of) social distancing, frequent hand cleaning and other … Continue reading →

CDC Recommends Wearing Cloth Masks Outside

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that people wear cloth masks while in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to manage – for example in grocery stores and pharmacies. This advice is recommended for everyone, and especially those that are in an area of significant community based transmission of COVID-19. The CDC states that they now know from recent studies that a significant portion of individuals with coronavirus lack symptoms (also called “asymptomatic”). Those people can – unknowingly – spread the virus to others before showing symptoms. The purpose of wearing a cloth mask … Continue reading →

How to Disinfect Your Home from Coronavirus

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Has someone in your family been diagnosed with coronavirus? There are things you can do to disinfect your home if someone has coronavirus. A healthy person, who does not have the virus, should do the disinfecting. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend the following: Wear disposable gloves to clean and disinfect. Clean surfaces using soap and water. Practice routine cleaning of frequently touched surfaces. Those surfaces include: tables, doorknobs, light switches, countertops, handles, desks, phones, keyboards, toilets, faucets, sinks, etc. To disinfect your home, the CDC recommends using diluted household bleach solutions (if appropriate to the surface … Continue reading →