How to prepare your personal flu tool kit

Here's how you can prepare for the flu (including tips from family physician Karen Weyman):

• Put together a flu tool kit, including boxes of tissue, a thermometer and acetaminophen or ibuprofen to reduce fever and aches and pains.

• Know the difference between a cold and the flu. It's generally a cold when there's nasal congestion, sneezing, runny nose and scratchy throat but no fever. Flu symptoms include fever, body aches, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, or vomiting or diarrhea. Generally, with a cold, you can carry on with your normal routine even though you don't feel well. With flu, most people find it difficult or impossible to get out of bed.

• Know you'll feel wretched for a few days and stock up on plenty of fluids, soup and comfort foods. Almost everybody craves something when they're sick, whether it's hot chicken soup or cold ginger ale or a certain brand of crackers. Whatever it is, keep plenty on hand.

• Keep in mind that other family members may get sick within a couple of days and you still may not feel like going out, so prepare kits ahead of time for them, too, including favourite comfort foods.

• Keep phone numbers handy including pharmacy, family doctor and numbers for any appointments that may need to be cancelled or work contacts who may need to be informed. Include on the list Telehealth Ontario at 1-866-797-0000.

• Be aware of symptoms that should be checked by a doctor or may require a visit to the emergency room: shortness of breath or difficulty breathing or rapid breathing, a fever that doesn't respond to medication, illness that doesn't improve after four or five days or improves and then gets worse again, dizziness or confusion, persistent vomiting.

• If there are children in the family, keep plenty of children's medications on hand – not ASA, but only acetaminophen or ibuprofen – as well as age-appropriate activities that can be done while resting in bed.

• Watch for signs of complications in children. These include shortness of breath, difficulty breathing or rapid breathing, unresponsiveness, bluish lips and skin, persistent vomiting, the return of flu-like symptoms including a fever and cough, excessive sleeping, extreme irritability and unwillingness to be held. If these occur, go immediately to the emergency department.

• Pregnant women who develop flu-like symptoms should contact their health care provider immediately to determine whether they need flu medication.

Judy Gerstel