Flu Season & Playing in the Mall

I take my 2 y/o but we use the hand sanitizer and also wash hands. I'm not going to stay cooped up in the house, and the weather has been so up and down that we can't always go outside.

I know some people don't worry about such things and I respect that, but I feel like playing outside is better. The germs aren't trapped like they are inside. Of course there are no guarantees, but considering the swine flu this year I would avoid the mall. Recruit other mom's to meet you and ask them not to bring their kids if they are showing any signs of illness.

My daughter is 14 now....recently recovered from Swine/H1N1. It was not as bad and I feared, much like the regular flu.

She is very good at washing hands, etc and she still got it. It is running through her high school like crazy.

As far as play equipment...I never was one to take my daughter to the pay areas in the mall, McD's, etc. They just don't seem clean to me, no matter how much the owners clean them. Little kids put everything in their mouth, rub eyes, and just are more prone to pick up something.

We prefered being outside in the parks, walking trails, etc.

Yes, I'm still doing it with my 2 1/2 year old. But I make sure she uses the hand sanitizer and I always have handi-wipes too.

Not me...2 times a day cleaning is not enough for me. You can't trust others in keeping home their children home when they are sick. So...I avoid them (usually all the time). I just don't like them.

I have a 3 yr old boy and we did recently go to the play area at Stonebriar mall. I didn't go on purpose, my older son was a Lego birthday party so in order to keep the younger entertained we went to the play area for a few minutes (about 15). At Stonebriar they had purell hand gel and I made him put it on before playing and after playing, then we went straight to the toilets and washed hands also.

My son is in preschool and I know he has been exposed there.

As for the play areas, I think we will be avoiding places like McD's, and I'm going to take them to the mall to play as my main goal. If he needs a few minute break then I will let him play. And I will make sure to clean his hands afterwards.

A.,

I don't take my girls to play on the playground at the mall even when it isn't flu season! All the germs that those playgrounds hold is nasty. And I know they clean them, but they use the same rag to clean all those toys...yuck!

I'm with the rest of these responses - I won't go there without the flu season, much less during it. I have sat and watched them clean those areas and...yeah - sooo NOT good enough. A little spritz of whatever cleaning fluid they use on the top of the climbing structures and then a swooping wipe of "most" of the rest of it? Not goona cut it when the last kid on the apparatus was hacking and sneezing and rubbing his running nose off on his hands every few minutes. I will continue to avoid those places lik the plague!!