CHESAPEAKE, Va. — If you have kids, or live with other people, you know that once one person gets sick, it's not long before everyone else does too.
If you must go to urgent care or pick up cold medicine it is going to cost you—likely not enough to break the bank, but enough to require some budgeting.
I talked with a physician about what medicine to have in your cabinet this year.
“Right now, we're seeing a lot of flu, we're seeing a lot of RSV, and we're seeing still some COVID,” says Dr. Vernita Peeples.
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Dr. Vernita Peeples is the lead physician at CHKD's Pediatric Partners of Hampton Roads.
She says avoiding sickness starts with good hygiene.
“These kids need to wash their hands. You need to wash your hands so that you don't spread it to the other kids in the house and so that they don't spread it to the kids at school,” said Dr. Peeples.
A 2009 study done at the University of Utah found the more kids in a home, the more infections can spread to other kids and parents.
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“It's still important that we aren't going to work sick, because then, just like the kid has just wiped out your family, you can wipe out your office,” said Dr. Peeples.
According to the National Institutes of Health, a cold accounts for about 40% of work lost in the United States. The Consumer Healthcare Products Association estimates that people spend $338 each year on over-the-counter medication—a good chunk of that is spent during the winter months.
“As far as the medicines are concerned, look at what they have in it and then find the store brand or the generic brand because they're going to cost a lot less to do that,” said Dr. Peeples.
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Dr. Peeples says guaifenesin helps with mucus, pseudoephedrine helps with congestion, and antihistamines assist with allergy-like symptoms.
Vaporizers make it easier to breathe and honey or cough syrup eases the throat.
“It quiets the cough reflex, and they don't cough as much, and they're able to sleep at night,” said Dr. Peeples. “[For young kids] we also use saline, which is the salt water, nose sprays and nose drops. We have the NoseFrida, which are the things that suck out the nose or get them to blow their nose, or the bulb suctioning to help with that.”
If you do not want to pay out of pocket, consider using a Health Savings Account or a Flexible Spending Account.
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You can also buy certain medicine in bulk from wholesalers. When you are shopping, Dr. Peeples says to avoid products that claim to do it all.
“You want to treat the symptoms and not get one multi-symptom medication that covers everything because it may not cover them all effectively because they don't have the right dosing per age or size,” said Dr. Peeples.
Try to take the time to budget a few hundred dollars this year if you can.
