Seasonal care
How to Stay Healthy During Cold and Flu Season: A Clinician’s Checklist
A clinician’s checklist for cold and flu season: vaccines, everyday habits, what to keep at home and when symptoms need a visit.
The clinician’s checklist
- Flu vaccine every fall; COVID-19 and RSV vaccines when recommended for you.
- Wash hands often, especially before eating and after being in public.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.
- Sleep 7 to 9 hours.
- Move most days and eat plenty of fruit and vegetables.
- Stay home when sick, and keep sick children home.
- Clean high-touch surfaces at home.
- Consider a mask in crowded indoor places if you are at high risk.
Your home sick-day kit
- Thermometer
- Acetaminophen and/or ibuprofen
- Saline nasal spray and honey (not for babies under 1)
- Oral rehydration packets
- Tissues and hand sanitizer
- Home COVID-19 tests
When to rest and when to call
Rest, fluids and time help most colds. Call us if you have a fever lasting more than three days, symptoms that improve then get worse, ear or sinus pain lasting more than 10 days, wheezing, or if you are in a higher-risk group and catch the flu.
How we can help
Members can message us with symptoms and get a quick plan. Video visits handle most cold and flu questions, and we prescribe antivirals or other treatment when needed. See when flu season starts and immune system myths.
Questions people ask
Does vitamin C prevent colds?
Regular vitamin C may slightly shorten colds but does not prevent them for most people.
Should I exercise when I have a cold?
Light activity is fine if symptoms are above the neck. Rest if you have fever, aches or chest symptoms.
When can I go back to work?
When your fever has been gone for 24 hours without medicine and you feel better overall.
Talk it through with Lydia
Want to stay well this winter? We can help you prepare. See a board-certified nurse practitioner virtually anywhere in Virginia, in our Woodbridge office, or straight to your front door in much of Northern Virginia.
Visits start at $85, and every membership comes with a 30-day trial.
Prefer to ask first? Text us at (571) 402-2102 or message us on WhatsApp.
