Healthy habits to avoid catching an infectious disease

To prevent illness, we need to keep our immune systems healthy as well as foil the illness's sneaky methods of transmission. The strategies for preventing most illnesses are chiefly common sense, yet many of us neglect to take the simple precautions that could reduce the number of infectious diseases that we get every year.

Wash your hands. All of us carry germs from surfaces we touch to our faces or our chidren's faces, where they can find easy entry into our bodies. At work, wash your hands several times a day, particularly before you eat, even if you're just snacking while at the computer. Wash them when you get home, after grocery shopping, and before you prepare a meal. And don't forget to wash them after changing the baby's diaper or wiping a toddler's runny nose.

Teach your children to wash their hands. For even the tiniest toddler, washing hands before a meal should be automatic. And it should be a thorough wash, with scrubbing and lots of suds spread all over the hands and wrists, not just a quick spritz of water.

Act as if you have stock in Kleenex.Get everyone in your household into the tissue habit. And teach them to cover their mouths and noses when they cough and sneeze. Even little children can learn automatically to cover up with a tissue to prevent germs from flying.

Use your dishwasher as your secret weapon. Anything that goes in a child's mouth--pacifiers, toys, teething rings, nipples, bottles--should be washed often. Put plastic toys in the dishwasher and soft toys in the laundry, especially when colds and flu are making the rounds. If you don't have a dishwasher, use a dishpan of hot, soapy water, and rinse with the hottest water that the plastic (and your hands) can stand.

Give your toothbrush some breathing room. Don't store your family's toothbrushes together in a glass. Put them in the sort of holder that doesn't let them touch each other. Shake them after using so that they dry fast--germs don't thrive well on dry surfaces. Of course, don't share toothbrushes--it's a very direct way to share germs.

Know when to say goodbye. Because they tend to harbor infectious organisms, if you've had a cold or strep throat, throw out your toothbrush and use a new one. (For hygiene and tooth health change to a new toothbrush every 3 months.)

When you're on the mend, think hot water. After you or your family member has recovered from a bout of sickness, wash the bedding and nightclothes in hot water. Wash down the crib or bed and all bedroom surfaces, and then open windows--even in the winter--to help fresh air circulate into the room.

Change the towels. Facecloths and towels should be changed every day. This is doubly important when someone in the house has a cold or the flu.

Observe kitchen etiquette. Change dish towels every day. Don't dry dishes with the same towel that you use for your hands. Even better, let your dishes air dry. Clean your sponges in the dishwasher and change them often.

Keep dry. Most infectious organisms don't thrive on dry surfaces. After you use soap and water on the sink and countertops in your kitchen, dry them with paper towels. This is a good practice for the bathroom, too.

Quarantine raw meat. To prevent food poisoning from salmonella and other organisms, keep your meat and salad preparations apart. Use different areas of the kitchen if you can and different cutting boards and knives. Wash up spilled meat juices with soapy paper towels, not sponges. Store meat where its juices can't leak onto other foods. Wash your hands after handling raw meat.

Think of the these tips as a gentle reminder of some pretty basic household strategies for preventing infectious illnesses in general.