When it comes to the flu, preparing in advance is your best strategy. Getting your annual flu vaccine is the first and most important step to protect you and your family. Other preventive measures, such as washing your hands, covering your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing and getting enough sleep can also help you avoid getting sick.
Even when you put your best prevention efforts forth, you still might get sick with the flu. By taking some easy preparation steps ahead of time to assemble an at-home flu kit, you’ll be more prepared if the flu strikes — allowing you to stay home, rest, heal and avoid spreading germs to others. Keep reading for tips on putting together your kit.
How to Manage Flu Symptoms at Home
Keep these tips in mind to ease your flu symptoms:
- Stay home and rest
- Drink plenty of fluids
- Treat aches and fever with over-the-counter medication such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen
- Manage a cough with over-the-counter expectorants or suppressants
- Run a humidifier or sit in a steamy bathroom to ease congestion
What to Have in Your At-Home Flu Kit
Be prepared when the flu strikes by having an at-home flu kit filled with these comforting necessities stocked in your refrigerator, pantry and medicine cabinet:
Over-the-Counter Medications:
Feel better from the most common flu symptoms with over-the-counter medications. The following can help ease fevers, headaches, coughs, muscle aches, sore throats and runny or stuffy noses:
- Pain relievers: Ibuprofen (Motrin and Advil) or Acetaminophen (Tylenol) for fever and pain
- Decongestants: for sniffles and congestion
- Cough expectorant (guaifenesin): for a congested cough to help clear the lungs
- Cough suppressant (dextromethorphan/DM): for dry coughs to block the cough reflex
- Cough syrups and cough drops: for comfort
Drinks:
- Water
- Herbal tea
- Low-sugar sports drinks
- Pedialyte
Foods:
- Chicken or vegetable soup
- Broth
- Vitamin C-containing fruits and vegetables
- Oatmeal
- Toast (add some avocado, honey or egg)
Miscellaneous items:
- Tissues
- Lozenges
- Protective mask
- Thermometer
- Humidifier
Know Where to Go
Most healthy adults with a cold, the flu or other mild respiratory illnesses don't need to see a care provider and will recover at home with self-care measures. Because these are viral illnesses, antibiotics won't work against treating them. Your care provider may be able to prescribe an antiviral medication that can relieve your symptoms and shorten the duration and severity of your illness; however, this needs to be started within 48 hours of symptom onset and is often only prescribed to individuals at high risk for developing complications from the flu or those experience severe symptoms.
Primary Care or Urgent Care
Reach out to your primary care provider or visit an AdventHealth Centra Care urgent care center near you if you are considered high-risk, including those who:
- Are 65 years of age or older
- Are pregnant or recently had a baby
- Have chronic medical conditions
- Have a weakened immune system
If you’re typically healthy and not considered high-risk for complications, seek medical advice if your flu symptoms are unusually severe, such as mild difficulty breathing, a severe sore throat, coughing that produces a lot of green or yellow mucus or feeling faint.
Keep reading to learn when the flu turns into an emergency and what to do.
When Is the Flu an Emergency?
Most of the time, an ER visit isn't necessary with the flu. But complications are possible, and there are times when you should go to the hospital for the flu, such as when you or a loved one experiences severe dehydration, which can present as:
- Confusion
- Dark-colored urine
- Extreme thirst
- Severe or consistent vomiting
Other signs of a flu-related emergency include severe chest or abdominal pain, difficulty breathing or shortness of breath.
Warning signs are slightly different for children and infants, too. If you have a child with any of the following symptoms, you should take them to the ER with the flu:
- A bluish color to the skin
- A severe headache
- A stiff neck
- An inability to take in fluids
- Trouble urinating
Also, if you have an infant, watch out for the following red flags:
- A fever over 100.3 (in a baby under three months old)
- An absence of tears while crying
- An inability to eat
- Fewer wet diapers than normal
Know that we offer on-demand care wherever you are. From comprehensive ERs to pediatric urgent care centers, you can find responsive and immediate emergency medical treatment whenever needed.
Go to your nearest AdventHealth ER if you have any of the emergency alarm bells, such as severe chest or stomach pain, concern for heart attack or stroke, severe dehydration or shortness of breath.
Do You Have Flu Symptoms? We Can Help
Fill up your at-home flu kit and call us if you need help. Whether you need primary care, urgent care or emergency care, AdventHealth is here for you and your family during the 2024-2025 flu season. With early treatment, you can feel better faster. In some cases, it can even prevent serious complications like pneumonia.
We’re standing by whenever you need us. Let us know you’re on your way.
