Keeping yourself and kids sane and safe this Christmas

With Christmas on the way, you will be seeing a lot of your kids if you have them and maybe kids that you are not normally around if you have none. So, it’s a good time to catch up on some advice on how to make the most of the festive break with the smallies and avoid seasonal hazards like button batteries and doing your best to reduce the risk of infections getting in the way of the festivities.

Try to minimise pressure on yourself to make Christmas perfect and focus instead on enjoying the simple things with your child like playing games and going for walks together is what Dr Abigail Collins, National Clinical Lead for the HSE’s Child Health Public Health Programme advises.

“Being aware of toy safety and taking extra care when visiting other people’s homes can help prevent serious injuries and stress at this special time.

“Covering coughs and sneezes and keeping hands clean can help to reduce the risk of infections such as RSV, flu and tummy bugs over Christmas. It’s not too late to get the free nasal spray flu vaccine for children from a participating pharmacy or GP to protect your child and older family members.”

Here are her top tips for making this Christmas and New Year as stress-free as possible.

1. Try to minimise pressure and expectations on yourself

We all want to make this time of year magical and memorable for children. But you can feel under pressure to spend a lot of money and time trying to create a ‘picture perfect’ Christmas. These efforts can cause stress and may go unnoticed in the end. Try to think back to last Christmas and ask yourself if there were things that in hindsight weren’t necessary.

It can be helpful to take some things off the ‘to do’ or ‘to buy’ list and think about the more simple things instead. For example, quiet times at home playing with your child, winter walks, easy recipes, drawing pictures, board games or attending free community events.