Guys love action flicks with lots of blood and gore and taking care of kids will provide you with lots of that, so you have to be prepared. This doesn’t mean that you have to garb for Level IV decontamination, but you should take a few basic precautions if your kid is sick.
One of your foremost defenses against catching what the kids bring home is to thoroughly wash your hands. After you leave the child’s room, take a moment to wash your hands with soap and water or use hand sanitizer. This will help prevent the spread of germs and cut down on your taking ill. But something that you should also have available are disposable pairs of latex gloves.
I’m prone to dry and cracked skin in the winter, which leaves my hands a mess; pile on the typical scrapes and cuts and my hands are a waiting recepticle for infection. When your child is sick with a stomach or intestinal virus, you’re likely going to have to clean up body fluids in quantity and the mess is laden with germs and bacteria. So I’ve taken to keeping disposable gloves in the house for those times that I am cleaning up such messes. I pull out the gloves to address the situation at hand and then dispose of them in plastic grocery bags which I tie up and deposit in the trash. I’ll also use them when I clean the child’s bathroom, wiping down the surfaces that I’ve had to disinfect.
But remember that the gloves only come out when you’re cleaning up because a sick child will be sick enough without feeling like a leper. So take care of the child and then break them out.