People who have a cough or cold should stay away from newborns and younger babies while parents are urged not to be embarrassed to ask visitors “to reschedule” the Christmas get-together if they are unwell, according to doctors.
Parents are being warned about the risk of children attending creche or playschool bringing home respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, to a newborn or very young child.
Many terminally ill cancer patients who cannot afford to heat their homes are enduring hardship in their final weeks or days in cold, damp houses, nurses who attend their bedside have warned.
Common household items, including swallowing batteries and reed diffusers as well as painkillers, were among the poisoning hazards reported last year, according to the National Poisons Information Centre in Beaumont Hospital.
Vaccinate children now against flu and be “protected for Christmas”, that’s the message from the Department of Health as the nasal spray flu vaccine is being made available free of charge from next week.