GERMS!

Not to brag or anything, but in the ten years of running my current home day care, I haven't had a lot of illnesses passed around. In particular, I've managed to keep infants from getting the colds, etc, that the older kids have had. "How?", you may ask. Well, I'm glad you asked!

Most illnesses are passed from person to person through contact, so the best defense is to eliminate that contact, or at least eliminate the germs when you have come into contact with them. To that end,
the best defense against sharing illness is HAND WASHING - Lots of it. I joke that I wash my hands hundreds of times a day - some days it certainly feels like that! I wash my hands after every nose blowing, before I handle any child's food, or touch any child's mouth (or my own, for that matter!), and of course, after diapering. I also wash the child's hands on a regular basis - after playing outside, before eating, etc.

As far as eliminating contact with germs, I use barriers. For instance, I wear disposable gloves when changing diapers. When handling infants, I always use a burp cloth or small blanket over my clothes - this is for spit-ups, of course, but it also protects the babies from the any germs the older children have deposited on my clothing.

Toys are a great carrier of germs, so I wash the toys on a regular basis. And any toy I see in a child's mouth goes straight into the sink.

Around your home, you can do the same things. There's no such thing as too much hand washing when you're dealing with small children. And if your older child has a cold, use a barrier between your clothing and the baby - or even change shirts, or wear an overshirt while handling the infant. As long as you also keep the older child away from the baby, you might just prevent the passing on of the virus.