(WHAS11) - What should you do if you start feeling sick and you're afraid you might have the swine flu?
WHAS11’s Rachel Platt found out five things doctors recommend having in your medicine cabinet right now.
If doctors took a peek into your medicine cabinet, what would they find?
Common answers include Tylenol, Theraflu, hand sanitizer and cough drops.
That's pretty good according to Dr. Phillip Snider, who lists five basic essentials everyone should have during this flu season.
Item number one is a thermometer. He says call your doctor only if body temperature is over 102 degrees.
Item number two is a fever reducer, like Tylenol or Aleve but he says no aspirin for children who might have a cold.
"That can cause serious liver problems if they have a cold," says Dr. Snider.
Number three is cough medicine like Robitussen or Mucinex
Four is a decongestant; something like Sudafed P.E. should be good.
Number five is antihistamines.
"Claritin, or Allegra or Benadryl will make you not produce as much mucus when you're sick," he says.
Finally, if you have a facemask, he recommends you wear it. He says it can be very effective if worn correctly.
“However, they're lowest on the list to help prevent spreading the flu cause people don't wear them correctly or wear them all the time,” he says.
Dr. Snider says the best way to keep from getting sick is to always wash your hands, get a good night's sleep and get vitamins into your system by eating lots of fruits and vegetables.
