Before the First Runny Nose: Preparing Families for Germ Season

Aug 31, 2026

I have a confession. Last December I put out a three-part series on babywearing through cold and flu season. Good series. Terrible timing. It went live the second week of December, when every family you and I know already had a kid home from daycare with a fever and a partner sleeping on the couch. Publishing germ advice in mid December is like handing out umbrellas in the parking lot after the storm. Sheesh.

So this year I’m doing it in the first week of September, while the air conditioners are still running and nobody wants to think about RSV. Which is the whole point of this series!

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Do the math on the summer babies

Think about who’s booking newborn consults and taking your classes right now. June babies. July babies. A couple of Augusts. By the time the leaves turn, those babies are ten to fourteen weeks old. That’s the stretch where a cold is not just a cold, and where the immune system a baby was born with hasn't been replaced yet by one that can actually put up a fight. And probably some parents with November-to-be babies will show up in your classes. Just in time for multiple celebrations where the family will fully expect to play ‘pass the baby’ and ‘let me kiss this new little baby’ rounds.

The parents sitting on the floor with us this month are the ones who’ll be at the pediatrician this winter. The information we give them now is the information they'll be running on then.

Second-time parents already know what's coming. Anyone who’s done a class or consult with a family whose older kid just started kindergarten has heard the line: "the baby was totally fine until school started." School and daycare are how the virus gets in the house. That door opened last week for much of the country.

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Three posts, three different clients

I wrote the series so it can be shared with a family: without any translation. I think it’s worth a read or a re-read with a fall class in mind, because each post is for a different person.

Part 1 is the groundwork. Why a newborn's immune system is so undeveloped, how long a virus lives on a doorknob vs a shirt vs skin, and the critical but boring habits that do the heavy lifting: handwashing, swapping the coat after the subway, keeping the sick aunt at arm's length. Send this one to the family who thinks the carrier alone will cover them.

Part 2 is the case for the carrier. I share seven concrete ways a worn baby is a less-exposed baby, from "nobody reaches into a carrier the way they reach into a stroller" to the cortisol piece, to the fact that a baby on the chest/hip/back is not licking a shopping cart handle. This is the one for the client debating stroller versus carrier for the Thanksgiving trip.

Part 3 is the one everyone skips: washing the carrier. How often, with what, why a spare is not an indulgence in January, and the small habit of cleaning hands before unbuckling in a parking lot. Share it with every carrier purchase.

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Sneak it into things we already say

None of this stuff needs its own class or lecture. It should slide into the work we're already doing.

While tightening a buckle carrier.

Most parents have already noticed that people touch a worn baby less than a strollered one. Say it out loud. "The carrier can do the heavy lifting for you. It basically does the no for you." Once it's in their mind, they'll use it on purpose at the holiday party.

While talking fit. "How often are you planning to wash this?" sounds like a hygiene question, but it's really a daily-life question. It tells us whether they have a spare, whether they read the care label, and whether they've bought something they can or will actually be willing to launder weekly from October to March. Plenty of gorgeous carriers fail that test. And a cute but thin cover isn’t gonna cut it; they need to wash the whole carrier.

While teaching cues. Like our ABCs - Airway, Breathing, Circulation. Listen for the air exchange, feel the breath go in and out, then look at the baby and check for proper skin tone, mouth/nose occlusion, and check feet and calves for capillary refill, or circulation - these are the same checks a parent/nurse/dr runs when a baby is coming down with something. A worn baby is a felt-and-watched baby. Warm forehead against the collarbone, a rattle in the breath felt before it’s heard from six inches away, a baby who won't settle the way she did yesterday. Point that out. And be clear that a baby with a fever or labored breathing is a call to the doctor, not a reason to wear longer.

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