"Please don't attend if you're sick"

[BeagleMommy]

I think your wording is fine.  Considering how virulent this strain of the flu has been you would not only be doing your SIL and new niece a favor, but anyone with a compromised immune system (elderly, diabetic, heart problems, etc.).

[Roe]

Include it and don't worry about offending someone.  They should understand.

However, I think maybe I would also postpone the party until Baby is at least 3 months old.  I'm not an alarmist helicopter parent type, but I do believe in sticking close to home for the first several months.  It's easier on the parents and the baby.

The wording is fine.  If they are offended, so be it.  But since they tend to show up sick to events, I doubt they will listen to the warning.

And I have to agree with VltGrantham as well.  Because the flu season is in full swing, I would choose to wait until the worst of it is over.  Not to mention pertussis which is in many communities across the nation.   

[Ciarrai]

I appreciate the responses advising me to move the party (I really do), but I am not going to tell my SIL that she needs to choose another date that is many months after the baby's birth. I'm not comfortable with telling her what to do with her own child. Thank you for the concern but the date is not negotiable unless my SIL herself requests it to be changed.

[White Lotus]

In Asia, a baby is often kept at home, without visitors, for a month to allow the immune system to strengthen.  This is important, and people work around that.  I understand the concerns people raise about flu, but I also see why a date change won't work.  Keep the date, since it works.  I see nothing wrong with the wording on the invitation, except it may not be strong enough.  Buy some masks, the best ones you can find, and hand them out to anybody who seems cold-y or otherwise unwell.  Insist they wear them to be allowed in.  They do help.

[DottyG]

the date is not negotiable unless my SIL herself requests it to be changed.

I can see that point of view.  You may be right there.

I think you may have to put the note in the invitation.  It's one of those "not really done" things, but this supercedes that, I think.  You have to think about the health of the baby.  My only concern, though, is that someone can be contagious before they actually know they're sick.  Ideally, everyone could just recognize that this is a very germ-laden time right now and refrain from holding the baby or getting too close to it - just as a precaution.  I know that's not really going to happen.  But it would be a "perfect world" type of thing right now.

Short of handing out masks to everyone (like others have suggested), I'm not sure you can do much more.

I would insist that anyone that wants to hold the baby be required to wash their hands first.  I've been with parents who do that even in the best of conditions, and I haven't thought badly about them for asking it.  It can be done nicely, and I can't imagine anyone's balking at that request.

[stargazer]

Isn't cold and flu "season" mostly over by early-mid March anyway?

[Dalek]

There's always some bug going around. Even if you held the event in July, there may be people with a stomach bug, flu, cold, etc.  roaming around.
I would include the note. Congratulations on your new niece!

[CaptainObvious]

I'd wait until October to have the party.  The flu is way too out there right now, and you do not want to take a chance at all of getting this baby sick.  I know October seems like a ways off, but it's worth it.

Something to remember about the hand sanitizers - they don't kill viruses.  The flu is a virus, not a bacteria.  Using a hand sanitizer is not really helping you at all.  Besides, the flu is spread primarily via the air.  All it would take is one person sneezing, and the germs are spread.

Wait until later to have people meet this baby.

October? The baby will be 8 months old by then, and it would be hard to call it a meet the baby party at that point.

[Dalek]

I'd wait until October to have the party.  The flu is way too out there right now, and you do not want to take a chance at all of getting this baby sick.  I know October seems like a ways off, but it's worth it.

Something to remember about the hand sanitizers - they don't kill viruses.  The flu is a virus, not a bacteria.  Using a hand sanitizer is not really helping you at all.  Besides, the flu is spread primarily via the air.  All it would take is one person sneezing, and the germs are spread.

Wait until later to have people meet this baby.

October? The baby will be 8 months old by then, and it would be hard to call it a meet the baby party at that point.

Yeah, it would practically be a 1st birthday party by then. 

[DottyG]

CO, I went with October in that post just because that's what the OP said was the next available possible date.  I agree that it's a bit far off, but I went with the info we had!

I do think, if it were possible (which it sounds like it's not from the later post from the OP), it would be better to wait a bit before having the party.  Even if that's just a month or so.  I know of 2 people who have had really nasty cases of it - and I was exposed myself, so I had to take preventative meds - and it's not something I'd want a baby to be around.  Especially one whose immune system isn't 100% yet.  So I'm a bit cautious about this epidemic right now.

If the OP is going ahead with the party as planned, see my later post.

[DottyG]

There's always some bug going around.

Good point.  But I don't regard this flu thing as just "some bug going around" right now.  In many areas of the country, this is a much more serious issue for a lot of people.

You can't protect the baby from every germ (nor should you).  And, invariably, someone at the party is going to have something that could be passed along.  But the flu is something different right now based on some of the things I know about it and have heard about it.

[Dalek]

CO, I went with October in that post just because that's what the OP said was the next available possible date.  I agree that it's a bit far off, but I went with the info we had!

I do think, if it were possible (which it sounds like it's not from the later post from the OP), it would be better to wait a bit before having the party.  Even if that's just a month or so.  I know of 2 people who have had really nasty cases of it - and I was exposed myself, so I had to take preventative meds - and it's not something I'd want a baby to be around.  Especially one whose immune system isn't 100% yet.  So I'm a bit cautious about this epidemic right now.

If the OP is going ahead with the party as planned, see my later post.

They have preventive meds now? I know they have a vaccine. That's awesome! I can't tell you how many times they would have came in handy for my family.
Ok, sorry for the thread derail. 
I still say add a more to the invite.

[audrey1962]

I don't want my precious niece to get sick (neither does my SIL, of course). Is there any polite way to ask people not to attend if they are ill, or do I just put up with it and put out prettily decorated containers of hand sanitizer?

Have you discussed this with your SIL? What does she think?

[DottyG]

They have preventive meds now?

I don't want to get into medical territory, lest the thread be closed.  But, if you're around people who have had it, you can take a medication that helps either prevent it or at least lessen it if you do get it.

I've had the shot as well.  Hopefully I'm as protected as I can be; I sure don't want what I've seen going around.  It's nasty.

[DottyG]

Have you discussed this with your SIL? What does she think?

This is a good question.