Hand-washing | A Simple Act With Big Results
Kids are little explorers so it’s no surprise that they find silly and innovative ways to catch germs onto their hands. Germs are fast-spreading organisms. We might not be able to see them with the naked eye, but germs are everywhere and could lead to many illnesses such as cold, flu, rashes and tummy bugs. Luckily, hand hygiene comes to the rescue to combat these pesky little germs. Simple acts like hand-washing can keep us from getting sick and spreading the germs not only to our loved ones but to those who are more susceptible to illness in our environment.
Teaching children about proper hand-washing from an early age is an excellent way to instill healthy lifelong habits. Praise your child when they practice hand washing! More importantly, make sure that you’re washing your hands properly as well in order to maintain good hand hygiene. Like the old saying “Monkey see, monkey do!”
What is the importance of washing hands?
Washing your hands with soap and water or using alcohol-based sanitizing products when soap and water aren’t readily available may seem like everyday actions, but they hold great importance in keeping us healthy.
The World Health Organization reported that each year millions of kids worldwide are affected by a number of severe and common infections. It has been found that the simple act of following good hand hygiene can prevent or decrease the chances of catching such infections. For example, washing hands can protect 1 in 3 cases of diarrhea and 1 in 5 cases of respiratory infections in children.
I love that hand-washing is an easy, inexpensive, and super effective way to keep you and your loved one’s healthy. By teaching our children effective regular hand washing we can prevent many sick days, as well as those tiring trips to the doctor’s office.
When to wash hands?
Germs can spread from surface to surface or from person to person. In most cases, the spread of germs may happen when kiddos:
● Touch a dirty surface and then touch their eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands
● Don’t wash hands prior to meal time
● Touch contaminated surfaces, then touch face or eyes
● Sneeze, cough, or blow their nose into their hands and then touch common objects or other people
This may be a hard one, but is helpful for children to avoid touching high touch surfaces; like grocery cart handles or doors of public restrooms, in order to help mitigate the spread of germs. In addition to washing their hands before eating, it is also necessary to clean their hands after:
● Using the restroom
● Cleaning around the house
● Playing outside
● Coming in contact with someone who may be sick
● Touching something visibly dirty or used by a stranger
● Sneezing, coughing, or blowing the nose
● Touching garbage
● Touching animals or animal feed at home or a petting zoo
Teaching proper hand-washing to kids
When you are teaching your kids to wash their hands, remember these three essential points:
Model best behavior. Verbal guidance is important, but children learn best when they see YOU doing the action. So, keep up with your hand hygiene; sure enough, you will notice your kids following in your foot steps
Explain proper hand-washing to your kids as they practice so that they know how to clean their hands properly and why this is so important to keep them healthy
Make hand washing fun and interactive. You can look at pictures of germs, read books about clean hands, or role-play washing hands together. All these activities reinforce positive hand-washing behavior and contribute to better understanding.
Teaching your children how to properly wash their hands also encourages them to be more mindful of their surroundings when they are away from home.
According to CDC, proper hand-washing consists of five main steps:
1. Wet your hands with clean warm water
2. Apply soap
3. Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Scrub palm to palm, in between your fingers, the back of your hands, and under your nails
4. Scrubbing your hands for at least 20 seconds is compulsory to kill those germs. Need a timer? Sing Happy Birthday twice from beginning to end. That’s approximately 20 seconds and a fun way of washing hands too
5. Rinse your hands under warm clean water until they are nice and clean
6. Use a clean towel to dry your hands or let them air dry
Using hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes to clean hands
Guiding your kids to wash their hands with soap and water is the ideal way to maintain good hand hygiene and eliminate germs. However, there can be situations where a bathroom or sink are not readily available. For such instances, cleaning hands with hand sanitizer or antibacterial wipes is the second-best option.
Antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol (percentage can be found on the product label) are strong enough to kill the germs on your hands. Please note that baby wipes are not designed to kill germs, and the CDC does not recommend using them to clean your hands.
When your hands are visibly dirty or greasy, hand sanitizer may not be as effective as using an antibacterial wipe or washing your hands with soap and water. So remind your kids to wash their hands as soon as they get the chance, even after using sanitizer or antibacterial wipes to ensure thorough cleaning.
Take Away
Hand-washing is a simple, straightforward way to keep your family healthy. Let’s not forget that flu season is approaching so remember to wash your hands while singing the birthday song twice!
