Teach your Child how to Wash Hands

There’ve been a few changes here lately, which explains why I haven’t posted in a while. I accepted a teaching position at a wonderful Preschool in my area. I’ll be preparing lesson plans and teaching a classroom of fifteen or more, instead of just one, and actually getting a pay check for a change. I’ll continue to post lesson plans here for parents and caregivers, though, as I hope to increase the circulation and usefulness of this blog.

Another change is temporary – I’m home sick today, perhaps with swine flu. I’ll probably stay home tomorrow, as well, so I don’t risk infecting any of the children. So while I’ve been resting and listening to the news about the spread of this virus, I’ve been concerned with ways we can protect our children and loved ones.

The biggest thing we can do is pretty basic. Wash our hands. Often. It sounds so simple, and yet, it is shocking how few people actually do this! I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been in a public restroom where other people have failed to follow this basic hygiene. Oh, some folks may flick their fingers under the cold water tap and give them a shake, but that does nothing to stop the spread of germs, bacteria and viruses. Then later, if they happen to touch their face – specifically the eyes, nose, or mouth, they’ve just “planted” any number of icky things where they can grow.

So we must teach our children the ONLY way to wash their hands – the perfect way – and instill it in them when they are small. Hopefully, as they mature, it will be such an ingrained habit that they won’t stop just because we aren’t there to remind them. I’m not suggesting that we make them all into mini “Monks” with an obsessive-compulsive disorder. No, there should be a healthy dose of normal in this act. Wash hands well, thoroughly, any time they get dirty. But it’s also okay to get dirty! Let your child play in the sandbox or make mud pies. Then just wash hands very well.

Here’s a fun activity you can do with your child as you teach him about hand washing.

1. Pour a little vegetable oil on your hands and his hands. Smoosh this all over and around, between the fingers, over the backs, into the knuckles. (As an added benefit, once this activity is over, your hands may feel extra smooth!). Talk to him about dirt, and pretend that the vegetable oil – which is not harmful – is the dirt we get on our hands. Shake a tiny bit of cinnamon onto your hands. Talk to him about germs, bacteria and viruses, how they are teeny-tiny and invisible to our “naked” eye, unless we have a powerful magnifying glass. These tiny things are what can make us sick. Pretend that cinnamon specks are viruses. Now, try to wash them off with plain cold water. It doesn’t work very well, does it?

2. Add soap, and use warm water. Now wash hands – see how much better the vegetable oil and cinnamon disappears?

3. Explain that he should ALWAYS use soap and warm water to wash his hands.

4. Talk about WHEN he should wash his hands, ticking them off on his fingers. Review this with him often. He has five fingers, five times he should wash his hands. There are other times – like after visiting a sick friend, or changing a baby’s diapers, but I wanted to keep the list simple so your child can memorize it.

*Before preparing or eating food.

*After playing outside

*After coughing, sneezing, or blowing his nose

*After using the bathroom

*After playing with a pet

5. Talk about HOW LONG he should wash his hands. Sing this little ditty I made up. Sing it through twice – that’s about how long you should take to wash your hands thoroughly, every time – or about twenty seconds. Sing it to the tune of “Happy Birthday to you!”

When you go to wash your hands
Use lots of soap and warm water
Rub them briskly together
And bad germs you will slaughter!

6. When soap and warm water are not available, you may consider using an alcohol-based sanitizer, but BE CAREFUL! Some children have been to the emergency room from hand-sanitizer poisoning. Snopes.com has collected the reports, deciding that this is “true” and not another urban legend. Keep hand sanitizer out of the reach of children, supervise them when using it, and never, ever let them lick their hands after using it! Hand sanitizer smells nice, and most kids will want to taste it. Weird, for us grown ups, but kids learn about everything through their five senses. When they encounter something new, they want to see it, touch it, shake it, smell it, and stick it in their mouth.

It is not necessary to use anti-bacterial soaps! In fact, the use of such soaps may be doing more harm than good. Soap and water kill germs. Overuse of antibiotics can create “super” germs that are resistant to antibiotics. Plain soap decreases the surface tension of water, and adheres to dirt, bacteria, viruses, oil, and the like. When you lather with soap, this all combines together easily and washes down the drain. Antibacterial soap does NOT do this job any better than regular soap. Germ-killing soaps are not the same as antibacterial soaps. Germ-killing soaps use bleach or other disinfectants to kill germs. They do not contain antibiotics, and do not contribute to the “super – bug” problem.

So, have fun this week teaching your child about healthy hands, and I hope you enjoy this cinnamony-scented hand lotion!

Photo Credits:
Top: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/ / CC BY 2.0
Middle: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nirak/ / CC BY 2.0
Bottom: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucyroberts/ / CC BY 2.0

Tags: antibacterial soap, germs, Health, Preschool, swine flu, viruses, wash hands, washing hands