Teaching children to wash their hands

It appears that despite the importance of hygiene, even more so during our current pandemic crisis, we are still not washing our hands often enough.

Children are the major culprits when it comes to this and they are also the biggest spreader of germs and illnesses.

It is up to parents to teach kids from an early age to wash hands well, though not creating an obsessive disorder about it is very important.

It appears that government campaigns to keep clean just aren’t getting the message across as new research from hygiene and tissue paper company SCA reveals some shocking facts about our cleanliness, or lack of it.

A massive 72 per cent of the UK believe that children should be able to play and get a bit dirty without having to worry about hygiene, but only 21 per cent of parents are making sure their children wash their hands before eating, despite this action helping to reduce the risk of illness.

It isn’t just children though as a third of the nation are not washing their hands properly and not often enough.

Only 27.1 per cent of the UK in general wash their hands after travelling on public transport but the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that 27 per cent of commuters had faecal bacteria on their hands.

Professor Norman Noah from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said of the results: “Children’s hands can be especially dirty, and at school they are more likely to pick up infections; as well as transmit them to others, including adults. Good hand hygiene is therefore essential so it’s so important for parents to teach their children good habits by school age at the latest.”

Knowing that children should wash their hands and actually getting them to do it are very different things, so the professionals – SCA and Professor Norman Noah have come up with some advice about when and how to do it.

When your child should wash their hands:
After travelling to and from school on public transport
Before and after eating school or packed lunches
After playing games or sport
After sneezing and blowing noses
After going to the toilet

How to develop your child’s hygiene habits:
Be a role model, wash your and your child’s hands at the same time and teach them how to wash their hands properly; use soap, water, and a clean disposable towel. Wash palms and all fingers especially the tips

Children are naturally poor at hand washing – teach them from as early an age as possible. Concentrate first on doing so after toilet, before eating or touching food and after playing in the garden. Show them how to do it properly, with soap and water. The earlier the training commences the more the routine becomes ingrained

Make a game of it, pretend to smell their hands and make a nice or nasty face as you think fit

Make it easy for your children to reach the sink. Place a stool near any low sinks

Make hand-washing fun. Buy bright and colourful soaps or even a rubber duck to play with in the sink while getting washed up

Reward your children every time they successfully initiate hand hygiene