Nov 3, 2008

Teaching Kids to Wash Their Hands

We have just finished dealing with the dreaded stomach flu bug here. At least, I hope we have finished! Now that we are in flu and cold season, it is more important than ever to get our little ones to wash their hands and to make sure they wash right!

Here are a few tips I've picked up when it comes to getting my kids to pick up that soap and scrub:

Mom Washes, We All Wash! My kids love to do what I do...but don't they all? So if I wash my hands, I can almost always get them to wash theirs as well.

Singing Under The Faucet! Kids should take at least 20 seconds to get those cute little grubby hands clean. So come up with a song to sing while washing hands. When the song is done, so should the germs be!

Rinse and Rinse Again! My kids will tend to put extra heaping amounts of soap on their little hands if I don't stop them in time. So when the song is done, have an extra line or two to sing and rinse one more time. If the soap is not completely rinsed off, it can dry young skin.

Practice Makes Perfect! Kids do best with a routine. So reminders when to wash is important, so they will hopefully get into the routine. Before eating, after playing, after using the bathoom, after petting pets, touching garbage cans, shopping carts, etc. are just some of the times kids need to know to wash their hands. Making a game can help, like " this a time to wash our hands or not?"

Soap is soap! We just use regular pump soap in our house...nothing fancy. No brand name soap in our house.

Suds and More! Kids need to know that they need to wash more than their fingertips. Hands, fingers and wrists should all be washed in warm sudsy water.

And it's always a good idea to have some on the go antibacterial wipes with you when washing hands is not going to be possible.
