Click here to subscribe today or Login.
As many of you know my wife, Mary, is a devoted volunteer for children’s causes. Early in our marriage she ran a wonderful after-school program in Baltimore. At that same time, our baby daughter, Kate, was fortunate to attend a pre-school program at another site run by a terrific friend and colleague of Mary named Vance DeGenova. Often during these years I would be rotating during my training on various pediatric surgery services. Needless to say, with the Casale family exposed every day to 3 different groups of kids, with all their germs, we were never “sniffle free.”
Whether your child is excited for their first day of school or heartbroken that summer is officially over, one thing is certain when they step into their classroom: They’ll be exposed to germs.
From borrowing pencils from a classmate, to pulling books off the library shelves, playing on the playground, trading snacks in the cafeteria and more, they’re all exchanging germs with each other.
We teach children the importance of sharing, but such is not the case when it comes to germs.
When your child is at school, they’re bound to pick up and share a fair amount of germs, even bringing some home to you. While you can’t stop the natural passing of germs at school, you can prevent the germs your child encounters from making them sick – all they have to do is learn how to properly wash their hands.
Washing your hands is one of the most important steps you can take to avoid getting sick and stopping the spreading of germs to others.
Many diseases and health conditions are spread by not washing your hands with soap and water. While your child is at home, you can make sure their hands are clean, but you can also use this as an opportunity to teach them how to keep their hands clean at school.
Encourage your kids to wash all parts of their hands, including between their fingers and the backs of their hands. Also make sure they’re washing their hands long enough – teach them to sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice while washing their hands.
You should teach your child why it’s important to use soap and water, explaining to them that water alone doesn’t get rid of the germs on their hands.
Show them these steps to washing their hands properly:
- Wet their hands and apply soap, rubbing their palms together until the soap gets bubbly.
- Rub each palm over the back of the other hand.
- Rub between their fingers on each hand.
- Rub the back of their fingers and around each thumb.
- Rub both palms with finger tips.
- Rinse their hands under clean running water.
- Dry their hands with a clean dry towel.
It’s also important to teach your kids when to wash their hands.
Explain to them why it’s important to wash their hands before eating and touching their face and after going to the bathroom, coughing, sneezing, blowing their nose, playing outside, touching class pets and whenever their hands look dirty.
You should also help children get into the habit of washing their hands as soon as they walk in to the house after school– just think about how many germs might be on their school bus.
Just in case soap and water aren’t accessible at some point during your child’s school day, you can pack a travel size hand sanitizer in their backpack to help them keep their hands germ free. It’s a reasonable substitute but plain old soap and water works well too…it kept the Casales alive though the Baltimore years.
