A guide to Effective Hand Washing
Washing your hands is one of the single most important actions you can take to avoid getting sick, spreading germs, and preventing diseases.
Washing our hands is something we learnt when we were children, and something we teach to our children. But during a pandemic such as Coronavirus – it’s critical that we are washing our hands correctly to keep ourselves, and our families safe.
It’s not just children that need to remember to wash their hands regularly, but everyone in the household, so that no germs or diseases are passed on to the rest of the family.
Did you know the average person would wash their hands between six and twelve times a day? How often do you wash your hands? There are several instances in a day where you should wash your hands, these include: Before and after eating or touching food; after using the bathroom; after blowing your nose, sneezing or coughing; after touching any animals or their waste; after changing a child’s diaper; after touching rubbish; and after playing outside.
So how do you effectively wash your hands? Washing your hands can be done in five easy steps:
Wet your hands with warm water.
Apply soap to your hands and rub them together vigorously.
Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds, getting every surface area.
Rinse your hands under warm running water, until there is no soap left on them.
Dry your hands using a clean towel or air-‐dry them.
You may be thinking 20 seconds doesn’t seem too long? Well it’s probably longer than you realise. Try singing through ‘Happy Birthday’ twice and that’s how long you should be scrubbing!
If counting to ‘20’ or singing ‘Happy Birthday’ 24 times a day isn’t too appealing to your young ones, here’s another suggestion. Many of your children have probably introduced you to the global phenomenon that is ‘Baby Shark’, but the question is – have you introduced them to Baby Shark’s new song, ‘Wash Your Hands’?
This song is a great way to get your littlies into the rhythm of washing their hands, with a catchy song that will never grow old.
One last thing – If you haven’t managed to get your hands on some liquid gold from the supermarket or chemist (i.e. antibacterial soap) – don’t fret. Infectious disease experts
actually say these kill away some of the good bacteria in your hands, improving the environment for resistant bacteria to grow. In other words, washing yours and your children’s hands with normal hand soap from the supermarket is going to help you avoid getting sick during this outbreak just as much as antibacterial soap
