Babies are naturally curious and want to touch them everywhere, so they can easily get all kinds of bacteria on their hands. To avoid being affected by colds, diarrhea, and other diseases, parents must always wash their hands correctly and effectively. This issue of popular science for you: give your baby the correct way to wash his hands, come and see if you do it right?
6 things you must know to wash your baby effectively
1. Master the correct hand washing steps
2. Which is better, soap or hand sanitizer?
As long as you follow the steps to effectively wash your hands, it doesn’t make much difference whether you use soap or hand sanitizer.
But in public places, hand sanitizer is more suitable than soap. This is because soap is easily contaminated by various pathogens due to being placed and repeatedly contacted by people.
The contact surface of the hand sanitizer and the hand is generally only the pump head on the bottle body, which avoids the possibility of cross-infection. However, parents must control the amount of hand sanitizer when washing their hands to prevent some ingredients from remaining on their hands.
3. Washing hands with running water are cleaner
Many parents are accustomed to washing their hands with water from the basin, but this method is not scientific. Because in the process of washing hands and applying soap, the water in the basin has been soiled. If you wash your hands with this kind of water, bacteria will re-contaminate your hands, so parents should wash their hands with running water.
Tips: When washing soap or hand sanitizer, let your baby’s hands hang down and let the water wash from the wrists, back of hands to fingertips.
4. What is considered clean?
Studies have found that a dirty hand contains 40,000 to 400,000 bacteria, of which Shigella can survive on the hand for 3 days, and the flu virus can survive on the wet and warm hand for 7 days. However, if you can wash your hands correctly and effectively, you can wash away about 99% of the germs on your hands. But the survey results of the Ministry of Health show that the correct hand washing rate of residents is only 4%! In other words, 96% of people do not know how to wash their hands properly.
Most people wash their hands very quickly, soak them in water, apply soap or hand sanitizer, and then wash them off immediately. The entire process takes only 10 to 20 seconds. This does not wash your hands clean. The World Health Organization recommends that each hand washing time should be more than 20 seconds, to achieve a good cleaning effect.
5. Try to dry your hands after washing
After washing, if you can’t dry your hands thoroughly, bacteria and other microorganisms can easily multiply on the damp epidermis, increasing the chance of illness. Therefore, after washing your hands, be sure to use a clean towel or paper towel to dry your hands, including finger joints. Of course, you can also dry your hands naturally.
Tips: Be sure to prepare his/her exclusive towel for the baby, and wash it frequently, do not mix it with adults to avoid cross-infection.
6.Moisturize after washing hands
Although frequent hand washing helps prevent diseases, it can also easily cause dry and rough hand skin. Therefore, while urging the child to wash his hands, pay attention to protecting his hand skin.
Seeing this, I believe many parents will say that I can wash my hands correctly and effectively, but what should I do if the child cries and makes trouble when he washes his hands? Don’t worry, try the following methods.
Tips to make your baby fall in love with handwashing:
1. Parents play an exemplary role
To develop good handwashing habits for children, parents must first set an example, and they should also have such good habits. Whether you need to wash your hands or not, when your baby needs it, take him to wash it together. When your child’s habit slowly develops, you don’t have to be so “troublesome”. And while washing your hands with your baby, it can also increase your mother-child relationship, why not do it?
2. Make children fall in love with handwashing through storytelling
Children generally like to listen to stories. They will think of themselves as the hero of the story or regard him as their role model or friend. Parents can use storytelling to let their children understand the importance of handwashing so that they can be proactive Go wash your hands.
3.Play handwashing games with your baby
Play handwashing games with your baby, let the baby hold the doll, and then you wash your hands with water. Tell the baby that after washing your hands, the doll will be clean and will not get sick, so that the baby will gradually like to wash hands.
4. Use your baby’s favorite items to tempt him
The baby has the most beloved toy or food, parents may wish to use this to “seduce” him! Tell him that if he can wash his hands obediently, he can play with his favorite toy for a while, or eat a small bowl of biscuits! I believe that few babies can withstand this temptation.
5. Make handwashing fun
Mom can sing the baby’s favorite nursery rhymes while washing the baby’s hands. This will not only cultivate the baby’s sentiment but also make washing hands easy and fun. It can be described as killing two birds with one stone.
