Soap, Sanitizers, and Safety: Healthy Hand-Washing for Families

• Dec. 14, 2011
• Topic: Wellness, Pregnancy and Parenting

Just as parents have learned to teach their children to cough into their elbows rather than their hands to prevent the spreading of germs, it’s also important for parents to teach their children about hand washing/sanitizing by making it a culture of the household. Children should wash or sanitize their hands after using the bathroom, before eating, after playing outside, after blowing their noses and whenever they have visible dirt on their hands. 

According to Virtua infectious disease specialist, Shafinaz Akhter, MD, PhD, “It’s amazing how effective hand sanitizing is in preventing bacterial infections. It can make a huge difference in the health of your family and everyone that you encounter.” Dr. Akhter explains the easiest way to clean your hands so that you remove dirt AND kill germs:  

• Rub one squirt of hand sanitizer between your fingers, on your palms and the tops of your hands for 30 seconds – this is equal to 120 seconds of hand washing with a bar of soap!
• To demonstrate how effective this is, a unit of ICU nurses can spend 3 hours a day  washing their hands with hand sanitizer as opposed to 16 hours using soap and water

“Bacteria can’t survive on dry, cold surfaces, so there’s no need to run and sanitize your hands every time you touch a door handle or a computer keyboard. To avoid spreading germs when your kids are sick, encourage them not to touch their faces or anybody else’s and wash hands a hundred times more than they normally would,” says Dr. Akhter.

Dr. Akhter’s advice on the preferred methods of hand washing/sanitizing: 

1. Hand sanitizers are easy, quick and efficient. Let your child pick out a portable one in their favorite color with a pleasing scent and teach them to carry it at all times.
2. Plain soap and water requires a little more time but also works well. Teaching your child to sing “Happy Birthday” twice when washing with soap and water is not only fun, but also guarantees the 120 seconds required for maximum effectiveness.
3. Most anti-bacterial soaps are no more effective than regular hand soaps and contain the chemical Triclosan, which has been shown to cause antibiotic resistance.

Most importantly, regular hand washing should become second nature to children. Whether it’s teaching them to sing “Happy Birthday” at the sink or equipping them with a 30-second hand-sanitizer method, the possibility of fewer colds this season is certainly enough to motivate any parent get their kids on the road to healthy hand washing.