Making Hand Hygiene Fun for Children

Source: The Indian Express

Hand washing has become one of the most essential habits since the onset of Covid-19 and the pandemic has brought out the importance of following good hand hygiene. Although most of us have invariably started to follow this ritual regularly, getting children to follow regular hand hygiene can be a task for many parents.

Kids could have a tendency to forget or find excuses to skip it. Sometimes they may even practice it just to avoid getting reprimanded by parents, which is not the ideal way to inculcate good lifestyle habits. Kids often forget to wash their hands and touch their mouth, face, and eyes after coming home from the outdoors or touching public surfaces like floor, window, and railings. In such situations, there is a high risk of virus and bacteria transmission and the child could be affected in many ways.

Kids being kids are not entirely aware of the benefits and necessity of hand washing due to which they avoid it. However, turning this simple process into a fun and interesting activity and making it an enjoyable process is the right way to encourage children to have good hand hygiene. Listed below are a few suggestions which can help in making hand washing fun for kids:

•    Get different colored and shaped soaps
•    Sing while you wash hands
•    Educate them about germs
•    Encourage them to do soap surfing and bubble bursting
•    Wash a toy

Also read: Congenital Heart Disease in Kids