The importance of children’s hand hygiene has become increasingly important as cold & flu season begins to take effect and health authorities insist on improved hygiene practices in school to limit the spread of common infections.
Children and young people need to have a better understanding and access to the right hand hygiene facilities to ensure that they are maintaining positive and hygienic standards for themselves while they grow.
In this blog post, we will review why children’s hand hygiene is important, how to encourage young people to improve their hand hygiene, and how NWR Hygiene can facilitate positive hand hygiene practices.
Why is it important to teach children hand hygiene practices?
Hand hygiene is a crucial milestone for the development of any young person. Here are various reasons why children’s hand hygiene is so important:
1. Limit the spread of germs
Children are often in close contact with other children and adults when they’re in schools, nurseries, and other educational settings. This includes sharing equipment, desks and seating, and other touchpoints like doors and light switches.
With proper hand hygiene in place, including handwashing with soap and water or sanitiser, the transmission of germs and illnesses such as colds, flu, and gastrointestinal infections can be reduced. This not only protects the children themselves and ensures their attendance remains high but also helps prevent the spread of diseases within the facility and the wider community.
2. Create long-term positive habits
Habits formed in childhood tend to persist into adulthood, which is why teaching children good hand-washing practices sets the foundation for a lifetime of positive health and hygiene.
Hand hygiene is a simple but effective way to empower children to actively participate in their own health care. It instils a sense of personal responsibility and self-care that can benefit them throughout their lives.
How do we encourage better hand hygiene practices?
In your education facility, hand hygiene must become a top priority to ensure the health and safety of all within the setting, including other adults and children.
Start encouraging your children’s hand hygiene by teaching them the importance of hand washing and how to thoroughly wash their hands. This skill can be taught through various methods and be woven in between other events, such as before snack times, after break times, or before and after lunch.
The following technique is recognised as the most efficient and straightforward way to teach children good hand hygiene:
- Wet hands with water and soap and rub your palms together
- Clean the backs of each hand
- Rub in between your fingers
- Interlock your hands to clean the backs of your fingers
- Clean both thumbs
- Finish by cleaning your fingertips
What can NWR Hygiene do to assist with hand hygiene?
Children’s hand hygiene is important for all education facilities to focus on to ensure that visitors, staff, and students are as safe and informed as possible. If you’re an education facility looking to improve your student’s hand hygiene, we can help!
NWR Hygiene offers accessible hand hygiene services for a variety of sectors and this includes the education sector. We can provide modern soap dispensers, regular and reliable soap refills and sanitiser dispensers, to ensure that your premises offer high-quality hand hygiene facilities.
Contact our team today for more information on our hand hygiene services.
