Personal hygiene for kids: facts, tips and activities
Every person has up to 10 million bacteria only on the hands, not to mention the rest of the body. This is why health and personal hygiene for kids and adults are so important. And while women and men already understand the importance of taking good care of themselves, it is essential to discuss children’s hygiene and share some useful tips with you.
Health talk on personal hygiene
According to medonegroup.com, each of us has from 2 to 10 million bacteria just on the part of the hand from fingers to elbows. Isn’t it shocking?
Every child just like every adult is surrounded by tones of microbes. Only personal hygiene for kids can minimise the harmful effect of these microbes and keep the child healthy and happy. Do you think that it is enough simply to wash your kid’s hands and believe that you are doing everything to maintain good hygiene?
No. It takes more than this. Besides, personal hygiene has become like real science. There are many useful hygiene tips you can follow in your child’s everyday life. There are many suggestions and explanations on improving the health of the whole family by teaching little ones how to perform different actions regularly (every day) and form useful habits for their healthy lifestyle.
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Children’s personal hygiene & types
Before we start our health talk on personal hygiene, we should find the best explanation of what this science is about. Well, it is not complicated at all. Everyone understands this since childhood because it is a set of different actions that are meant to keep ourselves clean, well-being, and healthy.
Children’s personal hygiene is very important because all kids are like batteries. They are running here and there. They have enough energy to jump around from morning till night, love to play in the sand, enjoy touching dirt, cannot avoid getting in touch with dust and meet millions of bacteria everywhere they go to.
Little kids touch bacteria on the playgrounds, in the parks, at school, in the kindergarten, at different children centers, in the movies, at home. Mostly the bacteria end up on their hands, and with hands, they are easily transferred all around the child's body.
Poor and bad hygiene can cause a big number of illnesses. It can lead to dangerous diseases, so it is better to get introduced to the main types of personal hygiene since your early days of life, remember all the tips and form the healthy habits for everyday of your life.
Here are the hygiene types every child should know about:
- Hand hygiene
- Body hygiene
- Food hygiene
- Sleep hygiene
Below we will share the main hygiene tips that should help your little ones to form their personal useful and healthy habits.
Hand hygiene
Why should little kids wash their hands many times a day? Why has it to turn into a habit after attending the toilet room, getting home from the playground, before eating and going to bed, after playing with the smartphone or on the computer, after riding a bicycle, after sneezing and coughing, etc.?
You might not be surprised at all, but the germs that are on our hands are capable of living for 2-3 hours. And when your hands are wet they can spread up to thousand times more bacteria than if you keep them dry. Most of the diseases are caused by hand germs, this is why hand hygiene is extremely important for every child ever since the first days of his or her life.
It is also curious that money, smartphones, and toys have more germs than the seat of the toilet.
Anyways, every child has to take care of hand hygiene to avoid diarrhoea, various diseases caused by hand germs and a big number of illnesses.
Here is how kids need to wash their hands everyday since childhood:
- Turn on the water and make the hands wet.
- Take some soap and thoroughly rub the hands for half a minute, make sure you are cleaning under your nails, in between every finger and whole hands up to your wrists.
- Wash the soapy hands under clean water.
- Use the towel or drying machine to dry the hands before leaving the bathroom.
Since children don’t pay attention to their hands when they need to wipe their eyes quickly, grab the favourite fruit or candy and eat it, touch the mouth, etc. – it becomes necessary for them to make sure their hands are clean throughout the day. All these hygiene tips can save the child from millions of bacteria and stay away from a big number of infections.
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Body hygiene
This type of children's personal hygiene is just as important as keeping your hands clean. Our bodies want to be taken care of to look nice, feel comfortable, and stay healthy.
It is very important for parents to teach their little ones how to keep their hair, skin, feet, and other parts of the body clean.
For example, here are some top tips for good body hygiene:
- Tip 1. Take bath regularly. This way your skin will be always fresh, moisturized and clean, it will be protected from bacteria and possible skin diseases. It is perfect if a child knows how to take a quick shower in the morning and after school.
- Tip 2. It is necessary to wash the face every day. Children often touch their eyes, cheeks, nose and if they don’t wash hands and face, there could be early problems with acne, allergy and other facial skin issues.
- Tip 3. Hair also needs to be washed regularly. This way it will look shiny and stay healthy. Girls whose hair is very long are advised to use different hairstyles while going to school and throughout the day and not leave it loose because a lot of dirt, dust and bacteria can get on the hair as well.
- Tip 4. No one likes when their feet get smelly, but bacteria love smelly and sweaty toes and feet. Children have to wash their feet and toenails to remove dirt, bacteria and keep them nice, dry and clean. This way there will be no unpleasant smell and no skin problems.
- Tip 5. Changing underwear every day is also a must-do hygiene procedure for every boy and girl, since childhood. Washing the private regions regularly is also extremely important for all humans.
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Food hygiene
This is also an important habit to form because good hygiene of your child depends on how the food is treated. Dirty vegetables and unwashed fruit can easily lead to diarrhoea, stomach pain, vomiting and poisoning of all body systems. For some children, such symptoms can be fatal.
Here are some hygiene tips parents have to teach their little minds:
- It is must-do to wash hands before you touch, handle or eat any food.
- It is better to avoid eating while walking on the street due to the big amount of dust and dirt in the air.
- It is important to also wash hands after taking any type of food to keep them clean.
- Washed hands have to be wiped to stay dry and protected from bacteria.
- If kids help you in the kitchen, make sure their and your hair are tied back to avoid getting into the food along with germs.
- Children should not cough or sneeze directly at food.
These simple tricks are easy to follow, and they can protect your child’s health really well.
Sleep hygiene
This is also an important thing to keep in mind. A child who sleeps great at night feels incredible during the day because all the cells restore and the body feels relaxed.
Quality night sleep is also important for a child’s brain and mind. When it comes to creating perfect sleep hygiene for little ones, their parents should make sure their son or daughter gets enough sleep and at the correct time. Such habits have to be developed since the first days of the baby’s life.
To stay healthy and strong, a kid has to sleep for 10 hours per day. It is also better if a child has his or her own bed, relaxing environment in the room and follows the same routine throughout the year. Such habits help to form the children’s psychological and physical health.
Health and hygiene
Since you already know about good hygiene, we should also talk about health and how bad care of a child’s body can lead to unpleasant consequences.
It is believed that personal hygiene is closely related to the child’s immune system. Those kids who live in poor conditions, do not take care of themselves and have no hygiene habits tender to get ill more often than children whose immune system is stronger because their families understand the connection between health and personal hygiene.
Developing good hygiene habits on time solves a big number of problems in the child life:
- Children are happier, they smile more often and feel great since they live in comfort.
- Kids catch less bacteria and avoid a big number of illnesses.
- Healthy kids are more active socially.
- Children who are clean and nicely presented are more confident.
On the other hand, those children whose parents do not share with them main hygiene tips usually look less confident, stay shy and go through different diseases until they grow up and finally get the health talk on their personal hygiene.
You have learned the main secrets and tips on how to take good hygiene of your child. Remember our advice and stay healthy and happy!
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Source: Legit.ng