Do you find imposing handwashing for 20 seconds to your child challenging? While there’s always that magic of repetition, music, may just be the fairy dust you may need to keep the approach lighter and fun. Let me share to you this handwashing song for your kid that even comes with easy steps.

Kids slobber, tinker, explore. What comes with their natural curiosity is their daring ways of experiencing the world through their mouth. With that much energy, channel it through song and dance. Get hold of this episode in my channel featuring a song and a story about handwashing.

Infusing good habits such as handwashing for 20 seconds to your kids

It’s a giveaway. I believe “good” habits are beneficial to parents, as much as it is beneficial to kids. Getting these established in fertile minds, like that of a young child’s, will help them get independent. We know that this is a pillar for them in building their confidence and trust in themselves, which are essential qualities that would help make sturdy roots for skills they would need to thrive in the future.

Handwashing is one of the primary self-defence against disease transmission. It is very simple and yet, the most neglected. But maybe, if it will become a habit, then it could not be easily bypassed as it gets embedded into the subconscious then, later on, strengthened with an understanding of why it is important.

Being a parent, an educator and an advocate for health care, this called me to act on it.

The platform

At this moment, I feel fortunate and responsible, at the same time, to consider social platforms in sending out resonating messages like these. Experiencing this pandemic makes you think that the simplest healthy habits are the ones that help us evade infection. Handwashing for 20 seconds, being one of them, is so doable, even by a toddler (but of course, with needed assistance), as I have my 1-year-old daughter to be my first practitioner. I hope that my content could help you and your kid have some fun in the whole process of acquiring such a good habit as this episode includes a song with little movements and a story by Team Kramer.

Why do we need to do handwashing for 20 seconds?

As adults, it’s pretty self-explanatory. Having to put it in simplest terms to back up the habit you want to establish in your child, though, is the challenge. Team Kramer’s book mentioned that when you wash your hands, you are keeping your family safe. How?

You see, our hands are our tools in doing many things such as eating, touching, and performing many tasks. It can hold many things. Because of that, it gets harmful organisms transmitted from one host to another, including ourselves. One way to put these harmful microorganisms is to keep our hands clean either by handwashing or hand sanitization.

While handwashing of 20 seconds may need water and soap, the manner in doing it is also significant in the process. Lathering for 20 seconds makes it an effective one. Meaning, turning the faucet on and off, and getting and putting down the soap is not counted in these 20 seconds. As the bubbling agent is required for some bacterial and fungal microbes to get killed, the lather allows the rest to get easily washed off even if they don’t get necessarily killed. 

How often do you need to do handwashing?

There’s no fixed time to do this. Be aware that the frequency highly depends on the activity done prior. After going to the toilet, being outdoors, and handling dirt, money, or even a handshake should bring you to a thought of washing hands or sanitizing.

Children don’t necessarily do these activities on their own. We assist them most of the time when they go to the toilet and when they eat. They don’t necessarily hold money anyway. But, there are times that they get to pick up something from the floor and then put it directly to their mouth. Without vigilant eyes, this might lead to something disastrous. Some toys could be vehicles to ingesting harmful substances because of dried saliva. The same goes with monkey bars at the playground. These and slides may have been held with hands that held dirt containing pinworms.

Is sanitizing equally helpful as handwashing for kids.

If you are to look at it from a perspective of whether hand sanitisers are good to use or not, let’s look at the purpose it serves. To sanitize. So, would you rather have dirty hands or sanitized hands? I thought so.

If handwashing is impossible to achieve, hand sanitisers are the second-best option. Here’s a DIY hand sanitizing formula that you could prepare for your usage if you feel unsure of the commercial ones brought to you by www.parents.com:

The only culprit that most parents face in using hand sanitisers is whether it’s safe to eat the food right after using it. While the best option is to wash your hands with water and soap before eating, 60-95% of alcohol is effective in killing germs. Therefore, assist your kids when eating. Use the utensils, as an alternative, instead of allowing them to actually hold the food.

Hand sanitisers are seen as culprits of dry spells it comes with. As the skin gets dried up due to the alcohol content, essential oils may ease this. If you are to do your own, add coconut oil as a moisturizer. As long as the rubbing alcohol contents remain 2/3’s of the solution, the solution remains effective. What you have to be watchful of is methanol, the kind of wood alcohol, also known as fuel.

In general, any of these kinds of alcohol, if ingested by children, is toxic and harmful. Reminding you to keep a keen eye on your children may seem redundant. Just consider it a friendly one as there could be no other way to prevent these fatal incidents but to help one another. So, if you think this content is worth sharing, don’t hesitate to do so.

Additional takeaway

For the meantime, if you are confident with this context, you may expand to introducing your children to further learning capacities such as phonics, or even a new language. Enjoy your DIY Monday and please leave topics that you may want to explore or teach your kids with. And I’ll strive to have it featured with songs and some more storytelling.