Personal hygiene plays a big role in preventing diseases and infections among humans and their social units. When a person maintains basic sanitation practices and hygiene standards, they are relatively germ-free and safe from viral infections and illnesses.
Small, good habits like washing hands, coughing carefully, maintaining distance when sick, or taking a leave, go a long way in keeping your family and their friends healthy. But then, why are viral infections like COVID-19 so deadly and widespread nowadays?
This is due to the rise of pollution, mutating genetic factors, and increased resilience caused by the virus. However, another factor that contributes to the cause, albeit unwillingly, is improper hygiene practices and lax sanitary precautions.
Often, children forget to wash their hands before a meal and busy parents also forget to enforce it specifically or verbally at every meal. As a result of even such small mistakes, external pathogens find it easy to make their way into the human body.
Wreaking havoc on health and weakening immunity in the process.
The collective result is widespread viral epidemics causing widespread damage and death, like the 2020 epidemics. To avoid a repeat of history and to keep further viral infections at bay, here’s a quick guide on the importance of personal hygiene in preventing them, along with some tips.
Viruses, like the novel coronavirus, cause various kinds of diseases ranging in severity among kids and families. Such viruses are commonly transmitted through direct human contact with infected respiratory droplets (via coughing, sneezing, or talking) or indirect contact (by touching surfaces already contaminated by the virus). The virus can even survive on common surfaces for hours to up to several days.
This means everybody in your household is at risk of becoming infected. The only way to prevent it is by maintaining personal hygiene and teaching kids healthy habits from a young age. Also, sanitizers and disinfectants can kill up to 99% of viruses and pathogens present on a common surface, so find a suitable one for your home now. Check out the following tips to involve your kids in hygienic practices to lower the risk of viral infections.
Teach your kids the importance of handwashing and doing it correctly. They must wash their hands thoroughly before and after meals, after game periods, after visiting the washroom, and whenever their hands are visibly dirty. While washing hands, make them thoroughly use soap and wash for 20-30 seconds. A thumb rule suggests singing the happy birthday song twice while washing hands does the trick.
Teach kids basic coughing and sneezing etiquette. They should never use their hands to cover them; instead, they should use a tissue or the crook of their elbow. They must also immediately dispose of the tissues in a suitable bin. This will considerably lower the likelihood of spreading germs among individuals. Also, if your child exhibits consistent signs of a viral infection, refrain from sending them to school and tuition to avoid spreading germs.
While adults are more likely to pay attention to this rule, it applies to all humans. Social distancing has been a popular trend since COVID-19 and is useful for lowering the spread of viral infections in the family and community. While children are more likely to interact and play together, it is ideal to be empathetic and maintain social distance between them. This means they can and should interact to not feel lonely, just not directly until the other is feeling well again.
It Is important to remind kids during flu season that sharing is not always caring. While it is noble and kind to share one’s toys and tiffin with the other, children will end up harming one another by playing together when sick. As their hygiene practices are not as strict or effective as adults, it is up to parents and caregivers to enforce them till their kids know better.
It is vital to disinfect your child’s toys and daily essentials like toothbrushes, hair combs, and towels. These items accumulate germs and viruses over time and become easily contaminated when your child falls ill. Remember to disinfect all these items before returning them to your now-healthy kid and clean them on a regular basis.
Personal hygiene plays a big role in preventing diseases and infections that commonly infect humans. Small practices like regular hand washing and keeping household common surfaces clean may not be able to guarantee a virus-free household. But they can provide one with their minimal presence, only if you follow this guide and remain consistent with hygienic practices.