Welcome to The Foam Box, where we believe that washing should be fun!

When to Wash

When should hands be washed? Many books and websites contain huge lists of times that seem to be impractical for adults, let alone children. After you handle pets? Have you met my cats? They are on my lap, off to look out the window, sitting next to me, on the sofa for a snooze, outside, inside demanding cuddles, and so on. I'd be washing my hands every fifteen minutes, and it would be the same if I washed my hands every time I coughed into them. Here are what I believe to be the important times, and as adults it doesn't do us any harm to buck our ideas up if we have become a little forgetful about good practice. Forgetting to wash hands always increases the risk of disease and a couple of days of flu or a stomach bug is all very well if you are childless, but when you have children to look after it can become a miserable time. It is even worse if you have passed on the bug to your children and partner.

Wash Before:

Cooking or eating. Once babies are able to feed themselves it is time to start wiping their hands before the meal, even a precrawler can get their hands into all sorts of places!
Feeding a baby. Hands must always be washed before preparing formula, unlike breast milk it does not contain natural antibacterial factors and can become contaminated very easily. Hands should be washed before bottle feeding or feeding solids, and it is good for older children to get into this habit too if they like to help with caring. Ideally hands would be washed before breast feeding too.

Wash After:

Using the toilet, the potty, or changing a nappy. Start good habits early, by eighteen months a child can wash their hands too after a nappy change, and ensure hand washing after every use of the potty. This is one of the most important habits to instill. Be particularly careful to explain to boys that even though they don't think they have touched any wee some does actually run around onto their hand while they are aiming, plus they are still touching the toilet flush which was last touched by someone else before they washed their hands.
After handling raw meat, poultry or fish. This is the primary way that you can reduce the risk of food poisoning and you should always prepare meat and place it ready on a plate or chopping board, then wash your hands before continuing with your recipe. You can then tip the meat into the dish you are preparing without handling it again. Although it may be some time before your child is handling raw meat it is not too soon to show them this procedure, if they are mature enough to understand what you are explaining.
After cleaning out pets. It is surprisingly easy to forget because after the cleaning comes the addition of sweet clean saw dust and hay.

There are many other activities that spread germs on your hands to some degree or another, playing in the garden, sneezing, wrestling the dog, and these can all be transferred to your own mouth, nose, eyes, or ears or passed along to someone else. Ideally hands would be washed after all these instances, but when teaching a child about handwashing, as with any new skill, the idea is to set it up so that it is very easy to succeed. By keeping the list of handwashing occasions short it is much easier to remember each time. As children mature you can share with them other times for hand washing and gradually add to the list if they are ready.

Remember that good handwashing technique is as important for adults as children. If you try washing your hands like a surgeon you will notice instantly the areas that you have cleaned that are missed by the normal wringing action.