You can’t see them and that’s their strongest ammunition. Guard your children and yourselves from the attack of the germs!

They Are Not All Bad

It has been advised that you should keep your kids away from germs, mainly pathogenic germs. That aside it is a good idea to expose your children to these germs. Here’s why, the bacteria modulate the immune system. This means that bacteria are needed to keep the immune strong to fight against bacteria. Just like how venom helps create the anti-venom.

Now you may be wondering how is this supposed to work. When your immune system is given something to work on then your body won’t get attacked because it knows what to do. On the contrary when your body comes from a germ-free environment you have a weaker immune system and it doesn’t know how to battle against it to protect your body from disease.

It’s just like how you get stronger when you lift weights. But when you don’t lift weights you don’t get stronger. The same principle applies to bacteria. Being exposed to them on the regular is a part of life. Like everything else this also needs to be taken in moderation. Here is where your hygiene comes into play. It is basically controlling the amount of bacteria that you expose yourself to a opposed to completely eliminating its presence.

Glitter Hand Magic

The most common way to keep track of the germs is to ensure that your children wash their hands. There are some kids who hastily rinse their hands, once in a blue moon. You should make sure that they wash their hands thoroughly before every meal. Let’s face it, children don’t understand germs.

Sprinkle your child’s hand with some glitter and give them the challenge of washing the glitter off their hands, with soap of course. Glitter has the nature of being sticky which is why it will take them sometime to get it off their hands.

Explain to your child that the glitter on your hands are like germs and that it is their task to eliminate them. This is going to take them at least 30 seconds, and that is pretty much the amount of time it takes to get the germs of your hands.

Brush their Teeth

The similar procedure can be used to get your children to brush their teeth regularly and make sure they don’t skip their visits to the dentist.

One way of showing your kids that they have scrubbed their teeth clean is by using toothpaste and mouthwash that actually indicate whether there are germs that have been left behind. Germs take shelter in the plaque and ensuring that the teeth are spotless will show that they are keeping their teeth squeaky clean. This will help bring down the risk of them falling ill and perhaps stop them from spreading the germs to others who aren’t infected.

Educate Them About How Germs Spread

Teach them how germs spread by showing them how germs live on different things including their hands and everything they touch. Here is one way how you can exhibit this, pretend to sneeze into your hands and splatter it with washable paint. No go around the house touching anything and everything. This was you can show kids how germs spread and where they are present.

Match the Following

Try playing a game of matching the tools for personal hygiene to that particular body part that it is used for. Have two sets of cards, on one you put up pictures of a soap, tooth brush, nail clippers, and mouthwash. On the other set you can put the corresponding body parts like shoes, hands, teeth, nails, and mouth.

Now shuffle the cards well and get your children to match the form of hygiene to the associated body part. The rate at which they can make the right match depends on their grasping power, so all you have to do is be patient and keep at it.

Good Habits and Bad Habits

Play a sorting game to shed some light on the importance of good hygiene. Write down all the good habits like flossing, washing your hands for 20 seconds and the likes till you have ten. Now take the opposite of these good habits (bad habits) and write them down.

Get your children to pick up chits and tell whether what they have picked is a good habit or not.

And Finally

Teaching your kids about personal hygiene will not get them to practice it on a regular basis. This is just a guiding hand that puts them on the right path. You can always lead by example if you want them to follow through.