Teaching the basics of proper personal hygiene is important for keeping kids healthy and clean. It’s especially important for grade schoolers to practice good hygiene—hand washing, in particular—because they spend so much of their time in close contact with each other in the classroom, sharing everything from desks, to chairs, to crayons, to germs.
Your child needs to keep themselves clean to remain healthy and to feel good about them. Good personal hygiene will help boost their self-esteem and confidence.
Teaching your child good hygiene habits
Everyone needs to keep clean to kill germs and avoid getting sick. Good personal hygiene also boosts confidence by dealing with problems like bad breath or body odor.
For children, the basics of good personal hygiene are:
- Washing hands
- Covering their mouth when they cough
- Having regular baths or showers
- Brushing and flossing teeth.
You may have to help your child practice good personal hygiene habits. These will become even more important as they grow older and approach puberty. Being able to talk openly and honestly about keeping clean will help you manage the more difficult personal hygiene issues that are likely to come up when they are teenagers.
Preventing Body Odour
To keep feet odor free, your child should always wear cotton socks with closed toe shoes. You should allow shoes to dry out when wet to prevent odor. You can also buy removable insoles that can be washed. Socks should be changed daily to prevent odor.
Clothes can be a likely culprit for body odor. During hot weather, clothes can get smelly. You should make sure your child changes their clothes every day, especially underwear.
Washing hands
Most germs are spread through hand contact. Regularly washing hands will prevent your child and others from getting sick.
Encourage your child to wash their hands with soap and water:
- When hands look dirty
- Before eating or preparing food
- After touching raw meats, including chicken and beef
- After touching any body fluids like blood, urine or vomit
- After touching animals
- After blowing their nose, sneezing or coughing
- After going to the toilet.
Preventing Body Odour
To keep feet odor free, your child should always wear cotton socks with closed toe shoes. You should allow shoes to dry out when wet to prevent odor. You can also buy removable insoles that can be washed. Socks should be changed daily to prevent odor.
Clothes can be a likely culprit for body odor. During hot weather, clothes can get smelly. You should make sure your child changes their clothes every day, especially underwear.
Sneezing and Coughing
Germs travel far and wide. You might already be familiar with the facts that a sneeze travels up to 100 miles per hour and can send 100,000 germs into the air. Research shows that sneezes and coughs can actually travel up to 200 times further than originally presumed. Get your child into the habit of covering his or her mouth and nose with a tissue, or into the crook of their arm if they can’t reach a tissue fast enough.
Tips for Proper Hair Care
You should teach your child to wash their hair daily. Daily brushing gets rid of dead hair and skin cells and keeps your child’s locks tangle free. Hair should be trimmed regularly, especially girls with long hair. You should discourage your child to share hair accessories and hats to prevent getting head lice. Head lice are spread from person-to-person so teaching these habits is key with elementary age students.
Encourage good dental health and hygiene
Younger children have the motor skills necessary to do a fairly good job of brushing teeth on their own (though you may still want to take a quick turn until he’s 6 or 7). Get your child into the habit of flossing, and brushing his tongue to avoid bad breath. Get a fun timer to help your child brush longer, like a cool little hourglass filled with blue sand.
