Taking care of children Personal Hygiene.

Personal hygiene is cleanliness of the body and its proper maintenance. Teaching your child to keep their body clean is an important part of keeping them healthy and helping them to feel good about themselves. Teaching the proper values of hygiene should begin at an early age. When you educate your children on good hygiene, you are teaching them the best way to avoid the spread of infection and disorders. Such habits are cherished and passed on for generations. Teaching your child to keep his body clean is an important part of building his self-esteem.

Basic hygiene and their importance

Food Hygiene

It is important to know and teach children how to avoid the spread of bacteria when they eat. Ask children to wash hands before meals, and do not let them eat from the floor. Teach your children table manners or at least teach them to use cutlery from the early age, it limits the chance of spreading of bacteria. Parents should also look from where you are buying food, where you are storing it and how you are cooking it.

Bathing

Bath your children regularly to keep them clean and healthy. Make a practice of bathing at the end of the day; like this, your children will be clean of all the dirt & sweat and will sleep peacefully. Make the bath time fun with toys that float on water. Make your children blow their nose gently everyday while bathing. Teach them to blow out the candles or blow bubbles, after they have learned it then tell them to blow with their nose.

Hair Care

Teaching your children healthy hair care habits is very important part of their personal hygiene. Wash hair when they are dirty but it does not have to be washed daily as it can remove the natural oils. Bathe them daily but wash your children’s hair every alternate day. Washing hair daily can cause flaking and itching too. Always use shampoo to wash your children’s hair and rub shampoo into their scalp rather than hair. Keep your children hair short for minimising the risk of lice and nits. Choose hairstyles that don’t require heat and chemical treatments. Chemicals in hairstyling products can damage the hair of your children. When in sun, cover their head with a cap/hat etc.

Washing Hands

Washing hands is the most basic and important part of personal hygiene, it stops the spread of infection right there and then. Parents should teach their children to wash their hands properly between the fingers and under the nails before eating, after toilet, after playtime etc. Teach your children to wash their hands themselves before they start going to preschool, as there they will use the toilet on their own with minimum assistance. Teach children to cover their mouth with a handkerchief or a tissue while sneezing or coughing. In the absence of a tissue or a handkerchief, ask them to cough or sneeze into their elbow and never use bare hands, if they do make them wash it immediately.

Oral Hygiene

Good oral hygiene means taking good care of your mouth, teeth and gums. Teaching oral hygiene to children is very important. It prevents bad breath, tooth decay and gum disease, and can help premature falling of their adult teeth. Along with cleaning, food habit plays an important role in oral hygiene. Teach your children the harmful effects of sweets, junk food and soft (sugary) drinks.

Clothes and shoes

Children do not usually smell of perspiration, yet, clothes can get stained and dirty. Clothes collect dead skin cells, sweat and possibly many bacteria. Over the night, these bacteria start to develop and it becomes unhealthy to wear them the next day. Thus, change your children’s clothes daily. Keep at least two pair of shoes and socks for your children. If you make your child wear the same pair every day, the shoes won’t get a chance to dry up of the sweat. Sweaty shoes attract bacteria because of the moist leather or fabric of the shoes and this can lead to fungal infections. Keep the shoes in sun when not in use.

Nail biting

Stop your children to bite their nails and swallow it. Biting nails can transfer the bacteria from your children nails into their mouth. These bacteria can cause many infections and diseases like diarrhoea, which can be very harmful to children. Washing hands and keeping the nails short and clean can prevent such instances but parents should discourage biting of nails anyhow.

Lead by Example

Children do not understand the importance of personal hygiene, they learn about it from parents. Let your children observe your own routine while you follow all the principles of personal hygiene. While you brush your teeth in the morning or wash your face at night, invite them into the bathroom and let them wash themselves playfully.

Hygiene is two third of health, so take care of your children’s hygiene. It will keep their body healthy and body is the only place they have to live.