5 Easy Ways to Teach Kids to Wash Their Hands

Every parent knows the struggle to get your kids to wash their hands. The thought of them touching their mouth or face with dirty, germ-riddled hands is enough to make the toughest of us cringe. While it’s important for youngsters to be free to get messy with both indoor and outdoor activities, teaching them how to wash their hands is a very important life lesson. To make it easier, we’ve come up with some fun and easy ways to teach your kids the hand washing steps they need to give them and yourself peace of mind

Kids will be kids, but as a parent, it’s only natural to worry about their hand hygiene. As your little one grows, their hands will be on everything, touching everything. That’s why enforcing a proper hand washing procedure from a young age will really set the building blocks for their hygiene journey. But sometimes it’s not as simple as that; children are visual learners and often mimic those around them. Let’s take a look at our top 5 ways to teach your kids to wash their hands.

When songs are catchy, it tends to stay in your head for a while. By creating a cute and fun jingle for the hand washing steps, you’re helping your child memorise what they need to do. If you can’t create a song, that’s no problem! There are plenty of hand washing songs on the internet that you could use as your own. Every time your child sings the hand washing song, they’ll want to wash their hands, which is a win for you.

Nothing motivates a child more than knowing they’re getting a treat at the end of an activity. One of the best ways to encourage good hand hygiene for your little ones is to create a rewards chart. For example, every time they wash their hands successfully in a day, they can get a treat or reward after dinner. You can create any rewards system you want, as long as they get the hand washing steps right. Use stars, stickers or even bright colours to tick off the chart every time they wash their hands. Their happy smiles and sparkling clean hands at the end of the day will be worth it.

Children’s books are filled with cute animations and stories that can help a child learn new things. They need to know what hand washing is and why it’s important so that they will know when to do it. There are plenty of books available at libraries or online that can teach your children about germs, bacteria and infections.

Every child has a favourite character. These characters are usually from TV shows or movies. When you buy everyday things like t-shirts and lunchboxes boasting the image of their favourite characters, they love it; the same goes for bathroom essentials like face cloths, cups and toothbrushes too. They’ll be more willing to visit the bathroom to wash their hands and maintain good hand hygiene with fun items around.

If you consider yourself the arts and crafts type of parent, this is a fun way to teach your kids about hand washing. You can fill the soap with bright, water-friendly lights, colours, shapes and so on. This will encourage your children to wash their hands by simply playing with it. If you want an easier option, go for a versatile liquid hand wash. But make sure it’s a germ protection hand wash, like Lifebuoy Total 10 Hand Wash.This excellent hand wash protects against 99.9% of germs, and takes the worry out of keeping your family healthy, happy and clean.