Are Your Kids Safe When You Aren’t Around?


On an average, children between ages one to five are most likely to catch a cold because they lack immunity to fight the virus. Since the flu season is here, you might be seeking to keep all those contagious colds at bay especially for your children. Now, you may keep every possible surface around your kids germ-free but what while you aren’t around? Think about all the places your kids visit in a typical day — the school, playground or public toilets, and those places are definitely less than sparkling clean. So in spite of all the effort, are your kids really safe?

Did you know that most cough, cold and flu virus are spread through the contact of hands. Touching something with virus on it and then touching your mouth, eyes or nose can cause you to get infected. For that reason, one of the best ways of prevention is making sure your hands are clean.

We do not suggest you to be a germophobe and clean your kid’s hands as much as they take in air but maintaining basic hygiene etiquettes are important. Ideally, hand washing should last 30 seconds or in a kid’s lingo, at the completion of singing happy birthday twice. One must wash hands certainly before and after meals and after each bathroom break. However, the tough part is finding soap and water at all places.

According to Donald Goldmann, M.D, medical director of infection control and quality improvement at Children’s Hospital, in Boston “An alcohol-based hand sanitizer is equally effective as soap and water” Moreover, they are easier on skin than hand-washing and besides they do not breed antibiotic-resistant super bacteria like regular soap does. In fact, according to researchers from University of Pennsylvania kids who regularly use hand sanitizers have 50% fewer absences in school than the ones who do not use sanitizers at all.

Using a hand-sanitizer is proven to be safe and effective and is the best substitute when regular soap and water are far from reach. So, provide your kids with hand- sanitizers and make sure the germs are at bay even when you aren’t around.


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