Germs are everywhere and your hands may carry them and cause infection to yourself and your loved ones. Children are most vulnerable to get infections, hence instilling good personal hygiene in children such as inculcating hand washing habits is vital for their health and well-being.

We had recently attended the course on Food & Beverage Safety and Hygiene Policies and Procedures by NEA, to increase our awareness on maintaining food hygiene during the preparation process, and we found that even adults are not aware of the proper hand washing technique nor the importance of it.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), hygiene interventions including hygiene education and promotion of hand washing can lead to a reduction of diarrhoeal cases by up to 45%, as well as prevention of germs, infections and spread of diseases such as the hand food mouth disease.

Getting children to wash their hands thoroughly may not be easy at first, but once they learn the proper hand washing techniques and understand the reason behind it, they will pick up this habit in no time. I’m sure even many of us do not know the proper 8 steps to wash our hands (see below).

It is important to instill a sense of fun when teaching children how to keep their hands clean. For instance, parents and caregivers can add in a hand washing quiz or game that kids can participate actively and perhaps be rewarded at the end for their efforts. This helps them to remember the various steps in hand washing.

Parents and caregivers can use the Washy Washy Clean song to teach children the correct technique of washing hands the fun way. The duration of the song serves as a timer to demonstrate the hand washing process. All it takes is 30 seconds.