12/03/2025
Wellness Wednesday: Teaching children early
✨️ Teach and reinforce handwashing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Integrate hand hygiene lessons in K–12 school and ECE program curricula to regularly remind children of the importance of keeping hands clean.
✨️ Build time into daily routines for children and staff to wash hands, especially at key times like after bathroom breaks, before lunch, or after playing outside. Take into consideration any additional time children or staff may need to wash their hands.
✨️ Supervise and assist children with handwashing as needed. Younger children and children with certain disabilities (such as disabilities that limit their ability to move, or disabilities that make it difficult to follow instructions) may need help with washing their hands.
✨️ Consider making hand sanitizers with at least 60% alcohol available for teachers, staff, and children.
✨️ Hand sanitizer is not a substitute for cleaning hands with soap and water. However, hand sanitizers can be placed in areas where soap and water are not readily available (like cafeterias, classrooms, and gyms, for example) and near frequently touched surfaces, such as water fountains, doors, and shared equipment.
✨️ Supervise young children under the age of 6 years, or children with certain disabilities, when they use hand sanitizer to prevent swallowing it or getting it in their eyes.
✨️ Consider increasing access to hand hygiene infrastructure and supplies, such as sinks, soap dispensers, portable handwashing stations, and hand sanitizer dispensers. It is also important to provide a way for children and staff to dry hands by providing paper towels or hand dryers.
✨️ Germs spread more easily when hands are wet, so making sure children and staff have a way to dry hands completely can help keep them safe. When hand hygiene facilities and supplies are available, children and staff are better able to make hand hygiene part of their routine.
Place visual cues such as handwashing posters, stickers, and other materials in highly visible areas throughout the school—for example, bathrooms and locker rooms, classroom sinks, or cafeteria kitchens.
If you would like to schedule an appt to see me, please send us a message on Facebook, the Sigma portal app, call the office at 573-995-2213, or visit us at romodpc
