Children need to keep themselves clean to remain healthy and to feel good about themselves. Good personal hygiene will help boost their self-esteem and confidence, so it is important to teach children good habits from very young.
Everyone needs to keep clean to kill germs and avoid getting sick. Good personal hygiene also boosts confidence by dealing with problems like bad breath or body odour (being smelly).
For children, the basics of good personal hygiene are:
washing hands
covering their mouth when they cough or better still coughing into their elbow
having regular baths or showers
brushing and flossing teeth
Children need help and reminders to practise good personal hygiene habits.
Washing hands
Most germs are spread through hand contact. Regularly washing hands will prevent children and others from getting sick.
Encourage the children at child care to wash their hands with soap and water:
when hands look dirty
before eating or preparing food
after touching food
after touching any body fluids like blood, urine or vomit
after touching animals
after blowing their nose, sneezing or coughing
after going to the toilet
You should aim for the children to be able to practice good hygiene on their own without help. This is why there are little sinks the children can reach. You should also make sure there are enough towels or paper towels in the bathroom and always enough soap.
Showering and bathing
Children need regular baths or showers.
If you notice a child is looking dirty or is smelly at child care you should speak to their parents about the importance of keeping clean. This is a sensitive conversation.
You could talk to the child (even as part of a group so they don't get singled out) about washing and making washing fun. Talk about washing all of their body, including under their arms and their genital and anal areas, and that they need to make sure their body is thoroughly dry before they get dressed.
Clothes and shoes
Children need fresh clothes every day, even if their old clothes don’t smell. Clean underwear every day is especially important.
At child care, it is important that children have a spare set of clothes in their bag to change if they get dirty or have a toileting accident and there should also be spare clothes at the Centre for just in case moments.
Here is a great VISUAL GUIDE to children's personal hygiene with pictures.
Another great way to teach the children about personal hygiene is to sing songs like this one by the Wiggles:
and this one from Sesame Street about brushing your teeth:
TASK: Can you find some more songs that teach children about good personal hygiene. Write down the lyrics and maybe come up with some actions that you can teach to the children.
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