Teaching children how to maintain personal hygiene is important for parents. The goal is for the little one to be able to maintain a healthy body. Maintaining personal hygiene can be started at home, but also needs to be applied in schools and places where children are active.
Basically, maintaining personal hygiene is useful for preventing your little one from getting sick, especially when he is already in school. At this age, children do a lot of outdoor activities and interact with many people, so they are more susceptible to being exposed to dirt and germs that cause disease. Come on, find out how to get children used to maintaining personal hygiene!
Familiarizing Children to Maintain Personal Hygiene
Some habits that Mom and Dad can teach your little one to keep themselves clean are:
1. Wash your hands
Teaching children how to wash their hands properly and correctly is important to prevent the spread of germs that cause disease. Teach children to wash their hands by wetting their hands under running water for 2 seconds, rubbing their hands with soap for 15 seconds, rinsing with water until clean, then drying hands with a towel.
2. Toothbrush
In addition to teaching hand washing, teaching children to brush their teeth should also not be forgotten. Regular brushing of teeth is useful for preventing cavities in children's teeth, in addition to maintaining oral health. Teach your little one to brush their teeth in the morning after waking up and at night before going to bed.
Teach children the correct steps to brush their teeth, starting with applying toothpaste to the toothbrush, brushing their teeth for 2 minutes, and then gargling. To make brushing your teeth more fun, Mom and Dad can let your little one choose the toothpaste with the flavor he likes, then sing his favorite song while he brushes his teeth.
3. Take a shower
Bathing is useful for cleansing the body, making sleep better, and reducing the risk of experiencing stress. But for some children, bathing is actually an annoying moment. Therefore, Mom and Dad need to make bathing a fun activity.
One way is to let your little one bring his favorite toy or let him play with foam while bathing. After that, teach your little one to take a shower the right way, by rubbing all parts of the body with soap and rinsing with water.
4. Cut nails
Long nails can be a way for germs to enter the body through the mouth. So, teach your little one how to cut nails and get him used to trimming his nails when they are long.
5. Cover your mouth when coughing or sneezing
Disease-causing germs can spread easily through the air. Therefore, mothers and fathers must teach their little ones to cover their nose and mouth with a tissue, or at least with their elbows, when they sneeze. Don't forget to teach your little one how to blow their nose properly.
Teaching children to maintain personal hygiene is not an easy task. Sometimes, the child refuses to do it. But for the sake of the health of the Little One, Mother and Father should not give up. Help him to do the various activities above, while continuing to motivate him.