Clean Naija: A Mother’s Story Of How Proper Hand Washing Has Improved Her Family’s Health

So, the Matriarch of the home, by the virtue of her nature strives to ensure that all potential threat gravitating towards her family are kept at bay, not even for a millisecond taking any chances. Most notably is how she rises to the occasion in the matters of health – how she won’t stop at nothing to ensure her family’s safety.

Few seconds short of 20 seconds could be saving you a great deal in hospital bills.

Here’s how I know…

It takes less than 20 Seconds, I learnt, to spare my family and I a trip to the hospital. At no cost, literally! All we have to do; I’m told is wash our hands more. That simple, Right?!

Not quite, when you think of everyone you have to hover about to instill the lifesaving culture of hand washing in. My husband? Christ! He can be quite flippant, much less the kids. Those?! Ever nonchalant and carefree (But we die here!). Numbers don’t lie. I mean, the statistics are saying hands are the biggest spreader of germs in the home and with just 20 seconds every other hour I can be preventing them from diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, amongst other infections.

The revolution started with my children. Despite the efforts of their respective schools to make hand washing a second nature to them, my boys (and boys being boys in the matters of hygiene) still failed to sustain a hand washing culture.  To them, subjecting their bare hands to a gushing faucet is all the righteousness required to win Mom’s heart.

Unbeknownst to them, their vulnerability level still remained at par with an unsupervised/neglected age mate. Knowing the futility of the water-only ritual, I procured a good number of fruit-flavoured liquid hand wash and set them about key areas in the house. The fruity fragrance it leaves on their hands after every wash kept bringing them back to the sink. I had won the boys over, it was only right their father followed suit. (He could no longer block out the collective trolls and snarls at him whenever he fell shy of the expected hand-washing ritual).

My kids & husband, now familiar with the health benefits of proper hand washing, I believe, are less risk prone to hand-transmitted illnesses, especially now that they all carry the Dettol hand sanitizer everywhere, a little spritz here and there will keep the germs at bay.