How To Help Kids Develop Healthy & Hygienic Habits

“Better hygiene leads to better health, confidence, and overall growth,” the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) proclaims, and it is not hard to see the correlation – a healthy child with good hygiene is a confident child.

Thankfully, it’s never too early to instil good hygiene habits in your children, but we all know that kids need a lot of time and patience to learn any habit. Here are a few tips that can help you:

1. Get the basics right: You need to help them get the basics right. Before you go into the ins and outs of teaching personal hygiene to your little one, start by establishing the non-negotiable rules. These include practices such as proper handwashing, brushing the teeth after every meal, and covering the mouth while sneezing. Hygiene rules are very important, and they should be followed without excuses. To make hand-washing fun, parents can teach kids the Dettol hand washing song.

A few basic hygiene tips for kids / ©Pinterest

2.Explain the essence of proper grooming and hygiene in simple terms: Your child’s age will determine the method to be used in explaining the importance of practising proper hygiene and the consequences of doing the opposite. Older kids can easily understand the downside of falling sick due to an infection. As for the younger ones, you would have to explain the idea in much simpler ways. Using a scene from their favourite cartoons to draw comparisons could help.

A young student writing down her favourite characters that help her understand hygiene / ©Dettol

3. Use books and shows that keep kids interested: Children like mimicking their favourite TV and book characters. That is why elementary books use cartoon characters to illustrate concepts and ideas. If you can convince your toddlers that the character they adore also washes hands, they would be really impressed and want to do the same. There are also TV shows and books that illustrate hygiene practices in fun ways.

A mother showing her son the steps to health and clean hands | ©Dettol

4. Be a good role model: Children also love imitating adults they love or admire. So, there is no better way of teaching hygiene habits than practising them yourself. For instance, your child will understand the importance of washing their hands after using the bathroom when they see you doing it. Remember that your ‘mini-you’ is watching you every day and looking for ways to be like you, so be a good role model.

A student learning how to wash her hands in Lagos, Nigeria / ©Dettol

5. Establish hygiene as an everyday responsibility: Parents can also encourage their kids to take part in cleaning chores. Depending on their age, there are different cleaning tasks kids can perform easily. Also, habits like washing hands before eating, or after using the bathroom, and using a hand sanitizer when leaving the playground should be developed.

Teaching the principles of good hygiene is essential in ensuring that children are healthy and clean. Luckily, instilling these habits can be quite easy using the best plan. These tips will get you there, but make sure you stick to the plan.

And, there are great products that can help you as you teach your little one. Dettol’s hand washing liquid and bathing soaps have antibacterial qualities that can help children battle germs and they are skin-friendly.

PS: All cleaning agents and materials must be used in the presence of a supervising adult.

• Lola Erogunaye is a mother of one who loves to write when she is not conquering the world