Teaching Kids to Take Care of Themselves: Hygiene
Content Written/Updated on April 5, 2007
Good hygiene is one of the best skills a child (or an adult) can have. Good hygiene improves health and increases social status in addition to boosting self-confidence.
Teach your child to:
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Get dressed
Each piece of clothing will take practice to master. Putting on a shirt is very different than putting on pants, and figuring out which holes in your underwear are for your feet can be can be a challenge in itself. Socks, shoes, buttons, zippers, and coats are often the most difficult to learn.
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Wash her hands
This is especially important after using the toilet, coming home from school or errands, playing in the yard, wiping noses, sneezing on hands, etc. Teach kids to rub soap on their hands while singing a short song or counting (long enough to let the soap kill the germs), and explain why soap is so important.
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Wash his faces
Kids will need to learn how to get out the washcloth, turn on the water, wet the washcloth, turn off the water, wash their face, and put the dirty washcloth in the laundry.
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Brush her teeth
Teach your kids how to put toothpaste on the toothbrush (not too much, not too little), and be specific about how to brush (45 degree angle). Teach them to brush the front, back, inside, outside, top, bottom, and tongue. Always inspect your children's teeth after they brush them to make sure they did a satisfactory job. As they master this skill, you won't need to have inspections anymore.
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Blow and wipe his nose
It amazes me that school aged children don't know how to blow their noses because nobody ever showed them how. Likewise, some of them don't know how to wipe their noses either. This skill is essential to hygiene and health but also is important to your child's comfort and ability to breath.
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Brush her hair
If your child has very long hair, you may want to consider cutting it, so she can learn to manage it herself. As she masters the skill, she can let her hair grow out again. Teach kids how to work out tangles from the bottom first then slowly starting the brush slightly higher with each stroke until the tangle unravels. Also, be sure that your child is using the correct type of brush since a soft bristle brush won't remove tangles.
...by Feed