Fit to Learn, Fed to Learn
This page is presented as a community service for the Classroom Enrichment Fund
Where there are kids, there are germs. We’ve focused on hand washing throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and we continue to advocate strongly for it, but there are other important approaches to containing germs to teach our kids. For the record though, we’ll repeat: Germs that cause a cold, the flu, and the novel coronavirus can hang out on your hands and get into your body when you touch your nose or mouth. Stop germs from spreading by rubbing your hands for 20 seconds with soap and water and use a clean towel to dry them. Tell kids to wash hands before they eat or touch food, after they use the bathroom, after they cough into their hands or blow their nose, after they leave the playground, and, of course, if they spend time with someone who is sick. Make it a family routine to wash hands before meals.
Also, use hand sanitizer. Sometimes, you can’t get to a sink. Sanitizer is available in most classrooms where there is in-person learning and in stores and restaurants, but travel-sized tubes can be clipped to a backpack or slipped into your purse or pocket. Buy sanitizer that’s at least 60% alcohol and emphasize to kids that it’s for HANDS ONLY – ingesting it can be poisonous. Teach kids to cough or sneeze into an elbow, which keeps germs off hands and stops respiratory droplets from spreading into the air.
Use a tissue. Kids wipe their noses on sleeves, stuffed animals, and couch cushions, so keep tissues visible around your home and in the car. Make a point of handing them to your child when they cough, sneeze, or sniffle so they get into the habit of seeking them out. Toys should be shared, but germs shouldn’t! Point out to kids that sharing straws, cups, food, forks, spoons, clothes, and even toys can spread germs. This means they can get sick, so can their friends, and so can family members if they bring those cold, flu, or COVID-19 germs home.
Finally, talk to your doctor about making the flu shot an annual habit for the whole family. It’s disheartening - and can even get scary - to see a child sick with a condition that could have been prevented by basic precautions. And those sicknesses can affect others in the family, even when the child doesn’t show symptoms. So as obvious as precautions may seem, don’t put basics on the back burner.
Helen Susan Edelman Livesmart Project Director Livesmart@classroomenrichment.org Facebook.com/crlivesmart