Happy Washing To You!

Kenz is all better. Every once in awhile she coughs, but whole hours can go by without the familiar sounds of the last two weeks....cough.. cough .... cough. I love the quiet, it's nice.

"Wash your hands!" The people close to me are sick of me saying this, but washing your hands can keep you healthy. I say it so often in the wintertime, my daughter can read my mind and knows when it's coming. I just used the Purell, Mom.

The last few weeks, I have been overwashing my hands. Now I am having to over-lotion them, but I didn't get sick. (Thank God)

There's other factors proven to keep us healthy. One of them is to stay emotionally balanced. Stress can definitely lower resistance. I read today that if you don't want to get sick, get out and exercise. The last couple of weeks I have stepped up my thirty minute walk, three or four times a week to ---daily.

Stress is always waiting to attack, for me, a walk almost always chases it away. I was talking to someone yesterday who said her stress reliever is---baking.

"Baking?"

"Yes," she said. "After a stressful day of work if I can come home and make some cookies or a cake, then I'm OK."

"Doesn't that make you want to eat them?" I asked her.

"Not really," she said, "as long as I get a little taste of the dough, I'm good."

The conversation reminded me of the old saying--- One man's ceiling is another man's floor.

In my experience, baking to relieve stress would be fattening, therefore--- stress producing. Everyone has to find what works for them.

Back to hand-washing.

As a student nurse I was taught how to wash my hands, the right way. I did a post on this which you can track down in the labels list at the bottom of this page. There is a right way. The CDC has also determined that long fingernails and jewelry are places germs love to hide. Hospitals are notorious for the spread of pathogens, but public places are also loaded with sneezes and diseases.

An article from Grandparents.com says:

Children touch more than 300 spaces every 30 minutes, says Dr. Kelly Reynolds, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona. Scrubbing hands — for 20-30 seconds — alleviates germs, she adds. Of course, getting your squirming little tot to stand still that long can be a challenge, so Dr. Cowan suggests singing a song such as "Happy Birthday" with your grandchild to make hand-washing feel less chore-like. TIP: Wet hands transmit germs more efficiently than dry ones, so drying hands after rinsing is key.

I think there should be billboards on every other corner, next to the drugstores and the McDonalds, large colorful reminders that shout.... WASH YOUR HANDS! We need to be reminded. Children get more illness because of immature immune systems and close contact with germs, but if I can prevent one bout of sickness, I would rather expend the energy upfront. I would rather be a bug (reminding people to wash) then have a bug hanging around on someone's hands trying to make them (and me) sick.

Many more well days to you!

Wash Your Hands (The Right Way)

Handwashing is an important life long habit. Most people know this because of the media blitz over the past ten years. Not everybody does it right and there is a right way.
Nana knows 'first hand'--- because I had been a hospital RN. The first thing you are taught in Nursing School is, believe it or not, 'how to wash your hands the proper way.' There is a right way and a wrong way. Although anti-bacterial soaps are no longer recommended,hand washing is still said to be the best way to stay well. Most children get colds. It's a part of growing up, but handwashing also prevents the spread of bunches of other bugs that appear during toilet time.

In Nursing School, we were taught that after rinsing the hands of soap, take a paper towel and remove the wetness from your hands, then take another one and finish drying.

A few years ago, I decided to remove hand towels (not the decorative ones) from my bathrooms and replace them with paper towels. For each bathroom, I bought Bamboo paper towel holders from Kohl's. We use the more expensive paper towels so they don't disintegrate. A small child can be taught to use two paper towels. Now they come so one towel is perforated, so little hands need only one. Make sure you have a nice sturdy step-up at your sink and some fun liquid soap, but not anti-bacterial soap.

I recommend that you clear off your sink area, so the liquid soap and the paper towels are the main attraction. This reminds everybody that the purpose of the sink is to wash your hands. (Keep tooth brushes in a covered area, away from the circulating bathroom air)

The cold/flu season is coming. Let's try to help prevent a few. Here's the directions. These are from John Hopkins website. Maybe it could be made into a song.

There's more to hand washing than meets the eye. Follow these tips for guaranteed clean hands:

Wet your hands with warm, running water.

Add soap, then rub your hands together.

Lather up and away from the running water for at least 10 seconds.

Wash the front and back of your hands, between your fingers and under your nails (clean under nails by rubbing them across your palms).

Next, rinse your hands under running water. Let the water run into the sink, not back down your arms.

Turn off the faucet with a paper towel. Discard the paper towel without touching the trash container.

Dry your hands thoroughly with a clean paper towel or hand-drying machine.

To prevent chapped or cracked hands, use a moisturizing soap and follow with plenty of lotion. Cracking can open the skin, revealing another avenue for infection.

Have a healthy day.