Out a wet wipe hand wipe in the lunchbox.

I have to assume that most of the germs kids are spreading at school aren't coming from not washing hands before eating. It's from sneezes in the classroom and all the random touching-of-face etc. I'm pro-science, but feel like the "you have to wash your hands before eating" anxiety is kind of a modern concern. Are kids getting fewer colds and whatnot now than when we were kids, as a result?

No they don’t. It’s not realistic - the bathrooms near the caf in our ES have two sinks and it would be 50 of each gender. It would take the entire lunch period!

Anonymous wrote:this is so 2020

Handwashing?

this is so 2020

Washing hands after lunch would also be a much more effective way of dealing with food allergens than what we do now, but for some reason we don’t do it.

I don’t know any school that does this, including when I was in school. I just put a hand sanitizer keychain on their lunchbox or a hand sanitizer wipe and they use that.
When my kids were in preschool they would have them wash hands before coming into the classroom in the morning and line them up and have them wash hands before a snack but that’s never happened in their elementary schools.

I grew up where elementary kids wash their hands before lunch. I’m not sure, but I think it’s state mandated. It really doesn’t take that long because the bathrooms have more sinks.

It appalled me that kids didn’t wash their hands here, especially when I discovered that the schoolyard where they have recess directly before lunch is a popular hangout for geese and is covered in goose poop.

When the principal started stressing how important school attendance was in a parent meeting (the year bird flu was rampant - years before COVID), I pointed out to her that one of the most effective ways to prevent transmission of disease is hand-washing. Her response was to grudgingly agree to keep 1 large bottle of sanitizer in the corner of the cafeteria for any kids who wanted to use it before they ate.

In our district, they typically go straight to lunch from recess so there is no stop to wash hands.

Anonymous wrote:Do your kids get to do this st school? Apparently, my kid does not have enough time to do this because he would have to wait until seated at lunch, raise his hand, then get permission - and then he would not have enough time to eat his lunch according to him.

I believe him. The kids get little time to eat, especially if the class was running late which happens a lot.

I’ve worked in elementary schools. Ideally, the teacher would stop at the bathroom before lunch and have all kids wash hands or there would be an in classroom sink. But in reality, best case scenario is the kids line up and get a squirt of hand sanitizer on the way into the cafeteria. Better than nothing.

discusting. They should be allowed to wash their hands if they want to.

My kids have a sand sanitizer in their lunch bag.

No- no public elementary school really does this. They use hand sanitizer. It would take way too long.

Do your kids get to do this st school? Apparently, my kid does not have enough time to do this because he would have to wait until seated at lunch, raise his hand, then get permission - and then he would not have enough time to eat his lunch according to him.