“If you don’t wash your hands after using the bathroom, no iPad time tonight”
Kid never seems to forget now

We did a fun thing at the beginning of the pandemic with this:

https://www.glogerm.com

Involved a blacklight, kids loved it, really drove home how hard it is to wash your hands completely, upped everyone's game (including the adults').

Anonymous wrote:My 5 year old does not always wash hand after potty, come home from outside & before meals. I have to remind & nag him most of the time, and he washes his hand like 1-2 second. Do I need a reward charts for washing hand ( eye rolling)? We have foam soap & liquid soap at the counter, and he can reach the sink with step stool.

You teach your children to wash their hands after using bathroom ask soon as they are potty trained. You also teach them to wash their hands after coming in from school, shopping, playing with other kids. Kids hands are some of the dirtiest things on earth so they should be washing their hands all day long.

I have to remind my 8-year-old to wash her hands when we come in from outside, before meals, etc. She's finally good about washing her hands after using the bathroom. You remind them until you don't have to remind them anymore. It can take years.

You just have to remind him, and stand there and watch him do it.

You need to be on top of this at this age.

In our house, we come inside, take off shoes, put them in the bin, go immediately to the bathroom and wash hands.

You help until it becomes a habit that your 5 year old doesn't even think about anymore.

My 5 year old doesn't go out by herself, one of us is always with her, and I am sure its the same with you. As we are entering the house, I ask her - what do we have to do? Take off shoes, put them back, and wash hands. And I do the same with her. After a while, she doesn't need reminding but has become the one to enforce the hand washing. As for after potty, whenever we see her go into the bathroom, we ask flushed? washed hands? dried them? And again, after a while, we don't have to do it every single time. The key is to repeat calmly. Give him his own towel and maybe let him pick the handwash next time. Make it exciting for him and give him some ownership, he'll get there.

Anonymous wrote:My 5 year old does not always wash hand after potty, come home from outside & before meals. I have to remind & nag him most of the time, and he washes his hand like 1-2 second. Do I need a reward charts for washing hand ( eye rolling)? We have foam soap & liquid soap at the counter, and he can reach the sink with step stool.

When my kid was doing handwashing halfway, we would just march him back to the sink every single time, no matter how far away he’d gone. Every time. It took about 2 days for it to sink in. We make him sing the ABC song to us while washing and we’d sniff for soap after. If it wasn’t done right, he’d do it again. Having to waste big chunks of the day redoing it fixed the habit really fast. It’s not reward chart territory, in my opinion, because it can’t be done intermittently or just when they’re motivated.

Anonymous wrote:My 5 year old does not always wash hand after potty, come home from outside & before meals. I have to remind & nag him most of the time, and he washes his hand like 1-2 second. Do I need a reward charts for washing hand ( eye rolling)? We have foam soap & liquid soap at the counter, and he can reach the sink with step stool.

Does it rally takes all that much to remind him? “We always wash hands when we come in from outside”. Straight form outside to hand washing, no distractions, Technique takes time too. He’s 5. Many grownups are not quite so good about washing their hands. Continue reminding and reinforcing and it will become habit.

My 5 year old does not always wash hand after potty, come home from outside & before meals. I have to remind & nag him most of the time, and he washes his hand like 1-2 second. Do I need a reward charts for washing hand ( eye rolling)? We have foam soap & liquid soap at the counter, and he can reach the sink with step stool.