It seems too simple to even talk about an
d yet it is one of the most inexpensive and effective ways to protect your health and well-being. Take a look at our free stuff page, we might even have some free soap to get you started.
Wash Your Hands!
Even if your hands appear quite clean, with trim and neat fingernails and the maybe lingering smell of soap, the surface can still harbor millions upon millions of microscopic bacteria and germs. Microbes hide away in the lines in your palms and around your finger joints, around the edge of a ring, or on the face of a wristwatch.
Think about the things you've done in the last hour. If you just got done grocery shopping, take a good look at your hands; even the nicest supermarkets can be pretty filthy with everything from meat juices leaking from poorly wrapped packaging to boxes straight from warehouses where mice and rats scurry about to waste-contaminated dirt still clinging to vegetables grown in a country where both the water and soil are wildly polluted. Perhaps you opened your mail which not only has surface dirt, but the envelope flap may have been licked by another human being using his or her mouth, which can equally rival the human hand in terms of toxins it contains. Or maybe you may have handled a newspaper which in turn was handled by scores of other people before you received it.
The simple thing we can do to keep ourselves healthy is all too frequently the very thing we don't do enough: wash our hands thoroughly and often!
Drying your hands after a good soapy scrub is just as important as the hand washing process! If using a paper towel, the bacterial count deceases 24%. If you use a hot-air dryer though, bacteria actually increases 117%! So, be sure to completely dry your hands on a towel for the most benefit.
Be mindful of how much you do with your hands and then make a point to frequently and thoroughly wash them. You don't need to do this with the practiced procedure of a surgeon about to perform a triple bypass, but you should do it before you prepare food, as you handle that food, as well as before and after you eat your meal. When you finish working at your computer keyboard, wash your hands again as completely as you would after using a public rest room.
Teaching Children Good Hand Washing Techniques
Keep in mind that young children are visual and kinetic 
learners. They learn best by seeing and doing -- rather than just hearing. Have the hand washing area set up for comfort -- provide a child safe stool for them to stand on.
Provide fun soaps and scrubbers. (Be aware that scrubbers can spread germs if not properly maintained).
Have children sing a fun song while washing to help them learn how long to wash (15-20 seconds). Songs like ABC's and Row, Row, Row Your Boat are nice choices.
The following may help in explaining to young ones WHY we must wash:
Washing your hands is the best way to stop germs from spreading. Think about all of the things that you touched today - from the telephone to the toilet. Maybe you blew your nose in a tissue and then went outside to dig in the dirt. Whatever you did today, you came into contact with germs. It's easy for a germ on your hand to end up in your mouth. Think about how many foods you eat with your hands.
You can't wear rubber gloves all day long, but you can wash your hands so those germs don't get a chance to make you or someone else sick. When germs go down the drain, they can't make anyone sick.