Going back to school can bring a lot of excitement to everyone involved, but let’s not forget the icky germs our kids and teachers will be bringing back home with them! Schools are a germ’s best playground because of how many kids are in one building!
Let’s face it – kids touch everything! Germs and bacteria spread like wildfire, and before you know it, little Johnny or Susie comes home sick with a cold or flu. Not only does this upset a family’s routine and causes the kids to miss some school, but more importantly, it makes our kids feel absolutely miserable!
While we can’t stop our children from touching everything around them and while we can’t stop them from getting sick, we CAN take some measures to prevent them from getting sick as often. Below are 5 ways you can help prevent back-to-school germs from affecting your kids:
Teach Your Kids Proper Handwashing
The best tried and true way to prevent germs and from getting sick is to wash your hands with soap and water properly. While there are many hand-sanitizers out there to help with bacteria spreading, handwashing is still considered the best prevention.
In an article written from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it states, “Regular handwashing, particularly before and after certain activities, is one of the best ways to remove germs, avoid getting sick, and prevent the spread of germs to others.”
Take the time to teach your children how to wash their hands correctly. The proper way to do this is to tell them to clean all sides of their hands with lukewarm water, lather soap into their hands, scrub vigorously but gently, and rinse with warm water. Once their hands are washed, tell them to make sure they dry their hands all the way afterward.
Having your kids wash their hands correctly is the best prevention to keep germs and bacteria from spreading and making your kids, and other kids sick too.
Boost Your Kids Immune System
The immune system plays a significant factor in your kid’s health, so make sure your kids have a healthy immune system! There are many things you can do to help your kid’s immune system:
- Make Sure Your Kids Sleep and Exercise Well
One of the best ways you can boost your kid’s immune system is to make sure they follow a healthy sleep and exercise pattern. Their little bodies need at least 8-9 hours of sleep a night, and they need to run off their energy and get some fresh air daily!
A way to incorporate this healthy routine into their lives is to start a routine where you go for a walk once a night with your family or have your kids do some running up and down the stairs!
- Give Your Kids a Diet of Fresh Vegetables
Making sure your kid eats a healthy amount of fresh vegetables daily will significantly help their immune system!
Green vegetables are especially important because they are chock-full of antioxidants and beta carotene that help fight off any bugs. Chop up some green peppers or broccoli for your kids to have in their school lunch and also make sure they get a good serving of hot, cooked vegetables or salad at every meal.
- Give Your Kids a Daily Vitamin
It’s crucial to your kid’s health to take a daily vitamin to make sure he or she is getting sufficient amounts of healthy vitamins their body needs to stay strong and to keep viruses away.
- Give Your Kids Immune Boosting Vitamins
While taking a daily vitamin is really healthy for your kids, giving them an extra added layer of preventative will help a lot! You can buy or make your own immune-boosting vitamins such as Elderberry syrup or gummies or Vitamin C.
- Stay Up to Date on Your Kids Vaccines
There’s a reason why Dr’s instruct us to get our kids vaccinated – because vaccinations can typically prevent our children and other children from getting severe, life-threatening diseases and infections. Your kid’s vaccinations must be up to date!
Use Essential Oils in Your Home
Essential oils are a prevalent option to help prevent germs from spreading, and with good reason! Did you know that many people fought illnesses and prevented viruses from spreading by applying or inhaling essential oils many years ago?
There are some incredible germ-fighting and immune-boosting essential oils on the market that helps ward off germs and prevent illnesses! They’re powerful in how they work because they contain essential oils such as Lemon, Eucalyptus, Tea Tree, Cinnamon, Clove, and Thyme.
You can choose to have your children inhale the oils once or twice a day, using an essential oil diffuser before and after they go to school or you can apply the correct oils topically on their body by diluting it in a carrier oil like coconut oil.
Always Read Warning and Instruction Labels and Do Research
Make sure that whenever you’re using essential oils, that you know the oils you’re using are safe for kids and that you always read the instructions to prevent any harm or damage to their skin!
Teach Your Kids to Disinfect Surfaces
Germs are all over the place, and they’re on everything we touch, so you can just imagine how many germs are in a classroom or a school bathroom! In addition to washing their hands properly, teach your kids to also use disinfectant wipes or hand sanitizers whenever they use something in their school. Germ infested surfaces include the classroom pencil sharpener, bathroom door knobs, lockers, and more.
Teaching your kids to disinfect surfaces with bacteria is an added protective measure, as long as it doesn’t replace handwashing! Send them to school with a package of disinfectant wipes or a travel hand sanitizer for you to get that extra relief that they’re protecting themselves!
Teach Your Kids to Stop Touching Their Faces
The number one way that germs spread as fast as they do is by people, especially kids, touching their faces! It would surprise you if you knew how often children touch their faces, and then touch other surfaces that bacteria make a home on. Teach your children that touching their faces will spread germs and get other kids sick.
Also tell them that if they do have to touch their face that they need to properly wash their hands with soap then, and if they choose to, disinfect what they touched.
Instruct, Prepare, Prevent
Germs are always going to be a part of our world, and with our kids going back to school, the risk of them affecting our children is large, but we don’t need to be scared of germs.
Germs are a part of life, and they do help build ours and our children’s immune system. We shouldn’t completely avoid every single germ because that’s also isn’t healthy, but preventing the ones we can, can have a positive, powerful impact on our children’s health!
We love our children, and we want the best for them – so let’s show them how to properly keep their bodies healthy by protecting themselves from a lot of germs and bacteria as they go back to school!
Share in the comments below: What is ONE thing you can do today as a parent to help your child prepare to fight against germs when going back to school?