It’s Healthy Back to School Week.  All week I will be breaking down ways to keep your family healthy as you head back to school. Along the way, let’s bust some urban myths — and likely save you some money!

Good hand hygiene. This is the most important thing. Everyone in your family should practice good hand hygiene at home, work, and school.  Weirdly, I’ve had patients tell me that they are “over it” since the Pandemic…  I try to point out that washing hands was always a thing and still is a thing!

Teach your child good hand hygiene and hand washing techniques.  If they don’t do it at home, they certainly can’t and won’t do it in school.

Teach your child to wash hands, at very least, before eating, after using toilet, after cough/sneezing/blowing nose, after using public transport, after the playground, after petting animals.

Keeping your child’s nails short can also help remove reservoirs of dirt and germs, and make it easier for them to wash their hands well.  (as reduce biting and tearing nails/cuticles that can lead to other problems).  Experts advise that adults trim children’s nails until about the age of 9 or 10.  Nails grow at different lengths, but on average, most children need them trimmed once a week. If your child has sensory issues, try these tips from Enable Ireland.

Note on eczema:  If eczema or severe dry skin are a problem, make sure your child is taking their moisturiser everywhere with them. There’s lots of misinformation about eczema out there, but IrishSkin.ie is an excellent source of information you can trust. Start with their expert guide.  

If you heard the bizarre pseudoscience claim that went viral last year that too much hand washing is bad for your child because they have to build up immunity,  let’s fact-check it a bit:  Your child cannot “build up immunity” to certain types of germs in their environment.  Some of these common things that you can’t build immunity to include e.coli (from toilets), salmonella (raw food), pinworm eggs, vomiting bug virus (norovirus) Nor does anyone else need your child’s snot smeared on a railing or door handle. Soap and water. It’s that simple.

Along with the hand washing is good cough and sneeze etiquette.   Teach your child to sneeze/cough into their elbow**, not their hand. (you should be doing it too!) Start this from the beginning. Teach them to wipe their runny nose with a tissue, not a hand, and dispose of it properly.

**We use to call it the Batman or the Vampire to children. It was fun.   Unfortunately, Lego Batman doesn’t really do this move and most of our children have never seen Adam West in action, so it’s less relevant. And movie vampires are now more Twilight than Lugosi, but for reference: