“They’re MY germs so I’ll be OK”

Too many of us are unhygienic!

Have you ever done or witnessed any of these things?

• ever seen someone sneezing without covering their mouth?
• have you ever blown your nose and just kept the used tissues on the sofa next to you?
• ever seen someone sneeze into their hands, wipe them on their clothes and continue as normal?
• have you ever wiped your child’s nose or caught their sneeze and saved the tissue for later?
• ever seen someone wipe their child’s nose or catch their sneeze, throw the tissue away but fail to wash their hands?

These are some of the ways that we encourage the spreading of germs and then wonder why we keep getting ill or question how the illness spreads to everyone in the home.

Reasons…

There are multiple viewpoints and reasons for most things, and we may flit between them but it’s worth being aware of them so we can catch ourselves and try and make a positive change.

• are we too lazy to wash our hands every time we sneeze or wipe our nose or someone else’s?
• do we forget what we know when we’re ill?
• do we think we’re being ‘green’ by reusing the tissue?
• do we forget hygiene when we’re caring for others and struggling to cope?
• are we concerned about the cost of throwing away tissues without using them to their fullest?
• have we not thought about it in enough depth to create new habits? For example, ‘where shall I keep the sanitising gel so that I can remember to use it?’
• do we think that we’re not dirty so it’s fine for us to not bother catching it, binning it and killing it?

This video is about what children need to do and how we can help them BUT don’t discard it if you don’t have any kids. The statistics are really interesting.

This clip is much shorter and is really good at showing how easily germs spread.

What if you don’t have a tissue?

This video shows how far our saliva, and germs, sprays when we sneeze in four different ways.

1. into the air without blocking it at all
2. covering our mouth with our hands
3. sneezing into our elbow
4. using a tissue

Which of these do you think was the best i.e the spray didn’t go that far, and which do you think was the worst i.e. it went the furthest?

Moving forwards

So what will you do to stop this cycle of spreading germs?

Something that you’ve got to read!

This article is about a teacher who wanted to show the kids why they needed to wash their hands to kill germs.

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