My daughter often refuses on principle to wash hands esp. after coming home
No conversation seems to be possible.
What to do?
Maybe there is some child series about hygiene, deceases, bacteria etc.?
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Sign up to join this communityMy daughter often refuses on principle to wash hands esp. after coming home
No conversation seems to be possible.
What to do?
Maybe there is some child series about hygiene, deceases, bacteria etc.?
This is more of a 'parenting hack' than a method of explaining, but I let my little one (almost 3) wash a plastic toy animal with a little extra hand soap. When he isn't the mood to cooperate with a hand wash, he's usually still willing to 'give an elephant a bath' or 'help a puppy wash his paws'.
I also remind him that dirty hands can give him a cold, which is something that has happened often enough that what getting a cold means is pretty concrete to him (yet not as scary as threatening dire illnesses). I also incorporate hand washing into the normal routine-- before we eat we wash hands. It's just a given, it happens no matter if we 'feel like it' or not. It's a normal part of the day aside from being a precautionary measure against sickness.
Well my cousins (ages 6, 4 and 4) love washing their hands, if there is a speck of dirt they go running.
The reason because of this I think is threefold.
Hope this helps.
I have the same situation with my 3 year old. We sometimes have the discussion around contagions and disease, but I think expecting her to do something in order to avoid a hypothetical adverse outcome later is expecting too much foresightedness for her age. Explaining it vividly enough to really have an effect I think might also risk turning her into a germaphobe.
What I've found to be more helpful is to talk up handwashing. Whenever she says she doesn't like to wash her hands, I usually say "oh really? I love washing mine. I think the feeling of warm water on my hands is really nice" and that's usually enough to change her mind.
Introducing play generally helps with anything, too. We got a hard soap (we've always used liquid soap ourselves) and let her squish that around to make washing hands more playful.