2023 Author: Anita Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-22 03:30
Germs are gaining resistance, our medicines are losing their strength, hygiene in many forms is now made a luxury that parents can no longer afford for lack of time…
Everything is fast, everything is express, everything must be done quickly. Who are the losers in all of this? The children, of course! They are sick, overworked, on regular medication and, worst of all, they don't learn that hygiene is essential and important. Through my work, I see with growing concern that germs are gaining ground and parents are giving up for lack of time or will!
What is hygiene?
It's all the steps we can take to maintain the integrity of our body. There is hand hygiene, body hygiene, nasal hygiene, oral hygiene, etc. The definition now extends to other forms, hygiene of life, environmental hygiene, etc. Several very revealing clues tell us that we are cutting corners in several spheres of hygiene.
- What about the following alarming statistic: approximately 40% of children arrive in kindergarten with cavities! Cavities are caused by eating too muchsweetness and a lack of oral hygiene. In many schools and daycares, the toothbrush has been eliminated due to lack of time or adequate organization and at home we often forget…
- The most frequent reason for consultation with the doctor, after annual visits or vaccination, concerns ear infections. The majority of ear infections come from the fact that children have colds (hand hygiene) or that the nose is not properly emptied (nasal hygiene). The children are almost 4 years old and still don't blow their noses properly, but they play the computer very well! There are questions to be asked!
- Children suffer, according to the Canadian Pediatric Society, 2.2 gastroenteritis per year! Gastroenteritis is transmitted by the faecal-oral route. So, when you have gastroenteritis, you have ingested microscopic traces of stool from a sick person. Could it be by chance due to poor hand hygiene?
- Children are potty later and later! Thirty years ago, a child who was not toilet trained at 18 months was rare. Today, children can weigh 40 pounds and still have a diaper. It is also learning hygiene!
- Our consumption of antibiotics continues to grow over the years and antibiotic resistance is becoming more and more present…
- The worst observation I have been able to make is the following attitude which is gaining more and more popularity: parents give medicine for fever to their child onmorning just before going to daycare for fear of seeing their children excluded that day because of fever! It's terrible!
- Lice! What about lice? Apart from the fact that they are becoming more and more resistant to pediculicides, weekly scalp monitoring is far from being the number 1 priority for parents!
- Hygiene in general is the surest way to guard against germs and their harmful effects. We should not forget that even in our time, germs can give us very unpleasant surprises.
- Do you recognize your situation in the clues named above? A lot? Slightly? Already an awareness is a very big step in the right direction! Hygiene is not a luxury, but a basic need as important as sleeping and eating!
Solutions
- The best solution is to integrate hygiene into our lifestyle! Don't have time to brush your teeth in the morning? Get up earlier, it's important!
- Start toilet training, brushing your teeth and learning to blow your nose very early. These lessons take time to sink in, start early and be patient.
- Not allowed to eat if hands are not washed! No exceptions!
- Are you trying to hide your child's fever from your educator? You definitely need to change your attitude to infections!
Courage, don't pull out the flagwhite too quickly against germs! The fight is not lost in advance! It's up to us to make it our priority… What do you think?
Reference: Jean-Marc Brodeur DDS, MSc, PhD, Chantal Galarneau DMD, MSc, PhD, Cavity damage is already very important from kindergarten. Journal of the Order of Dentists of Quebec,
Caries in early childhood, Supplement, April 2006
October 2006
