Do You Want To Expand Your "Hand Washing" Playlist?
As we sort out information about how to avoid the coronavirus known as COVID-19, there may be some good news about who is at risk when it comes to children.
Based on the data that has been collected to date, children appear to be at a lower risk for contracting the virus than adults. The explanation suggested is simple: older adults tend to have more underlying health issues that compromise their immune systems such as cardiac issues, pulmonary disease, or diabetes. And additionally, unhealthy habits like smoking put some adults at higher risk. There is also a theory that because children have increased exposure to the types of coronaviruses that cause - what we think of as the common cold - that provides them with some increased immunity.
Still, we want to do all that we can to protect our children from contracting the coronavirus or other communicable diseases for that matter, and the one most important measure that can make a difference is proper handwashing technique.
By now, everyone knows that the suggested time for washing your hands - following the wet, soap, scrub, rinse, dry, method - is 15 to 30 seconds, and that time can be measured by singing or humming "happy birthday" not once, but twice.
Since the recommendation is that we wash our hands often and that we sing a song to ensure that we do it for a long enough time, it seems like a good idea to add some new tunes to the repertoire, so here are some additional hand washing songs to teach your young child:
The Alphabet Song
The Eensy Weensy Spider
Baa Baa Black Sheep
Row, Row Your Boat (sung twice)
or little kids love to count, so just count to twenty!
… and for the grown-ups… Hand Washing Songs For Adults from the Los Angeles Times.
For additional information about COVED-19 and the science behind hand washing check out these websites:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/
https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/show-me-the-science-handwashing.html
