Washing hands after nappy change - MIL thread, sorry

[StarlingMurmuration]

My PIL are staying with us at the moment to look after DS, after I have had an operation. I appreciate is is very generous and lovely of them, and I am grateful.

However, MIL isn't washing her hands after pooey nappy changes. AIBU to be bothered by this? How can I get her to do this without basically implying she's being disgusting? We do have hand sanitizer at the nappy change station, but I found she as using that BEFORE she changed his nappy instead of after! DS is 8 months old, just for info, and my operation means I can't lift or carry him, or bend over/ kneel down, so I can't do it myself at the moment.

The aim is to sensibly eliminate reduce harmful germs where you can. Not eliminate.

DS1 was seriously ill after getting salmonella poisoning during our AI holiday a few months ago. He didn't eat any of the food most commonly infected with it, so must have picked it up from contaminated, unwashed hands.

We all have good hand-washing hygiene, and no-one else in the family got infected. I am even more careful since this happened - if it put my 3 year old in hospital for 4 days I dread to think what would have happened to my 7 month old DS2 if we were lax with hand-washing.

I always wash my hands after changing a nappy. Our changing table is next to the bathroom sink - I clean the bottom and throw away the nappy, wash hands, put clean nappy on. Fortunately neither of my boys rolled whilst on the changing table!

I also clean the nappy bin and toilet (all surfaces) regularly as DS2 puts his hands everywhere.

I'm not manic about cleaning, changing sheets etc. but I do think that hand washing is a simple and efficient way of reducing harmful germs.

I agree that we are never going to live in a fully sterile environment, but that's no reason not to at least reduce germs as and when it's possible.

Of course it's possible to wash hands after changing a nappy. Either change the baby on a mat on the bathroom floor so he/ she can't roll off while you wash your hands, or if you use a changing station get a top and tail bowl ready with two lots of warm soapy water before putting baby on, then you can use one lot of water to wash the baby and then you've got clean soapy water to wash your hands in before picking the baby back up. Once baby is safely put down on floor / in cot, you can use running water in the bathroom if necessary.