AIBU to think hand washing too often makes children sick more often?

[StarlightIntheNight]

I never washed my hands growing up - gross I know. I would pretend to or just rinse with water sometimes. I was RARELY ever sick. I had one tummy bug my entire time in school, age 6 and never vomited again until I was 30 (caught it from my dd!!). Anyway, my dc seem to catch the vomiting bug every freaking year. A few parents I see, that don't use wipes or hand gel after school before feeding their kids....seem to miss out on these vomiting bugs. So I am wondering...if always wiping and washing hands might make children more prone to catching these things! As, I have a phobia of vomitting, so always try and wipe my children hands, use gels or wash their hands before they eat. But my friends who do not do this, seem to avoid the bugs more often.

So I am curious...those who are not avid hand washers/ or anti bacterial gel users - do you find your kids avoid the tummy bugs more often?

Anecdotal of course, but I'm not one who constantly forces dd to wash her hands. I don't think a bit of dirt is going to harm her. We have escaped the sick bugs that went round her preschool and so far in reception this year. She has only ever had one vomiting bug, which was very mild.

I've never forces mine to either. I see parents attack their kids hands at playgroup with wet wipes and it is ridiculousm

I do use antibac gel a lot though

Anti bacs are useless on viruses which most sickness bugs are. My children are avid handwashers and have had one episode of vomiting each in the last ten years (I'm not counting the nursery years)

Are you talking about handwashing or wipes and anti bacterial gel? They're different things.

One will help lesson illnesses and the other doesn't.

I have to wash my hands professionally sometimes 50 times a shift. Hand washing is the best way to avoid infection. But if your hands become cracked from all of the washing that's actually allowing bacteria to get in, so that's the only time I would say it makes you more susceptible to infection. My DDs do a hospital hand wash (better than most Drs) and are hardly ever ill.

Everyone's immune system is different.

My DSS got sick all the time due to having a screwed immune system until I came along and forced her into a regime of handwashing.

I've a screwed immune system as well and I was sick a the time as a child. My mum did get to the point she was making me wash my hands but it made no difference.

Oh and I don't use antibacterial gel. It's frequent soap and water, and rarely a wipe.

I'm not particularly stringent with hand washing - after using the loo only really. And I'm sure my kids dodge that sometimes. We rarely use hand gel.

They have never had a d and v bug - occasional sickness with a cold type virus but never a full on stomach thing, so that would tend to support your theory.

I do wash mine a lot and make my kids wash theirs. They don't get a lot of d&v or colds etc. We only use normal soap, though. I carry the smelly antibacterial gel for eating out and that's it.

Infection Control nurses in my hospital have access to all the latest research on how bugs are spread.

This research shows that washing your hands in soap & water is the ONLY thing that kills the diarrhoea & vomiting bugs.
Putting alcohol gel on your hands does not kill these bugs.

So personally I wash my hands with soap & water regularly & don't touch my mouth or nose in between times.
I haven't caught d&v for a few years now.

There's a logic to no using anti-bac on your hands every day. But not washing them is just revolting. Mine were taught to wash their hands after every toilet visit and I'm strict on them with it, but neither have ever had stomach bugs.

We have friends who shower their teenage DC with the anti-bac gel every time we go out for a meal and they're no stronger-stomached than our DC.

Yabu some people are just more prone to them than others.

I always have them wash their hands of course if there is a sink available before meals. But after school, its park time, the school is right on the park and so we never go home first and that means no sink to wash hands straight after school.

I wash mine after using the toilet and would expect DC to as well. I don't wash them before eating or anything else though, even with eating with my hands. Even traveling all around rural Africa where the hygiene standards were lax, I didn't get sick. Rarely get sick now but did get sick much as a child when everything in my environment was sanitized by an overzealous father. Not 100% sure there's a connection though.

It also makes my skin horribly dry. We defo don’t do the washing hands before dinner/from being in the garden type thing. After a poo-yes

My 2 dcs have had 1 stomach bug each in 14 and 5 years. I can't remember ever being sick due to illness.

We wash hands after the loo, me and dd do anyway but ds often 'forgets'. We would wash then after handling our Guinea pigs or chickens, but not everytime we touch the dog or ponies.

My dcs spend lots of time with animals and outside. We have an allotment so dig and scrabble around in the mud, they eat fruit straight fron the plants, often have a picnic when out and about with or without the dog or ponies and although we all bath or shower every day we aren't obsessed with washing hands.

Its rare either dc or me are ill.

However dh who works on building sites often has a dodgy tummy or a cold or a bug of some kind. I suspect not much handwashing happens on building sites. Or general hygiene.

Seriously? My son brought home threadworms from school. Their eggs can apparently stay on surfaces for up to 2 weeks and the school is having repeated cases of them.

So yes I will be making my kids wash their hands before every single time they eat for the foreseeable future and making sure they wash them properly.

Anacdotally - my DF and his brothers grew up three doors down from their three cousins.
DF and brothers only had to wash hands before a meal if visibly dirty. Cousins did it before every meal. They were the ones who were always sick.

It's not down to too much handwashing.

Handwashing with ordinary soap and water after going to the loo, after coming home from being out and about and before preparing food or eating or touching your face and mouth is a sensible precaution.

It has been proven to save hundreds of thousands of lives in the third world.

Ever heard of child bed fever?

I think norovirus is relatively new to the UK so that's why we may perceive of more stomach bugs than in ye goode olde dayys.

I agree only handwashing with soap makes a difference. Imo you need to do this especially at say a soft play. As so many kids go through them with unwashed hands then eat their food.
A lot of dc will have caught many of the getms in their time at nursery as they probably dont sterilise the toys.
Outside in the park you are probably ok.
Even swimming pools can make you ill as i dont think the chlorine kills everything so a leaky nappy..
Some kids vomit with cold /cough type viruses and others with temperatures.
Having measles apparently gets rid of your previous immunity.
Bizarrely dd has been healthier in a 2 form entry school than nursery. I think that is because the nursery has different kids daily and 2 sessions so could be loads of kids. The improved immunity of other dc seems to help too. Theyve all had lots of it now so less to spread stuff.
Most of the d&v the kids had didnt affect the adults and if it did it was only D.

I think you need to exercise a healthy hand washing and wiping down surfaces regime, I.e not too obsessive but enough to stop the spread of germs.

We got the norovirus in Europe a few years back and it took a while to be sure our family was rid of it. I was starting to ‘see it’ everywhere like in those ads where the chicken bacteria is bright pink!

My DC rarely get tummy bugs. I make them wash hands after using the toilet and before eating if they’ve been doing mucky stuff. I don’t bother with the hand gels because that’s ineffective when it comes to stopping tummy bugs.

I have a friend who’s DC are frequently ill with vomiting and / or diarrhoea bugs. At least one of them seems to come down with something every other month.
As far as I’ve seen, my friend hardly ever washes her hands. She’s never made her DC wash their hands after the toilet, even when it’s a poo, she doesn’t make them wash hands before eating. Not when I’ve been around them at any rate. I can’t imagine that she’s any more diligent about hand washing when she’s not in company.

So I’m going to stick with the hand washing.

Never really knew hand washing was a thing until I grew up - shocking I know - but consequently my immune system rocks

Grew up in a very dirty house. My immune system is my super power. I think what didn't kill me made me stronger.

I’m not much of a hand washer to be honest. With my daughter I enforce washing after going to the toilet but we have never ever washed hands otherwise and not before meals. She’s 4 now and very rarely ill, been sick once.

Haven’t they found a link between over washing/ erasing germs and leukaemia now