WHEN are we supposed to wash our hands.

[Abracad]

Obviously before cooking and eating and after the toilet etc. But all the advice is ‘wash your hands’ but I’m confused about when else? When coming home? First sink after public transport? It’s all very unclear.

regularly throughout the day.

any time you coughed or sneezed - especially if your didn't have a tissue but even if you did.

before and after touching communal hardware like stair banisters and door handles

before and after shaking hands (if you can't avoid shaking hands altogether)

Any time you want to.
Returning home...yes.

Frequently

I am still establishing new habits, but am aiming for every time I enter a building, as well as whenever I go to the loo or am about to handle food. Plus whenever I realise I haven’t for a while, or notice an urge to rub my eyes

Plus gel when getting off public transport and there isn’t a sink handy

Arriving at work or home.

I've always drummed it into the dc's to wash hands as soon as they get home.

Destination hand washing. Wash when you reach your destination.

Before eating, after the loo etc. Hand gel when out.

Why aren't schools making it compulsory for children to wash their hands on arrival? After playtime etc?

Dds school has made it compulsory before entering the dining hall - they have wash units set up & are checking its being done (secondary school so you’d hope they’d be sensible enough to wash their hands anyway!)

"Destination handwashing" almost makes it sound exciting .

yy glitter good point, ideally they should do it on arrival at school shouldn't they.

Maybe there would be less seasonal coughs and cold and sicknesses if schools ramped up the hygiene ? Get the habits ingrained?

I've always washed my hands after the toilet or doing anything dirty like nappy changing or changing bins and before preparing food. Doing it a lot more now, eg when I arrive home and after handling money or items in shops. A friend of mine is 70 and he has been getting on board with all this as he lives in an elderly persons complex. He said he washed his hands as soon as he got in the other day, said he's never done that before. He also tells any visitors to wash their hands and wipe surfaces down with anti bac wipes when they use the loo.

I always wash my hands when I get home after being out, been doing this for years.

These rules aren't new... 'destination' is a good one, after the loo/changing nappies, sneezing into hands (bleugh), after you blow your nose, handshakes, after handling any meat, before eating/cooking, after handling eggs, after touching animals or mucking them out, after touching our filthy mobiles (which means I wash my hands a zillion times anyway).

Definitely as soon as you get home, to stop it lying on surfaces inside. Otherwise if it’s already on your hands, and you touch a door handle, you’re re-infecting your hands every time you touch that handle again, for as long as the virus can live, which can be at least a few hours.

We were brought up to wash our hands as soon as we came in, after handling money etc. DD does too. The first thing she does after school today is wash her hands, and she always has. It's just common sense.

After watching the health info video on loop for half an hour at the doctor's this morning I can confidently tell you you need to wash them before cooking and eating, after the toilet, after coughing or sneezing, after touching anything that someone else has touched who has been coughing or sneezing.

Also a really detailed video on HOW to wash your hands. I have never washed my hands as thoroughly as the video suggested.

At DPs school the children are being lined up and supervised washing their hands when they arrive and then again before they leave. (And obviously encouraged to throughout the day.)

Wash hands when you arrive home - Which is a new one for me, and which I have been trying to do, and think is a very good idea anyway.
Wash hands when you get to work - I mostly visited the washroom anyway, so this is OK, and usually just before I left to go home.
Wash hands before preparing meals, or eating meals.
Also wash hands several times a day.
Finally, try to avoid touching one's face. This is hard because humans touch their faces constantly, but try to avoid as much as possible.

The reason is because we touch things constantly, ie touch screen, phones, ATMs, the plastic security trays at airports, stair rails, hanging rails in public transport.
This won't necessarily stop you from getting the virus, but will make it harder or it will take longer to reach you, by which time, the Health services may be better prepared, etc

Regularly and often, definitely before and after meals, and on arriving anywhere.

We used to live outside the UK. All DC lined up and washed hands at school before and after eating, and school always made sure they changed their shoes and washed their hands when coming in from the outside too.

I have definitely noticed them catching more bugs and minor illnesses since moving to the UK where it isn't really part of school culture and enforced in the same way.

after touching things like food and meat, before touching food and meat, after blowing noses, going to the toilet, changing nappies, dealing with any bodily fluids, after being out an about (when you come home) and before going out and about. If you have been in a high risk public environment - library, school, suprmarket etc

Basically about every 20 mins!!!

If you are a glasses wearer, remember to wash them too. Especially if you are long sighted and spend your life putting your glasses on and off.

School is the area that concerns me most. Both my children's schools (one primary, one secondary) are run down buildings with very poor toilet facilities. Lack of hot water, no soap, no disposable towels for hand drying, but the hand dryer is often out of order. The secondary age child is a hygiene obsessive and finds it difficult at the best of times, but compensates by using hand gel before eating etc. But we're down to our last little bit of hand gel and the shops haven't had any for a fortnight. So no soap, no hot water, no hand gel and a run down building with 1800 teenagers crammed in...

Destination hand washing. Wash when you reach your destination.

Yes.

Also whenever you have moved between rooms in a big office etc if open to lots of people use gel if no sink.

Before cooking.

Don't shake hands anymore.

Use your sleeve to open and close doors when out and about.

My Problem right now is when I do my shopping and come home I usually wash my hands then change then go to unpack my shopping. Now I keep thinking what if the things I’m unpacking have something on them, I guess the more we think about it the crazier we get . I’m trying to do the best I could but not overthink it for the sake of my mental health.