washing hands before eating

[peppajay]

How far or how often do you take hand washing or expect your children to wash their hands??? I expect to wash them before eating and without fail at lunch or teatime and also before having a snack. If we are out and eating ie a picnic I insist they use gel or a baby wipe before eating. My son has aspergers and is obsessed with hand washing and I think it is partly my fault for fuelling this obsession as very few other people seem to worry about it. Yesterday we went to town and I didn't have any gel or wipes on me and we bought a cake at the bakery and as I forgot the gel they couldn't clean their hands. I told them not to worry but my son had a huge meltdown as he was convinced he would be sick if he ate the cake when he had germs on his hands, so I ended up buying some gel so they could clean their hands. I always wash my hands before I eat and always have done I wouldn't say it is obsessive just good hygeine but no one else seems to worry so was just wondering what you folks do??

Actually I do remember reading the opposite to this once. Jewish people were blamed for the Black Death in the middle ages in Europe because they died from it less and they died from it less because they had a culture of hand washing. Don't really know if that's true either though. I suppose it would explains the Muslim tradition of washing as well, if it came from observing people not getting sick if they washed more often?

That's how scientific research works to an extent and over a period of many years...but those links are not evidence, nowhere near.

My kids are rarely ill - and we do wash our hands before eating. There - more meaningless anecdotal 'evidence'

We live on a farm in a semi-tropical region so we try to wash our hands before eating. We're not obsessed. When we lived in England we were less careful but it didn't stop us from getting every bug going when we first moved here. I think if you frequently wash or don't you still become immune to what's in your immediate environment. I don't believe not washing hands makes your immune system any stronger. We never get colds or tummy bugs now.

the theory - they need to wash hands anyway after using the loo, touching the bin, petting animals, getting dirty, sneezing into hands etc
and before eating or making food/drinks

the practice - food ready, I call out and remind them to wash hands, we sit down to eat then I notice kids have sticky arms, manky hands and black fingernails like a gravedigger without a shovel

I wash my hands all the time, but of course I change nappies and handle baby bottles and food many times a day (amongst other things) so that's just common sense.
kids don't care.