Handwashing

[Aymd]

My son (aged 8) is doing as told and washing and sanitising his hands but even putting moisturiser on (which he often forgets) is not helping and his hands are now red raw and I've had to give him calpol to help him these last few nights.

Has anyone had experience of schools being lenient on sanatising with these kinds of situations?

I would speak with the school, if his hands are as bad as you say they may allow him to reduce hand washing. It’s likely due to the hand sanitizer so I would ask that he washes with soap and water only. My dd has eczema and some hand sanitizer causes her hands to become red & inflamed.

It is most likely the type of soap. Start with asking to provide other soap and moisturiser for him to use after washing. Sanitiser is better for skin than soap too (except when it's actually got cuts) as it's not as drying.

I'm a teacher and we have lots of children using their own soap that seems to work better for their skin. I also have to use my own. The school soap we use is clearly very abrasive!

Asking to not have him washing hands is unlikely to go down well. If you have one child not washing, they're going to all start asking soon and that will be very hard to manage.

We found it wasn't the soap, but the harsh blue paper towels that school used.

Check he is drying his hands properly too

Try sending his own soap in, plus maybe moisturiser. Teach him how to throughly dry hands, as so many pupils don't really dry them fully, leading to wind- chapped hands. Due to hand washing being one of the very few preventative measures available in primary schools, there is no way any child should be doing less. Hand sanitiser at 70%+ alcohol is not generally a more skin friendly option and is actually not as effective as soap and water. It is horrid for children with sensitive skin but using a good cream like E45 or Eucerin every morning and night should help.

I’ve had this with DD and school wouldn’t allow her to take in her own soap or sanitiser. When I said it was aggravating already quite bad eczema they insisted I get cream prescribed which they would then allow her to take in to class. It’s been a complete hassle but definitely worth it as using the cream at school has helped massively

Over the years we've found the key is is drying hands properly, in particular between the fingers. Rinsing soap off fully is also important. And wear gloves outside - going straight out to play with damp hands is the fastest way to chap them.

Get him to practice his hand drying at home with kitchen roll or paper towels.

Oh and ours are allowed to wash instead of using sanitiser, which is a great help to my son.