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Update 7/5/05
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• Healthy eating doesn’t have to include meat
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Hand-washing a habit best learned early

By Justin McIntosh
The Marietta Times
jmcintosh@mariettatimes.com

As another school year — and more germs — approach, the importance of teaching kids how to wash their hands becomes an even higher priority for school nurses and parents alike.

“Actually it’s extremely important,” said Renea Ball, a registered nurse for Marietta City Schools. “The very first day I went to college to become a nurse that was one of the first things I learned was to wash my hands.”

But sometimes getting children interested in routine tasks such as washing their hands takes a little bit of ingenuity.

Sharon Ball tells her 6-year-old granddaughter, Courtney Ball, that washing her hands will get rid of the “bad jimmy germs.”

It helps. Sharon Ball, 60, of Vienna, W.Va., said, with a laugh, the only way they’d have any problems with Courtney not washing her hands is if she “were a little boy.”
Courtney Ball learned proper hand-washing from a nurse who visited her school when she was in kindergarten.

Many elementary schools around the area have their school nurses give classroom instruction on proper hand-washing techniques. Proper hand-washing can prevent illness and the spread of illness among students.

Renea Ball visits every elementary school in Marietta and uses a couple of tricks to teach children about hand-washing.

“We use glow germ,” Renea Ball said. “We put ‘fake’ germs on their hands and show kids how after they go to the bathroom they miss things. We stress you can’t actually see the germs.”

The “fake” germs she refers to is actually a special, glowing lotion the kids rub on their hands. It’s under a blacklight that the lotion performs its magic and begins to glow.

Then they go to the bathroom to wash the areas they saw glowing; after they’re done washing, they come back to the blacklight to see what they missed.

“It’s kind of an experiment. It helps them visualize where the germs are,” Renea Ball said.

Next, Renea Ball demonstrates the proper techniques to hand-washing and includes another of her tricks — singing the alphabet to remember how long to wash.

Proper hand-washing starts with using warm water and having a towel ready. After that, they need to get water on their hands and apply soap.

“Rub palms, backs of hands, rub in between fingers and around wrists and underneath each fingernail,” Renea Ball said.

When they’re done, she said they should have their hands pointed downward into the sink so germs don’t run back onto their elbows.

Finally, she said to use the paper towel to dry their hands and to turn off the water faucet and open the bathroom door.

Bridget Cox, 30, of Parkersburg, said to get her 5-year old daughter, Ashly, interested in washing her hands they let her pick out her own grape-smelling soap.

“That gets her excited to really want to do it,” Cox said. “It’s easier to get (her) to do it.”

Renea Ball said sometimes the kids take the lesson to heart so much that they end up teaching their parents.

“I’ve had parents tell me that their kids say ‘Nurse Renae said you’re not washing your hands right, let me show you how,’” Renea Ball said.