Do ur kids wash hands before lunch at school?

So it is only the second week of school and both my kids are already sick with a cold and my youngest one's right eye is almost swollen shut.

I am so frustrated and it isn't even cold yet. We really stress the hand washing thing and then I asked them if they wash their hands at school before lunch and was appalled that they aren't given an opportunity to do this.

I am planning to start pushing my local schools to insist on this as it is a great way of keeping kids healthy.

Please join me in this!

Thanks!
-Metina

Last year I helped out with my daughter's kindergarden class opening milk cartons and cheese sticks- you know- and the kids would come into the lunchroom with visably dirty hands. I would send my own child to the restroom to wash up, but not the whole class. This year I switched my children to a different private school. And the first grade class does wash their hands before lunch! yeah! Seventh grade has a chance to use the restroom before lunch- so it's up to them to remember. (But there is a huge improvement in this school over all- love our new school.)

I think in public schools they have a hard time even having time to take out for hand washing. That's a lot of hands to wash, and at two minutes per kid it would take an hour to even get ready for lunch! Maybe a hand sanitizing station at the start of the lunch line would be a good and efficient idea.

At our school they have, the pump dispenser alchol based hand sanitiser things, they tend to use them especially when lots of kids are sick. The way they do it is each term the parents are asked to provide $10 worth of additional equipment of a list. for example term one was 2 box of tissues, softwash, and crayons.
Term two - hand sainitiser, and pencils. term 3 ream of A4 paper, Tissues.
The list is never the same, they see what they need and only about half the parents ever get items.
but it is a good way to introduce the idea, If you need to mention it to push the schools - as they tend to look at the cost.

I have had some great problems based around schools/ sickness disease etc.
Last month My eldest daugter, caught impetago 3 times. in a month.
How... I spoted it on day one. took her to doctor antibiotics kept her off. it healed sent her back
the very day after antibiotics finish, she gets it again. go to doctor antibiotic cream this time treat it. it finishes then, back again. Why? There is a kid with it all thoughout her hair, parants don't care and have the right to not consent to kids hair being checked. eventually my doctor contacted the school to fix this in her class room, as I went off my nut to him about it, but not before half the kids had it.
Then you have nits again requires parantal consent to inspect. I spend most of the warmer months putting tee tree and eucalyptus oil in sprays bottles to put in the kids hair in the morning. My children hate it (smell gross to them) but it is about stopping them getting it when other people don't care.
Last week was a clasic fortunatly not in there class, but I talk to the teachers alot. on a hot day a child was sent to school in long pants and a top sent to the office as the parant had not provided other clothes the teachers discover the child has chicken pox all over the chest.
I find it Ironic that if my dog of cat has a flea infestation, I can be reported fined, and have it taken off me. but if my child is over run with parasites/nits no one can do nothing to make me take action.
I have had my kids in both private catholic school and now public school and it seems that no mater what in each class there are about 3 kids whose parents - Just don't care.
I hate that parents are given too many rights (so do the teachers). at our school the kids do wash there hands or get sanitizer before eating etc. but the teachers say it is of little effect when parants send there kids to school sick. as they spend the day in the class with them.
This Thursday with the pre-school mums we have an intervention of sorts planed for one of the parents who has twins and their cousin who she also brings, As they keep sending them to school sick, the teacher have mentioned it several times to her, sent them home etc and in the 3 hours they are there there is lots and lots of handwashing. but for the last 6 weeks they have had no more than 11 kids there out of 20 as most of the pre schoolers keep catching things off them. we as parents are frustrated and sick of it, will probebly be repremanded by the principal, for our unorthodox tactics - but we are just fed up.
Good luck, you might find that the teachers are supportive but a few parents resistant - and they are the ones that tend to cause the problems in the first place.

If you don't get the support prehaps a little bottle of hand sanitiser in the lunch box might help your kids, that is what we did at the last school which was not as addiment about the issue of hand washing (as they had one child apparently allergic to soap.)

Our school required they wash before lunch and snacks starting even in kindergarten. And they use a lot of sanitizer! Hahaha!

My kids aren't allowed the opportunity. My 8th grader just got braces and was told how important it was to brush her teeth after every meal. I talked to the school and was told she'd need a special note from the doc because " then everyone would want to go and brush after lunch." Seriously? We mustn't encourage good oral hygiene??? Really? Yes, I can see how awful that would be...
Funny thing is, I went to that school, and everyone got a few minutes after lunch to use the restroom. Albeit, that was over 20 years ago, but still...

I witnessed our school principle telling kids who did not bring their coats, to go to the lost and found and get a coat to wear to recess, then return the coat to the lost and found afterward. It wasn't an option, it was an order. Those clothes stay in a huge been, they stink and get mildew, and lice omg. Totally gross.

Gross! Makes me glad to be a homeschool mom!

Never sick.. all though not at school YET.. soon. My sick are never sick, play in the dirt, and rain in winter NUDE - not below 0 but cold, wear next to no clothes.. but what the hell they R never sick, and hand washing before lunch,.. well not really unless they are really dirty and I notice, sry being honest here, but they do bath/shower twice a day. I dont know germs can be good.. I dont use anti batc. for anything, u'll be right (an aussie thing?) didnt kill me or ur dad..lol

Yay for home school!
When I did send the kiddo to school I used to put a small pack of anti-bac wipes in her lunch box.
I think schools should definately at least have hand sanitiser available for the older kids to help themselves and have someone dispensing it to all the younger kids before lunch.

My hubby is in an inner city school & there's no soap in the bathrooms. This is not because they didn't try to provide it but because the kids will pump an entire bottle onto the floor just for fun. There in hand sanitizer in all the classrooms & they must sanitize before lunch.

Metina, are you allowed to put a small travel size hand sanitizer in your kids lunch box or cubby? Then they could at least do that(though I do prefer hand washing over the hand sanitizer... nothing like brown dirty hands that smell like alcohol:-)

Kye, I'm totally with you that "a little dirt doesn't hurt"... SNOT on the other hand

Overseas, long before hand sanitizers, and with multiple kids, I always carried a squeeze/spray bottle with 20% alcohol & the rest water. (Lots of places you don't even want the kids to touch the sink handles, ha!). Quick squirts before meals at the table, after bus-hopping, stair rails, potty runs etc. My kids stayed pretty healthy & it was a cheap fix. I went to a Doctor's appt. once and sprayed my hands after touching a few things. He asked me what was in the spray--at my follow-up visit the next week, he'd outfitted his office the same way!

I sub teach...and each class i have taught...goes to the restroom on the way to lunch...to do their business....now do they all wash their hands ,. I can't say...lol...also some teachers have the kids line up and on the way out they each use a squirt of sanitizer. but as a stay at home mom in the 70, 80, 90's ...i think we use it too much...they can't fight it off they are so sterile...lol...but have to say the 1st week I was a sub ...that weekend I had a scratchy throat etc....

Not at school yet, but the germs in day care are hitting my kid hard. Seems like every other week it's something. Coughs, snotty noses, croup, rashes, conjuctivitis, and now warnings to look out for hand, foot and mouth disease, and measles... I'm hoping by the time that school starts that we'll be done with catching all these childhood ills.

Wow, I thought hand washing would be mandatory before meals at school. This is surprising! When I was a kid, there was a long sink with rows of sprayers along the wall where we lined up to get food, and all of the kids had to wash their hands assembly-style as they were moving through line. By the time you got to the end of the sink and got a paper towel, your hands were pretty clean.

As a mother now, I would just make sure my kids had hand sanitizer. My daughter carries a travel bottle in her purse and uses it constantly.

Most kids do that .... and we now have those wild wind hand dryer...lol...not paper towels... I still think the kids sometimes over use their sanitizers...especially at the beginning of the school year....anything to get out of their seats, or to just fidget with something...