Back to School
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Are your kids ready for a return to school?
This year marks a return to in-person learning after a long hiatus. Although the CDC has decided that there is more value to in-person learning than the risks presented by Covid-19, safety against the virus is still important.
Your child may be expected (by the school or by you) to wear a mask to school and will need to wash their hands frequently to avoid contracting or accidentally spreading Covid-19. Clean hands are a wise choice even outside of pandemics, since other viruses such as flus and colds can also impact learning.
Unfortunately, increased handwashing has its price to pay. If you notice your child has dry, cracked hands, you may be wondering how to keep your child safe and comfortable while still maintaininghygiene and their personal comfort at the same time.
Here’s what to do, and what not to do to keep your child comfortable as they return to school.
Moisturize hands
Your first instinct when seeing the damage frequent handwashing can do to your skin, is to stop washing your hands so frequently. This can be dangerous. Clean hands are very important all of the time, but especially during a pandemic.
Instead, keep your hands moisturized. If you’re concerned about bacteria sticking to your skin from the moisture of a cream, nourishing powders are available that will do the work of protecting and comforting your skin without anything moist for bacteria to stick to.
If you must use a cream or liquid moisturizer, make sure it is personal to you, and only use it with clean hands. While many lotions and moisturizers have preservatives in them to help ward off bacteria, that doesn’t mean it’s fool proof.
Dry powders are the best option for treating the irritation, but using a cream dispensed from a pump to limit contamination is better than nothing.
Cracked hands can allow bacteria in
You also shouldn’t ignore those chapped hands and tough it out. Cracked skin can allow bacteria and viruses in. It’s important to treat your chapped hands and to take preventative steps to reduce irritation whenever possible.
Although school staff are doing their best to keep classrooms as sanitary as possible, the fact is many kids are putting their hands lots of places, and then, ultimately, in their mouths or near their nose or eyes. If your child washes their hands but then touches the bathroom door after someone else didn’t wash their hands, they can still pick up those germs. Your skin does a great job of protecting against this, but if there’s a crack in the skin, it’s an unprotected area germs can get through.
In-person learning is important, but so is keeping your child safe. Encourage them to wear a mask, get vaccinated if they are old enough to do so, and talk to them frequently about hygiene. It’s possible your child’s hands may become chapped in an effort to stay safe, but that’s okay—just keep their hands protected, and treat any irritation as soon as it occurs.
The classroom will definitely look different this year, but with the right practices your child can still get back to school safely.
To purchase or learn more about our nourishing powder that treats and calms irritated skin naturally, click here.