Why should we wash our hands frequently before meals? Is there any scientific basis?

Washing hands before eating is an important hygienic habit. As the saying goes, "Wash your hands before meals, and bacteria will not enter".

Children don't want to be idle for a moment except at bedtime, especially older children, who want to touch everything and want to take it away very much. Some children also like to play with dirty things on the ground, so that their hands will be polluted by many germs, viruses and parasitic eggs. Scientific experiments have proved that if you don't wash your hands before eating and pick them up to eat, the germs on your hands can easily be eaten with food.

If the child's body resistance is strong at ordinary times, the germs will not make trouble. However, when a child has a cold or is too tired to play, the body's resistance will be reduced, and the latent germs or newly eaten germs in the body will become active, making the child sick. Therefore, you must wash your hands before meals (or before eating food), and cultivate the good habit of washing your hands before meals from an early age.

People's hands are always moving, especially children, who like to touch and play with dirty things everywhere, and their hands are bound to be contaminated with all kinds of bacteria. If you don't wash your hands with soap before eating, bacteria can easily get sick with food. Therefore, be sure to wash your hands with soap before meals.

Washing hands after defecation is one of the important measures to prevent diseases, because many germs are spread through feces, especially intestinal infectious diseases, such as dysentery, gastroenteritis, hepatitis, and roundworm and pinworm diseases. If you hold a toy but don't wash your hands with soap after defecation, you will transfer germs to the toy, and then eat it while playing, or eat it again, which will easily spread the disease, not only forming your own repeated infection, but also infecting others, which may lead to the rapid spread of the disease. Therefore, children must wash their hands with soap after defecation.

Parents should be especially strict with their young children. In addition, parents should set an example, and children should wash their hands after reading books. There are many readers of picture books, both adults and children, which are especially suitable for everyone to read. Because there are many people watching, there are often many bacteria. After reading these picture books, children can't help sticking bacteria on their hands. If they don't pay attention to hygiene and wash their hands after reading, they may get sick and damage their health. Therefore, children should not wash their hands after reading books.