Blog — handwashing at home

Today we are sharing a potty training bundle that makes the perfect duo for any child new to potty training! 

As you begin to potty train your child, it is important to have a schedule. Starting out you will want to have your child try to use the potty every 30 minutes. After a few days of the 30 minute schedule without any accidents, bump it up to 1 hour. After a few days of an hour, you can push it to 2 hours. After 2 hours you can try to go without the time increments.  

The Time Timer PLUS 120 Minute is the perfect tool for establishing this schedule. The PLUS 120 Minute can help keep you and your child accountable for this time. If you set the Time Timer, you are less likely to start folding laundry, get sucked into a work project, or get distracted in doing a task around the house while you’re in the depths of potty training. The high contrast colored disk helps you continue to do what you need to do while quickly and easily seeing how much time you have in your peripheral before you will need to help your child make their way to the bathroom. Losing track of time and breaking the schedule may result in your child having more accidents.  

In addition, young children can easily understand the colored disk. Your child can know that once the “purple disappears,” it’s time to go to the toilet. They don’t need to understand what time it is or how long a half hour is. This gives your child control and a sense of independence. In fact, you may find your child going to the bathroom on their own once the purple disk is gone, or reminding you while you are working on something else! 

Once you remove the potty training schedule, there may be a period of regression where your child starts having a couple of accidents. With the Time Timer PLUS 120 Minute, there is no need to fret. You can easily go back to your 2 hour time schedule, just as a reminder for your child to head to the bathroom and try to potty. By keeping a schedule, you can reduce the stress of potty training for you and your child. Also, you can make it a fun independent task, where after your child potties, they get to set the Time Timer PLUS 120 Minute again.  

According to the CDC: “Good handwashing early in life may help improve child development in some settings*” And what better time to start enforcing good handwashing habits than when you are potty training? Kids have shown that they can understand handwashing as early as 18 months, and understanding the importance of handwashing after using the potty is an essential part of toilet training. 

The Time Timer WASH is the perfect tool for teaching proper handwashing. This visual handwashing timer can help children of any age or ability understand the handwashing process.   

The WASH breaks handwashing in a simple 3 step process:  

1. Soap
2. Scrub
3. Rinse

Depending on the age of your child and if they have been exposed to proper handwashing yet, your child may not get the full 20-seconds of scrubbing that is recommended by the CDC at first. However, the Time Timer WASH will help them understand the steps and work up to the proper duration. It gives them a tool that is understandable and is easily used independently. And if you have a child that likes to dance, the Time Timer WASH includes an option to play a song. The music can remind your child that handwashing (and using the toilet!) is fun! 

Keeping a routine is very important while potty training and using the Time Timer WASH as part of the routine can further help them grasp potty training while staying accident-free and safe.  

During this time, it is especially important to keep your children and their fellow classmates safe and healthy. The CDC cites a study that found that “Handwashing education reduces absenteeism due to gastrointestinal illness in schoolchildren by 29-57%**” As your child gets potty-trained and into the daycare or classroom, these skills will not only keep them and their classmates healthier, but it also will give them a more consistent routine and schedule, furthering a healthy development.   

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*Bowen A, Agboatwalla M, Luby S, Tobery T, Ayers T, Hoekstra RM. Association between intensive handwashing promotion and child development in Karachi, Pakistan: a cluster randomized controlled trial.external icon Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2012 Nov;166(11):1037-44. 

** Wang Z, Lapinski M, Quilliam E, Jaykus LA, Fraser A. The effect of hand-hygiene interventions on infectious disease-associated absenteeism in elementary schools: A systematic literature review.external icon Am J Infect Control 2017; 45: 682–689. 

Handwashing has always been important...especially in education.  I remember watching my (now 14 years old) daughter start her first day of preschool as I peeked around the corner and the first thing she did was wash her hands.  Today, handwashing feels like an essential safety practice for protection from COVID-19, which is a health threat well beyond my preschool fears of the common cold.  It seems simple enough to wash your hands, but many of us - including me - do not wash for the recommended amount of time (Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization).  Or, time spent washing hands is inconsistent.  I confess that I have whipped through singing Happy Birthday in order to finish washing as quickly as possible.  Others may have a hard time managing steps in a process without a visual cue, have OCD and need a cue to stop, or be deaf...all of these things can make it very hard to properly wash hands while relying on singing a song for timing. 
 

I am very proud of the team at Time Timer that very quickly recognized these challenges and the impact for personal health and safety during this pandemic.  We will be launching the Time Timer WASH, which is an innovative visual timer that provides cues that make it easy for anyone, any age or ability level, to spend the correct amount of time and perform the steps in order, for proper handwashing.  It may not seem like a big thing to you or me, but for many people among us, it is.  It isn't just the independence that it can provide, it is the feeling of safety that comes with knowing that you or the people you care for have successfully washed their hands to protect themselves and those around them. 
 

When I started using the Time Timer WASH, I realized that I wasn't washing my hands long enough previously - despite my effort to be a conscientious handwasher.  When I started using it every time I washed my hands, the recommended 20 seconds of scrubbing didn't feel like such a long time anymore.   Especially right now during a pandemic, what could be better than the confidence of knowing you or someone you care for has one more line of protection against COVID-19.   
 

Make sure to wash your hands, to do it for long enough, and stay safe. 

Heather Rogers 

As a parent of two boys, one in middle school and one in elementary school, keeping hands clean has been something that we have battled since they were little bitty. Boys are after all, nothing if not dirt magnets, right? 

 
So, when COVID hit, I knew that the phrase “a little dirt don’t hurt,” no longer felt relevant, especially since my kids would be returning to school, in person.  

Being at home with our “own” germs is one thing. Keeping both my kids and the other kids, not to mention the teachers and staff of the school at school, safe, seems like a bigger battle. And, it’s has been at the forefront of our minds as a family.   

 
We are incredibly lucky to be partnering with a school that takes the safety and health of the kids so seriously.  

 
Here are some of the ways that my children have shared that things have changed for the better, in my opinion, at their school:  

 
Signs in the bathroom  

Let’s be honest here, if I was guessing, I would say that those signs were in the bathroom before March 2020. The important part is that my younger child is noticing them now.  

Less Hand Sanitizer, more soap and water.  

This is a change that I would like to see stick around. According to my middle schooler, if they ask in class to use hand sanitizer they are instead sent to the restroom to wash up with soap and water, which in my book is a big win!  

 
Wash hands in the bathroom after each class.  

This is another change for my middle schooler, because his pod travels to different teachers during the day, they wash their hands between each class, before entering the next classroom.  

 
For my youngest, who is still in elementary and primarily with the same teacher each day, they wash before and after their special area classes (PE, Art, Music) and before and after lunch and recess.  

 
At home, the biggest change that has come about is the fact that we have recently implemented washing hands as soon as we come home from any errands, at school or anything that takes us away from home.  

 
Both of my kids, including my too cool for anything middle schooler, are very excited about the Time Timer WASH. To have a visual reminder of how long hand washing is supposed to take, along with a catchy tune, is just another really good reinforcement of the habits that are more important than ever.