How to protect children from infection of hand, foot and mouth disease?

Hand, foot and mouth disease is a very common viral infection (caused by Coxsackie virus), especially in children under 5 years of age. Although it is not a typical serious health threat, in rare cases it can lead to more serious diseases such as viral meningitis or encephalitis. At least, for any child, the symptoms of hand, foot and mouth disease are unpleasant experiences. Fortunately, simple and necessary hygiene practices, such as frequent hand washing, are the most effective way to protect children from hand, foot and mouth disease.

First, wash your hands and keep your health

1. Wash your hands frequently. Hand, foot and mouth disease spreads through contact with body secretions, mainly through fecal contamination (or exposure to contaminated feces). If you wash your hands properly and regularly, you will greatly reduce the chances of getting or spreading the virus. Adults are usually immune to their foot and mouth disease and rarely have symptoms. However, they can still spread the virus to children. When you go to the toilet, sneeze or cough, change diapers, and when they are dirty or exposed to potentially contaminated surfaces, washing your hands can prevent you from spreading a virus that you may not even know you are infected with. When washing your hands: use soap and warm water. Apply soap and rub for at least 20 seconds. Be sure to clean your wrists, between your fingers, and under your fingers. Rinse with water and dry with a clean towel.

2. Teach children to wash their hands frequently. For their health and safety, proper hand washing is one of the top priorities for your child. By building good habits from the start, you reduce the chances of getting infected or spreading a range of diseases, including hand, foot and mouth disease. Wash your hands until they can do it themselves and supervise the clothes they wash afterwards. Repeated emphasis on the importance of proper hand washing after using the bathroom. Also, keep your child’s nails clean. Make sure you scrub under them and consider using a soft brush to make them thoroughly clean. If you work with your child or in the health care field, you should also keep your nails short and clean.

3. Demonstrate correct coughing and sneezing exercises. Hand faecal contamination is the chief culprit in the spread of hand, foot and mouth disease, but the nose and oral secretions can also spread the virus. By teaching your child to cough, sneeze, and wipe your nose in the most hygienic way, you can significantly reduce the spread of hand, foot and mouth disease and many other diseases. Teach your child to cough or sneeze with sleeves or elbows, or a clean tissue, don’t put your hand in. Emphasize the importance of washing your hands after coughing, sneezing, or sneezing.

4. Keep your fingers and shared items away from your mouth and nose. Parents of any child can tell you how difficult it is to stop your child from picking your nose, sucking your thumb, and stuffing any amount of stuff on your nose or mouth. The problem is more serious than these behaviors, however, they can spread diseases like hand, foot and mouth disease. Of course, especially if you are dealing with children, you can only hope to achieve such great success in this field. Children will be children and will put things that should not go where they are in their mouths and noses. This is why it is so important to wash your hands regularly and thoroughly. Teach it, practice it, look forward to it. This is your best defense against hand, foot and mouth disease.

Second, further reduce the transmission probability

1. Pay attention to what you share. Hand, foot and mouth disease exists in the digestive tract and can be transmitted through various body fluids, but fecal contamination is the main route of contamination. Unfortunately (very disgusting), almost any shared object can be contaminated with feces; therefore, be very careful when sharing everyday objects. Do not share food, cups, cutlery, toothbrushes, towels or clothing (especially socks or shoes) with children. Educating children to share is good, but only in clean, sterile items are shared.

2. Regularly clean toys, shared items and public surfaces. Cleaning work seems to be a never-ending task when dealing with one or more children, but keeping ordinary objects and surfaces clean and disinfected will greatly reduce the incidence of hand, foot and mouth disease – especially when paired with regular hand washing . Especially in schools, kindergartens or day care institutions, make sure toys are cleaned regularly. Wash the normal surface with soap and water and dilute with chlorine bleach.

3. Keep symptomatic children away from school or other gatherings. If you know, even just suspect that a child has a hand, foot and mouth disease, let him leave school and stay away from the big children. Hand, foot and mouth disease is most likely to spread when a patient has symptoms. If your child has symptoms or confirmed cases of hand, foot and mouth disease, let him stay at home and notify the child’s school. Schools should have an agreement to inform other parents and disinfection classrooms.

4. Once the symptoms have subsided, don’t relax your vigilance. The symptomatic period of hand, foot and mouth disease may last only 3 to 5 days, or more often 7 to 10 days; however, even if the symptoms subside, the infected person can still spread the hand, foot and mouth disease for days, even weeks. Maintain a high degree of hygiene and hygiene at least a few days after the symptoms have disappeared. Children with no symptoms may return to school (depending on school policy), but make sure she understands the importance of washing hands, covering up coughs and sneezing, using paper towels, avoiding food sharing or touching nose or mouth.