Visitors and handwashing?

[Heather Marie]

What do you all do when people want to hold the baby - do you request people wash their hands with soap and water or do you offer something like Purell or not request either? What is best?

[sorteep]

soap and water, and , yes, we ask... no wash, no touch that's our rule..

[kgrfcharlton]

I always have the hand sanitizer "handy" (I'm so clever these days) & people can have the option, "oh, would you like to wash your hands or use the hand sanitizer?" That way, you're giving them a choice & not telling them not to touch your new baby w/their nasty hands.

[LittleLlama]

Absolutely ask people to wash! I did and one of the ladies who visited me, I later found out had a kiddo with RSV at home!!!! : That was just not something I thought I was going to have to ask visitors "Would you mind washing your hands... oh, and do any members of your household have a life-threatening, highly contaigous illness that my newborn is particularly suceptable to?"

[cheeseRjedi]

Originally Posted by sorteep

soap and water, and , yes, we ask... no wash, no touch that's our rule..

Yup! We put it on the sign on our door that if anynoe wants to hold the baby, they must wash hands first (and obviously they must ask - I'm not just going to hand the baby over to everyone who walks in the door)

[GinaRae]

They must wash hands with soap and water. Second choice would be hand sanitizer.

I don't want the baby to be colonized by a ton of bacteria from anywhere but our home. Let's get thru the RSV season, etc. I've had two boys with RSV stuff that ended up with asthma, pneumonias, bronchiolitis, etc. when they were babies and toddlers.

I have begun asking the boys to wash with soap the second they come home from school to get into the habit. I realized I should be doing that anyway!

[mothragirl]

i don't, but i also don't have a ton of people holding my baby.

[GinaRae]

I know a couple who lost their son to meningitis because he was being passed around at a party and someone there was infected. It wouldn't have helped to hand wash I don't think -- I think it was viral and passed through droplets. But I am always wary of people holding babies - there are just SO many things...

[aylaanne]

Statistically speaking, the general population is more likely to get their hands completely clean by using hand sanitizer than they are by using soap and water. Most people, when washing at a sink, don't use hot enough water, don't get the backs of their hands, and don't maintain the friction for at least 15 seconds. Friction is vital to shake loose all the nasty bugs living on your skin. People tend to rub for longer with the hand sanitizer because they want it to dry.

In nursing school, we did an experiment where we washed our hands with regular soap, cultured them, then washed them with antibacterial soap and cultured them. We hadn't yet been taught how to wash our hands, so we just did it the way we were accustomed to. Most of our hands cultured dirtier the second time, because we'd done enough friction to shake loose some of the bugs stuck in the folds.

So, in answer to the original question, there will be waterless hand sanitizer at my house, and I'll carry it with me, and there's a sign in my bathroom instructing people how to wash their hands, and THEN they can hold the baby.

And anyone who sneezes on their hands, EVER, doesn't get to touch the kid until the kid can wash their OWN hands. Sneeze (and cough) on your elbow.

/soapbox

[Monkeybutt]

I don't like people holding my newborn, flu season or not. But if it is family, Id make them wash their hands first. My family already knows I'm anal about this so most do it without me asking.

I thought hand sanitizer only killed bacteria and not viruses?

[GinaRae]

Hot water has no effect on handwashing. It's the rest - friction, etc. You couldn't tolerate hot enough water to kill anything - it would burn you. So just be thorough.

Now I have heard the antibacterial stuff leads to immunity just like over-using antibiotics, so that's why I push soap and hand washing vs the alcohol-based gel. Am I wrong?

[aylaanne]

the thing about alcohol-based gels is that they usually don't have an antibiotic in them, they're JUST alcohol. That by itself is enough to kill the germs. Any soap that says "antibacterial" on it IS something that leads to mega-germs.

In the hospital, as a hospital worker, they encourage us to use the alcohol hand rubs most of the time, and to wash with the antibiotic soap and water before and after eating and using the restroom, or whenever our hands are visibly soiled.

Here's a link from the mayo clinic about hand washing:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hand-washing/HQ00407

I'm going to look into that hot water thing, though. I think the reason they say use hot water instead of cold is to open the pores, making it easier to scrub the germs loose, but I could be wrong.

[GinaRae]

Originally Posted by aylaanne

I'm going to look into that hot water thing, though. I think the reason they say use hot water instead of cold is to open the pores, making it easier to scrub the germs loose, but I could be wrong.

The "bug nurse" at the hospital always told us that sometimes hot is worse because some can't tolerate how drying the soap and hot water is which leads to cracks in the skin. So cold was better than nothing, so long as you washed correctly.

I suppose no way is perfect because opening pores makes sense, but preventing cracks does too. We weren't supposed to use lotion because it traps bacteria, so cold water was supposed to help us with chapped hands. *shrug*