Top Tips for Washing Toddlers Hands

It is really important to embed a good hand washing routine as early on in life as possible. As your baby progresses into a toddler, it’s important to change your hand washing technique as they grow, keeping it fun whilst giving them lots of praise and encouragement! Here’s some ideas how you can start getting your toddler involved in washing their hands and help them to understand that it’s an important part of their daily routine…

Get a step stool so they can reach the sink themselves
Give them independence – Toddlers LOVE the feeling of being able to do something for themselves, so supervise to make sure they wash their hands properly but let them do the main work themselves.
Always communicate with them to tell them it’s time to wash their hands and why (it’s dinner time for example!)
Sing a song with them whilst they wash their hands. Hands should be washed for 20 seconds which is enough time to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice, but you could always sing along to a nursery rhyme or any other song your child loves to make sure they stay at the sink long enough!
Teach them the importance of washing their hands using body paint or glitter every so often so that they have a visual aid of how they need to wash their hands for them to be clean

.. And don’t forget to also wash your hands at the same time! Not only will this help keep everyone safe, but seeing you lead by example will be a great learning tool for your little one from any age.

Here are some nursery rhyme adaptations which you can use to sing to your toddler and translate 20 seconds of hand washing into toddler language!