A Guide to Good Personal Hygiene

Mom was right: Good personal hygiene is essential to promoting good health.

Personal hygiene habits such as washing your hands and brushing and flossing your teeth will help keep bacteria, viruses, and illnesses at bay. And there are mental as well as physical benefits. “Practicing good body hygiene helps you feel good about yourself, which is important for your mental health,” notes Donald Novey, MD, an integrative medicine physician with the Advocate Medical Group in Park Ridge, Ill. People who have poor hygiene — disheveled hair and clothes, body odor, bad breath, missing teeth, and the like — often are seen as unhealthy and may face discrimination.

Personal Hygiene: Healthy Habits Include Good Grooming

If you want to minimize your risk of infection and also enhance your overall health, follow these basic personal hygiene habits:

• Bathe regularly. Wash your body and your hair often. “I’m not saying that you need to shower or bathe every day,” remarks Dr. Novey. “But you should clean your body and shampoo your hair at regular intervals that work for you.” Your body is constantly shedding skin. Novey explains, “That skin needs to come off. Otherwise, it will cake up and can cause illnesses.”
• Trim your nails. Keeping your finger and toenails trimmed and in good shape will prevent problems such as hang nails and infected nail beds. Feet that are clean and dry are less likely to contract athlete’s foot, Novey says.
• Brush and floss. Ideally, you should brush your teeth after every meal. At the very least, brush your teeth twice a day and floss daily. Brushing minimizes the accumulation of bacteria in your mouth, which can cause tooth decay and gum disease, Novey says. Flossing, too, helps maintain strong, healthy gums. “The bacteria that builds up and causes gum disease can go straight to the heart and cause very serious valve problems,” Novey explains. Unhealthy gums also can cause your teeth to loosen, which makes it difficult to chew and to eat properly, he adds. To maintain a healthy smile, visit the dentist at six-month intervals for checkups and cleanings.
• Wash your hands. Washing your hands before preparing or eating food, after going to the bathroom, after coughing or sneezing, and after handling garbage, goes a long way toward preventing the spread of bacteria and viruses. Keep a hygiene product, like an alcohol-based sanitizing gel, handy for when soap and water isn’t available.
• Sleep tight. Get plenty of rest — 8 to 10 hours a night — so that you are refreshed and are ready to take on the day every morning. Lack of sleep can leave you feeling run down and can compromise your body’s natural defenses, your immune system, Novey says.

Personal Hygiene: Poor Hygiene Hints at Other Issues

If someone you know hasn’t bathed or appears unkempt, it could be a sign that he or she is depressed. “When people are sad or depressed, they neglect themselves,” Novey says. Talking about the importance of proper personal hygiene for preventing illnesses and providing personal hygiene items may help some people. Be candid but sensitive and understanding in your discussions, Novey says. Despite your best efforts, your friend or loved one may need professional help. You should encourage them to see a counselor or doctor if their personal hygiene doesn’t improve.

Personal Hygiene: Good Habits Help Keep You Healthy

For most people, good hygiene is so much a part of their daily routines that they think little about it. They bathe, they brush their teeth, visit the dentist and doctor for regular checkups, and wash their hands when preparing or eating food and handling unsanitary items. To keep those you care about healthy and safe, help them learn, and be sure that they are practicing, good personal hygiene.

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Benefits, Creating a Routine, In Kids, and More

What is personal hygiene?

Personal hygiene is how you care for your body. This practice includes bathing, washing your hands, brushing your teeth, and more.

Every day, you come into contact with millions of outside germs and viruses. They can linger on your body, and in some cases, they may make you sick. Personal hygiene practices can help you and the people around you prevent illnesses. They can also help you feel good about your appearance.

Learn more about why hygiene is so important, the best ways to practice it, and how you can change your habits to make yourself feel and look better.

Each person’s idea of personal hygiene differs. These main categories are a useful place to start for building good hygiene habits:

Toilet hygiene

Wash your hands after you use the restroom. Scrub with soap for 20 to 30 seconds, and be sure to clean between your fingers, on the back of your hands, and under your nails. Rinse with warm water, and dry with a clean towel.

If you don’t have running water or soap, an alcohol-based hand sanitizer will also work. Use one that’s at least 60 percent alcohol.

Shower hygiene

Personal preference may dictate how often you wish to shower, but most people will benefit from a rinse at least every other day. Showering with soap helps rinse away dead skin cells, bacteria, and oils.

You should also wash your hair at least twice a week. Shampooing your hair and scalp helps remove skin buildup and protects against oily residues that can irritate your skin.

Nail hygiene

Trim your nails regularly to keep them short and clean. Brush under them with a nail brush or washcloth to rinse away buildup, dirt, and germs.

Tidying your nails helps you prevent spreading germs into your mouth and other body openings. You should also avoid biting your nails.

Teeth hygiene

Good dental hygiene is about more than just pearly white teeth. Caring for your teeth and gums is a smart way to prevent gum diseases and cavities.

Brush at least twice a day for 2 minutes. Aim to brush after you wake up and before bed. If you can, brush after every meal, too. Floss between your teeth daily, and ask your dentist about using an antibacterial mouthwash.

These two steps can help prevent tooth decay and eliminate pockets where bacteria and germs can build up.

Sickness hygiene

If you’re not feeling well, you should take steps to keep from spreading germs to others. This includes covering your mouth and nose when sneezing, wiping down shared surfaces with an antibacterial wipe, and not sharing any utensils or electronics. Also, immediately throw away any soiled tissues.

Hands hygiene

Germs on your hands can easily enter your body through your mouth, nose, eyes, or ears. Wash your hands:

• when you handle food
• before you eat
• if you handle garbage
• when you sneeze
• any time you touch an animal

Likewise, wash your hands after changing a baby’s diaper, helping someone clean themselves, or when cleaning a cut or wound.

Good personal hygiene will help your kids stay healthy, ward off illnesses, and build better self-awareness.

It’s never too early to start teaching hygiene. You can wipe down your child’s hands after changing their diapers or before eating, brush their teeth and gums before bed, and get them into a daily bath routine. This helps you begin the process and slowly teaches them as they grow and take over the process.

Here’s a list of hygiene activities, how you can introduce them, and when is a good time to start:

Brushing teeth

You can begin brushing your baby’s teeth and gums the moment the first tooth pops up. They can brush their own teeth by about 3 years old. However, you may have to stay with them to guarantee they’re doing a good job and brushing long enough.

Play a 2-minute song when it’s time to brush teeth. That will let your little one know how long they have to brush, and they’ll get used to the process. Likewise, you may have to continue flossing for them until they’re older and can handle that task better, around age 7.

Bathing

You’ll be giving your baby baths regularly, but by about age 5, they should be able to handle this task on their own. As they’re growing and you’re supervising bath time, you should take the opportunity to teach about washing all the different body parts, especially:

• armpits
• groins
• neck
• belly
• knees
• elbows
• back
• feet

You can also use this time to teach them how to wash their hair without getting suds in their eyes — and what to do if they do.

Hand washing

Wipe your baby’s hands with a warm washcloth before mealtime, after eating, and after changing a diaper. During potty training, make washing hands an integral step in the process.

You can teach your child to sing the ABC song while they wash — it’s 20 seconds long, which is an ideal washing time.

Make it a priority to ask your child to wash their hands any time you’d like to encourage good hygiene, like before meals, after playing outside, after petting an animal, or after being near a sick friend.

Nail hygiene

You’ll clip your child’s nails when they’re a baby, but as they grow older, you can help them care for their own nails. Encourage your children to wash under their nails at each shower — a fun nail brush will help. Then, sit down with them weekly after a shower for a trim. Your nails are softer and clip more easily after a shower.

By age 7, most children should be up for the task alone.

Good personal hygiene habits are directly related to less illnesses and better health. Poor personal hygiene habits, however, can lead to some minor side effects, like body odor and greasy skin. They can also lead to more troublesome or even serious issues.

For example, if you don’t wash your hands frequently, you can easily transfer germs and bacteria to your mouth or eyes. This can lead to any number of issues, from stomach viruses to pink eye.

Not brushing your teeth can lead to teeth issues and plaque buildup. Poor dental care is also a risk factor for several serious health issues, including heart disease.

Poor hygiene habits can also affect your self-esteem. Looking and feeling presentable can give you a confidence boost and a sense of pride in your appearance.

Other conditions may be prevented or the risk minimized by practicing good personal hygiene. These are some examples:

• scabies
• pubic lice
• head lice
• body lice
• diarrhea
• athlete’s foot
• ringworm
• pinworms
• swimmer’s ear
• hot tub rash

If you want to improve your personal hygiene or help a child develop better habits, these strategies might be helpful:

Set reminders

If you can’t remember to do things like shower, wash your hair, clip your nails, or brush your teeth, set a reminder on your phone. The cue will push you to the activity, and over time, you’ll begin to do it yourself.

Use signs

Hang a reminder in the bathroom to wash your hands after using the toilet. Put a little sign by the plates or bowls in the kitchen to cue yourself to wash your hands before eating. These signs can help jog your memory and improve your habits. They can help both you and your children.

Practice makes perfect

It takes time to learn a new habit. Start with a new habit at the beginning of the week and make it your priority. Practice it for a week or two. When you feel comfortable with it, add a new one. Overtime, you’ll establish the habits you wish to have.

A:

Answers represent the opinions of our medical experts. All content is strictly informational and should not be considered medical advice.

Was this helpful?

Building good personal hygiene habits takes a lifetime of learning and honing. Caring for yourself in these manners is good for your physical health as well as your mental health. If you find it difficult to adapt to these practices, talk with your doctor or dentist.

Sometimes, explanations and demonstrations are a good jump-start for taking better care of yourself. This is especially true for kids. A doctor can better explain the consequences of not caring for yourself, and a parent can use them as backup for building habits that will last a lifetime.

Read this article in Spanish.

Why is it necessary to observe the rules of personal hygiene and what are they?

Why is personal hygiene important and what do they mean?

(Materials for conducting a conversation, class)

90 004 What is personal hygiene in general?

Personal hygiene is a set of rules that help maintain health and also protect a person from disease, premature old age and death. A section of the science of hygiene called personal hygiene is the rules on how to handle your skin, teeth, genitals and those objects that surround us in everyday life. Personal hygiene also affects proper nutrition, daily routine, and mental state. Eating healthy food, exercising and even dousing yourself with cold water improves the general condition of the body, improves immunity, and prolongs life. Personal hygiene is an integral part of human culture. It is the observance of the rules of personal hygiene consciously that distinguishes each of us from animals.

One of the most important postulates of personal hygiene is skin care.

This must be done not only for an attractive appearance, but also for health. The skin is one of the largest organs in the human body. Moreover, the skin still occupies one of the first places in the body in terms of the number of functions performed. So, the skin is responsible for thermoregulation, oxygen enters the body through it, nutrients enter the blood through the skin, the skin is the most important of the sense organs. In a healthy person, the skin is clean and smooth. The appearance on the skin of any acne, redness or ulceration indicates the trouble of the whole organism. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly monitor the condition of your skin. Take a warm shower daily using a hard washcloth and soap. Do not wear underwear dirty and unwashed. Do not try to open boils or crush blackheads yourself. Choose underwear and clothes made from comfortable materials. It may not necessarily be pure cotton, many modern materials are not inferior to cotton in all respects. When going out in severe frost, put on mittens and treat exposed skin with special fatty creams.

Separate conversation about facial skin hygiene.

Everything is very individual here. Research scientists say that during the week the human body secretes 200 g of fat through the skin, as well as from 3 to 7 liters of sweat. This secretion must be washed off regularly, and therefore the number one rule in a person’s personal hygiene is to keep the body clean. Depending on the type of skin and age, you should select both the means for caring for it and the method of care. So, for example, it is easiest to take care of normal facial skin. But this is very rare. With age, the skin often becomes drier. Oily skin should not be washed with hot water. The same applies to oily hair. Hot water stimulates the production of sebum. Owners of dry skin should protect it from exposure to both cold and heat. It is important to moisturize dry skin because it fades faster.

Oral hygiene is a very important component of personal hygiene.

If your teeth are not in order, the whole organism suffers. In the presence of foci of caries in the mouth, with periodontitis or periodontal disease, the infection easily spreads to the sinuses, tonsils, and kidneys. Therefore, brush your teeth regularly twice a day. To do this, use a suitable toothpaste and brush for yourself. If you are not able to brush your teeth after the next meal, rinse your mouth with at least clean water. It is advisable to remove food debris using dental floss or a toothpick. You should visit the dentist once every six months.

Personal hygiene is impossible without hair hygiene.

Wash your hair as often as necessary to keep it clean. It is only important to choose a shampoo. If your hair is so oily that it needs to be washed daily, look for a daily shampoo. Do not brush wet hair, do not use metal combs for this. If you are doing a ponytail, do not use rubber bands. They pull the hair too tight.

Personal hygiene and your nutrition are two concepts that cannot exist without each other.

What kind of healthy lifestyle can there be if a person eats instant noodles or sandwiches? Therefore, observing food hygiene, you also contribute to the treasury of your health and longevity.

Helpful Hints .

1. Experts strongly recommend showering immediately after finishing work and just before bed. Water should have a temperature of about 37-38 degrees, i.e. slightly above normal human body temperature.

2. It is highly recommended to use soft water to wash your hair. Its softening is carried out by adding 1 teaspoon of baking soda to 5 liters of water. Regularity of washing hair: normal and dry – once every ten days, oily – weekly. The temperature of water for washing hair is 50-55 degrees. It is useful to rinse them with infusion of chamomile after washing.

3. If you set aside 20 minutes for a little gymnastics in the morning, this will fill the cells with oxygen, remove stagnation, tone the blood vessels, give vigor and good mood for the whole day.

4. Fresh air will remove drowsiness and headaches, relieve fatigue and catarrhal bronchopulmonary diseases, if you ventilate the room before going to bed, at least 30-40 minutes.

Rules of personal hygiene – GAUZ Children’s City Clinical Hospital No. 8 GAUZ Children’s City Clinical Hospital No.

8

Each person is obliged to observe personal hygiene, that is, himself must keep his body and clothes clean. After all, personal hygiene plays a big role in communicating with people. Being clean and tidy means showing respect for others. To maintain personal hygiene, a mirror, soap, toothbrush and other personal hygiene items are great helpers. The human body is 80% water. If it were not covered with skin, then the water would quickly evaporate and a person would not be able to live. Human skin is also waterproof and prevents water from entering our body. Imagine what would happen to us in the bath if the skin absorbed water! The skin also protects our body from germs and regulates body temperature. When we are hot, sweat is released, which cools the body, and the blood vessels expand and rise closer to the surface of the skin, and our body turns red, and when it is cold, the blood vessels constrict to keep warm. When we are sick and the temperature rises, we sweat more.

And this is good, because microbes that are harmful to the body come out of the body with sweat. In gratitude for its work, the skin requires self-care. This care consists in cleansing the skin so that it can properly perform its functions. Thus, water for our body is the first friend.

And few people want to communicate with a dirty and carelessly dressed person. Many boys think that only girls need a mirror. And here they are wrong. After all, looking at yourself in the mirror, you immediately find out how you look – whether your hair is combed, whether your face and clothes are clean. At the same time, it must be remembered: a boy or a girl who often looks into the mirror does not look very beautiful. By the way, an untidy person can be recognized by the ears. If they are dirty, then other people will definitely pay attention to it. So do not spare water for washing not only the ears, but the whole body.

Nails on hands and feet should be trimmed once a week. By the way, special care should be about the legs – they must be washed every day and change socks often. Why do you think it is strictly forbidden to use someone else’s comb or toothbrush?

What is it to be clean?

What is it to be clean?

Wash your hands often with soap;

I wash my face in the morning and even in the evenings.

If I wash my ears clean, my ears will listen better.

Why are the eyes shining? I washed with soap.

Hair is friends with a comb: my hairstyle is good!

I. Kurochkina

A well-mannered person will never leave rubbish or dirt behind in the classroom, at school and in other public places, especially in the toilet or bathroom. Shoes also like cleanliness and order. Arriving from the street – put your shoes in order – wipe them and clean them with cream.

Do not wear other people’s shoes. On the river or in the park, when you walk barefoot, you must be extremely careful not to injure your feet on pieces of glass or plant thorns. At the same time, if you see broken glass, be sure to collect it and take it to a place specially designated for garbage. Each of us should always have a clean and neatly folded handkerchief in our pocket.

It can be used when coughing to wipe the nose, hands or face.

Item:

Give at least five reasons why a dirty handkerchief should not be used. Appearance is what immediately catches the eye. Appearance can say a lot about a person. It is always pleasant to communicate with a neatly dressed person, but no one wants to sit next to, play and communicate with dirty and sloppy people.

Clothing protects a person from the cold, makes him more attractive, affects his mood. Clothes form the first impression of a person. In beautiful, neat and comfortable clothes, we feel more confident. The condition of the clothes must be monitored and protected. Clothing must be clean, ironed, without holes or stains. There is no such clothes that would be suitable for all occasions. Any clothing is worn for a specific occasion or for a specific activity. For sports, clothing should be light and loose so that it does not get hot.

And, of course, after class, you need to take it off and take a shower. An educated person in a tracksuit will not go to the theater or to the cinema. And what will you look like if you go out for a walk in the yard in a suit with a bow tie around your neck? One can say about a person who knows how to dress beautifully – he has taste. This means that he knows how to choose the right clothes for any occasion.

Test yourself!

1. What does it mean to be beautiful and attractive?

3. Do you agree with the statement that water brings us cheerfulness, health and good attitude of others?

4. Explain the statements: “Perfume and cologne after, not instead of washing.”

5. Explain the expression: “Clothes and appearance should be appropriate for the environment and upcoming activities.”

6. Where do you keep your school uniform? 7. Do you yourself know how to clean shoes, sew on buttons, wash small things?

I consider myself neat and tidy.