Keep Hand Sanitizer Everywhere For Quick Hand Cleanings

What did we ever do before Purell? I feel so fortunate to be a mother in the age of instant hand sanitizers. Were there that many more colds and flu in the past, or are we now just more germaphopic? I keep it in about five different places and refill the pump bottles with large refill sizes. (Just be careful to buy hand sanitizer rather than hand soap, which I’ve done by mistake. The refill bottles look the same, but you don’t want a squirt of hand soap when you don’t have water around to rinse it off!)

I keep a bottle of hand sanitizer by the changing table and am always surprised that I never see a bottle near the changing tables at other people’s houses. I don’t know if others don’t wash their hands after changing diapers or if they just go to the bathroom, but my bathroom is not near my changing table, so it’s much more convenient for me to use hand sanitizer immediately after changing a diaper than it is to go downstairs to the bathroom to wash my hands afterwards.

I keep a small travel size bottle of hand sanitizer in the diaper bag for use whenever we’re out. I use it for diaper changes out of the house, for hand cleaning after playing in the park, for kids touching dirty stuff while we’re out and about, etc.

I keep a bottle just inside the back door for all of us to sanitize our hands immediately after playing outside, taking out the trash, or touching stuff in the garden.

I keep a bottle of hand sanitizer in the middle of the house, especially when someone is sick, for touch ups after blowing noses, coughing or sneezing, or just for general use whenever.

I keep a bottle in the car for use immediately after pick up from daycare or other locations where the kids might have been exposed to illness germs. I’ve heard that the moment the kids get in the car is the moment they start to spread germs all over it and everyone else in it.

I’ve seen some moms squirt some hand sanitizer on their kids hands then wipe it off with a baby wipe. However, that doesn’t allow the stuff to work. You need to rub it around until your hands are dry in order for it to actually sanitize.

Of course, a real hand-washing with soap and water is always better than hand sanitizer because it washes away the germs. But hand sanitizer certainly has a prominent place in a home with small children.