Back To School! The Best Hand Sanitizers To Pack With Your Child

“Have you washed your hands yet?” This is a timeless question passed from one generation to the next when teaching children the basics of personal hygiene. However, ever since COVID-19, the importance of such a basic method has taken on renewed significance.

Even though hand sanitizers can be found everywhere, the best method for preventing contact with COVID-19 continues to be washing your hands with soap and water and using a face mask. That said, soap and water are not always convenient and available, in which case a sanitizer can be a great short term fix. 

That means, if your child is going back to school, packing a child-safe hand sanitizer is almost as essential as their school books. In this article, we will help you understand what's child-safe, so you can rest easy and put it in your child’s backpack.

CDC Recommendation

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention make it very clear that if you cannot wash your hands as the first and most effective step in infection control, then you should use a hand sanitizer that contains 60 percent alcohol.

Hand sanitizers will clearly label the alcohol content, so you should be able to check this before you purchase anything. The alcohol in hand sanitizers is ethanol. This binds to the cell membrane of bacteria and breaks the membrane down so that it can be harmlessly absorbed.

Child Safe Hand Sanitizer

If you're seeing the words 60 percent alcohol, the alarms bells could be ringing as a parent. The important thing here is to use a hand sanitizer that contains denatured alcohol.

This is where another chemical added to the alcohol to basically make it unpalatable. This is designed to create an awful taste and make it un-drinkable. As a parent, it's also very important to educate your children on the proper use of hand sanitizers. You can find some more information here about safe options for children.

Hand Sanitizers To Avoid

Thankfully the FDA has created a bad boy list of hand sanitizers you should avoid. Some of these contain methanol, which is a form of alcohol that is toxic to humans. It's very important to check this list because even though you can follow the general points in this article, it seems some manufactures are labeling the contents of their product in a misleading way.

The FDA has discovered some products that may not directly contain methanol but has found evidence of methanol contamination. So before your buy, check the FDA list so you can rest easy. 

Safe and Happy

We live in scary times where the threat of being infected by a dangerous disease seems to be greater than ever before. In this article, you have read about how to choose the best backpack hand sanitizer and also how to avoid the dangerous hand sanitizers, especially for children.

Life and motherhood don't have to be complicated, especially when you can check out more great articles like this on our site.