It’s not always easy to enforce hand-washing with your children, but here are a few tips that might help. And as summer approaches forcing kids to be outside at the playground, in sandboxes, and on swing sets, hand-washing is especially crucial.

• Find a fun song (approximately 20 seconds long), such as “Happy Birthday,” and encourage them to sing as they lather.

• Add bath toys to the sink area making wash-up time entertaining.

• Set an example!

• Have a footstool handy so that reaching the sink doesn’t become an obstacle.

• Keep their fingernails trimmed – less area for germs to gather.

Photo by elaine faith