DEFINITION

What does hygiene stand for?

Hygiene is a set of behaviours and attitudes aimed at maintaining a healthy body and mind in a supportive environment. Hygiene does not stop at ablution. To stay healthy, it is imperative to maintain a healthy lifestyle, which means avoiding substances that are harmful to the body. Healthy eating involves eating to provide what the body needs to function properly. As for mental hygiene, it defines personal fulfilment, cognitive and emotional well-being.

1. Personal hygiene :Why have good personal hygiene?

Good personal hygiene is essential to prevent the development and spread of infections, diseases and bad odours. This aime to take care of your body Personal hygiene has an influence on our self-esteem, confidence and motivation.

What should be done?

What should be done for a better personal hygiene .

a-Systematic hand washing

Wash your hands after using the toilet or after getting them dirty during play or a task to avoid spreading bacteria.

b- Bath

For the body, shower twice a day, morning and evening. It should not be too long and with water that is not too hot to allow the dirt and sweat to be removed without damaging the skin or drying it out.

After sport, don’t hesitate to take a second warm shower to rid the skin of the toxins evacuated during the effort.

For the hair, it is advisable to wash it as soon as it is dirty (greasy) and it is not recommended to wash it every day. They tend to re-grease faster.

c-Tooth brushing

Teeth should be brushed at least twice a day for 3 minutes. (mainly after meals) Preferably, brush your teeth after meals.

• For supervisors and parents

Why do some children and adolescents not want to take a bath?

Some children and teenagers do not like to wash themselves – this happens and can be explained by the fact that their mother (or maternal substitute) may have taken a lot of care of them at shower time. Finding themselves alone, these children do not know what to do.

For some adolescents, poor hygiene describes a malaise. It may be a refusal to grow old. For them, the obligation to wash means becoming adults, and they don’t want to do that.

This attitude can also be a way of asserting oneself, of rebelling against the supervisors, who ask them to respect a certain hygiene.

More rarely, the young person hides a problem that requires psychological help. Some adolescents are in a cycle of rejection since childhood. They have difficulties at school and are sometimes afraid. These teenagers only know exclusion and by refusing to wash themselves, they ensure that they are put aside by others because they smell bad.

• Tips for children to wash themselves

As supervisors, it is important to try to understand the behaviour of your residents.

Ask questions, try to open the dialogue with a simple question “Why don’t you want to wash anymore? How does your body feel? Are you depressed? Are you having problems at school?

Encourage them to wash at least once every two days. Use humour, do not antagonise them.

Have your children choose towels, flannels, shower gels and shampoo in your interactions with them.

Give all younger toys a bath to set an example.

For teenagers you can point out the impact of cleanliness on their seductive power…

If that doesn’t work, force them to shower every day because you are their manager, you love your residents and you want to take care of their physical appearance.

• Good personal hygiene is also about dress

Remember, good hygiene also includes clean clothes.

Underwear must be changed every day, the change of clothes is specific to each person (whether or not they sweat a lot) and depends on the activities practiced (whether or not they get dirty).

The consequences of poor clothing hygiene can be the spread of parasites, contagious diseases, poor protection of the skin against changes in temperature and humidity, and exclusion in the midst of people e.g. in the classroom, church or even within the institution.

The child or adolescent who goes among people smelling bad, does not ensure his or her development. On the contrary, he will exclude himself from society and fall prey to mockery, insults and even beatings.

2. Mental hygiene: significance

Its aim is to promote psychological, emotional and cognitive well-being in order to ensure a good psychological balance and to enable people to better manage their stress, fears and anxiety on a daily basis,” explains Dr. Klaus. Patrick Lemoine, psychiatrist. This can be done through a range of activities such as attention (hugs, kisses, affectionate names, etc.), meditation such as prayer, relaxation such as head massages, sports, games, prevention of sleep disorders, self-esteem building, self-confidence, etc. These are all techniques that can be implemented alone or with the help of a professional.

3. What is environmental health?

Environmental hygiene refers to the set of sanitation measures that aim to create the most health-promoting environmental conditions.

Through various factors: the quality of the environment (air, water, etc.), the nuisances conveyed (noise, insalubrity, etc.), climatic variations…

Some rules to keep your environment healthy

• Avoid the use of pesticides on plants.
• Before eating, clean the fruit and vegetables under running water.
• Give preference to reusable products as much as possible, such as cloth bags, paper bags and glass jars.
• Avoid single-use products that are not biodegradable.