I received an e-mail a few weeks ago from a Lady called Claire inviting me to part of a group of Bloggers that were invited to an event for Dettol, my first thought was 'flipping heck, she must know that I'm completely undomesticated and fear for my child'!!! My second thought was 'I wonder what they'll think of my excuse that germs are good for kids and we are all too clean these days'!!! I was really unsure if I wanted to be part of the mission or not but always up for a day out and a good gossip with my fellow bloggers I decided to say yes!!
Off we went on aforementioned trip to London still not convinced that I would be talked around to this cleanliness lark. We were met at a beautiful house and offered pastries, tea and cakes. Chick was let loose with all the toys and I was free to gossip with my lovelies. Once everyone was there we had talks from Dr. Dawn Harper from Channel 4's Embarrasing Bodies, Prima Baby midwife Nikki Khan and health and safety expert Dr. Lisa Akerley. We talked about cleanliness and how it's mainly common sense and then Jen from Mum at the Madhouse asked the question 'Do we want our kids to be too clean'? The message.....absolutely not! You can never prevent your kids from catching all germs but if you can give them basic skills such as hand washing then you are taking them a long way.
This video below featuring Dr Lisa explains a little bit more:
The basic rules then:
· Regularly disinfect commonly touched surfaces as some harmful germs can survive on surfaces for longer periods, which can then be transferred to other surfaces in sufficient numbers, representing a risk to catch them and develop an infection
· Use a surface cleanser with proven efficacy to kill 99.9% of harmful germs including E.coli, Salmonella, MRSA and the flu virus
· Practice good hand hygiene; wash hands regularly with an antibacterial hand wash and dry thoroughly.
· If soap and water are not available, use a hand sanitizer. There are many gel and foam varieties available for use while out and about
· Practice good cough and sneezing etiquette - always cover your nose and mouth with a tissue and dispose of immediately
· Avoid touching your mouth, nose and eyes with your hands. This will reduce your chances of getting infected
A really cool thing that Lisa did with us on the day was to ask us in the kitchen where we thought the hotspots were. She had already sprayed a chemical on some areas and we could look around with our UV torches and see the highlighted spots:
Another thing that she did was to ask us where we thought would be high germ areas and then to swab them. With a special chemical and a machine she could tell us exactly how germ riddled the areas were! If she were inspecting a kitchen or restaurant she would expect the reading for them to pass to be around 4! First of all we swabbed the kettle handle which had a reading of about 992. Then the fridge door which had a reading of around 135. Lisa then asked for ideas and Chick suggested the high chair.....it had a massively high reading of 9,000 and something!!!
So, even though it all seems like common sense, are you cleaning the most important areas? As Lisa says in her video most of us spend the little cleaning time we have concentrating on the toilet. Well actually that's probably least important as we only put our bums there!!!
As part of the Mission for Health, Dettol are donating 20p to Save the Children for every 'like' on their Facebook page and are hoping to raise £20,000. After spending the day with Save the Children on Saturday could I please ask you to like the page and raise as much money as possible? If your click helps to save one child then the Mission for Health has to be a good thing and a worthy cause?
