As parents we try our best to teach our children all that we can. Many of the things are taught by talking to them, lecturing them or going through books etc. But children understand and learn best by what is set as an example.
I think that the only way to teach is by example, as children will more easily follow what they see you do than what you tell them to do.
Gloria Estefan
We can tell them thousands of times that you should wash your hands with soap before you eat but, unless they see you doing it yourself, they are not going to follow it.
Similarly, it is important to teach our children, the right way to cough and sneeze since the most
common childhood illness like flu, upper respiratory tract infection and the more dangerous one like swine flu are carried to each other by droplet infection through the respiratory tract.
If your child is coughing or sneezing please take the following precautions:
- If the child is very sick, please do not send him to school / play.
- If he is coughing or sneezing, keep a pack of tissues with him and instruct him to use it while coughing and sneezing. He can even blow his nose into the tissues and then discard it in the waste paper basket.
- After disposing the tissue, please ask your child to wash his hands thoroughly with soap and water or use a hand sanitizer.
- Handkerchiefs are not advisable, since they harbor germs and in fact, the germs multiply on the surface and then the next time, they are used, spread on to the environment.
- If he does not have tissues then if the child has to cough or sneeze, then ask him to cough or sneeze into the lower arm as seen below: