Strategies for Helping a Sixteen Month Old to Wash His Hands

I had that problem and started using blue sparkley anti-bacterial cleanser. Just a small dot on each hand and rub it in. Lots of sparkles. It worked like a charm. She actually kept wanting more so I had to limit the amount. I think it came from Bath and Body works. And she's fine with washing hands now (she's two) and we use foamy soap- that helps too.
Hope that helps!
K.

What helped me with my older daughter when she was little was to get my hands wet and soapy and make suds. I would say "oh, mommy has bubbles! Lets get YOU some bubbles" and then I would wet her hands and put on soap and then help her rub her hands together until she had "bubbles" too. Then we rinsed singing "byebye bubbles"

I found that my little one really responded to the foaming soap. He likes the sound that it makes when it shoots out of the pumper and the softness of the bubbles make it extra fun. Good Luck!

Just an idea to try when you aren't in a hurry to have clean hands-- does your son enjoy water play? If he does, you can place a pan of slightly soapy water on the floor and put a towel beneath it. Let him play with it when you need his hands washed. It's also a great way to keep him busy while you're making meals. Just few inches of water in a wide pan with a small squirt of dish soap will do it. (placed on tile/linoleum of course.) Your other choices of wash cloth/wipes are fine. I just wonder if he doesn't like being held/physically manipulated during handwashing; a lot of kids don't. A pan of water will let him be able to explore on his own.

It's strange what kids will react to. My son cries when I cut paper with scissors. So there you go.

What helped for us is setting rules and make sure we all follow them. We enter the house, we take shoes off and wash hands. We used "fun soaps" back then, now we just smell them. Another rule is "wash hands before dinner or snack". You need to model the behavior. It will be much easier if you make it fun - special soaps, special songs and etc. And do it together. Get excited how clean are your hands, how nice they smell and etc. after you wash them. Good luck!

I call it "BUBBLE TIME!" we try to make as many bubbles with the soap on our hands before the water 'gets' them. It becomes a game and we both laugh and have fun while doing it.
Good Luck
C.

I have a 15-1/2 month old and she has been washing her hands for about 3-4 weeks now. I set her up on the counter by the bathroom sink and put a drop of soap on her hands and then she washes them (I add a little extra scrub at the end for good measure). At night I always give her a sink bath, so I just started putting a tiny bit of soap on her hands and used my hands over hers to show her the scrubbing motion all the while praising her and then clapping my hands. We make it more of a game. Other times during the day I hold her up to the sink and give her a squirt of soap and she knows to rub them together now. I know at her daycare they re-inforce this by having them wash hands at meal times and after diaper changes. She is starting to wash her face now - if you hand her a wipe, she now will wash her face off. She picks it up by observation.

We also just started brushing our teeth together. I tried to do it for her, but that caused too much of a fuss. She has her glittery little girl tooth brush and I have mine. I have her watch me and I do exaggerated motions when I brush my teeth and she copies what I do the best she can. It's pretty cute watching her and I'm sure my dentist loves that I brush my teeth a lot more.

Make it fun and praise the daylights out of him and hopefully it will go better.

I have a 15 month old daughter and I hold her at the sink and sing the 'alphabet' song or 'if you're happy and you know it clap your hands'. When she claps her hands, water does get all over the place, but her hands get clean and then I just wipe up the water!

Alisha,
Try using foaming soap instead of regular soap. My kids love to put "bubbles" on their hands. My now 2 year old will go into the bathroom now just to wash her hands if the slightest little thing gets on them! She's been doing that for about the last 5 months. Before that it was a fight to get her to wash. She loves using the foaming soap.
I think you can actually buy pump soap that is foaming at the store but I have a Pampered Chef soap dispenser. You put a little bit of soap in it and a lot of water and when you press the pump it comes out as "bubbles."
You could also try singing songs. I teach my kids to wash for as long as it takes to sing Twinkle Twinkle or the ABC song. It takes the boringness out of washing and makes sure they are scrubbing long enough!
Good luck.
M.

Try squid soap! It's made by airborne, I've bought it at target and safeway. When you push the pump it puts an orange ink dot on your hand and the time it takes to scrub it off is how long you should be washing. My daughter loves it!

Water to my child is very relaxing, so washing his hands came naturally. However, my daughter who is almost a year old will fight me tooth and nail until I'm done. What I am doing with her is giving her a toy to play with while we are washing her hands. That way, she is distracted by washing her hands and washing the toy also. Sometimes the toy ends up being her pacifier, but whatever works-right?

I know this advice is short, but just try and see if this works. Also, have you tried to show him to wash his hands before he was this age? Or maybe if dad could take him to wash his hands. I realized with my son that at that age, he really needed a manly figure (which broke my heart), and his dad wasn't there at that time (he was traveling for his job). Grandpa was a great help, and my son seemed to relate easier to him than to me. You may find someone, either a grandparent or another playmate his age and show him that others clean their hands too.

Just make it fun, and remember, this may be a phase and you are a great mom!!!

Keep up the good work.

Kim B.

This may sound strange, but I let my daughter that just turned 3 yesterday. :) Wash her hands in the tub, our facet is just one lever and she can only turn it a little (so it can't get hot). I put a towel on a low hook on the front of our cabinets and some foam soap on the edge of the tub so she can do it herself. That way if I can't help her when she goes potty by herself she can wash her hands by herself.

I know your son is younger, but you can help him now and make it fun, so when he is potty training he can wash his own hands.

Maybe this will help for you?

T.

Have you tried buying him his own "special" soap? My daughter was so excited when I started doing that for her. I don't always buy her the kids soap, as long as she picks it out, it is special to her. I also gave her a towel that is just hers. We have a pedestal sink in the bathroom she uses the most, so I put a suction cup w/ hook on the side & that's where her special towel goes. Also made it nice when she started going in & using the potty by herself ... she couldn't reach the towel ring well enough to hang the towel back up so I always was finding the towel on the floor.
Good luck!

Here's some advice I read on Mamasource in regards to brushing teeth...it's worked like a charm!

I ask my son what kind of animals (or bugs, or dinosaurs) he has in his mouth (or on his hands), and then I say, "Oh no! We have to wash them off/brush them out!" Then we make a game of it.

We've been doing this for a month now and it's really turned our hand washing and bedtime routine around.

Sometimes I'll also give him a rubber toy to "wash" with soap. His hands end up getting washed in the process.

My kids love using hand sanitizer. I give them a little squirt, and demonstrate on myself how to rub it all over my hands.

I often times use the spray nozzle in the kitchen sink. It has a nice gentle spray that my daughter (17 mo) thinks is pretty funny. I think it tickles. We use a foaming soap and sing Happy Birthday while scrubbing her hands so that we know they are getting clean enough (I think you are technically supposed to sing through it twice, but this is a toddler we are dealing with).

Goog luck to you.

Hi Alisha,

At that age, you can do best by trying to make it into a game. We used to see if my son could sing the ABC song while he washed his hands (me mostly singing, of course, but it was a great way to teach him his ABC's). We had a stool for him to stand on and after a bit, he knew that as soon as he finished eating, he had to wash his hands- we did it before meals, too!

Good luck!
C.

My boys like the kids foamy soaps like Candoo. They smell great too. My youngest likes to sit up on the counter by the sink (with me right there of course). My oldest had no interest in washing on his own at that age though. It kind of depends on the personality of your child.

Hello, have you tried getting him "kid" soap? When my daughter was old enough, I took her to the store and let her pick out her own pump soap. My daughter liked the scents and colors of the foaming soap at Bath & Bodyworks, though I don't know if they carry them anymore. But you can find kid-themed soap just about anywhere, now. I also let her use as much and take as long as she wanted, within reason. I did have to buy her soap more often, but it was worth it! :o)

Alisha,

I know what you are going through! My son was the same way. I tried to make it a game of who can get the most bubbles and it works everytime! If you haven't tried that then you should. I swear by it! Good luck to you, S.

Demonstrate to him, even making up a song.

This is the way I wash my hands, etc...

Then rub his hands

Then sing

This is the way XXXX washes his hands

Do this every day

Eventually he'll look forward to it, and I guarantee he'll laugh.

Make up a goofy little hand washing song to be sung while you do it. My kinds are 9 and 7 now and I have found throughout the years (especially the toddler years) that silly (silly songs, silly names for things, silly ways of walking when you want them to get moving somewhere) works wonders. For example, when my son was about the age of yours toothbrushing was a nightmare until I told him to open his mouth really wide because I thought I had seen a tooth "buggy" in his mouth. I looked in his mouth and told him I saw one run behind his tooth and we had to get the buggy out. I told the "buggy" that we were going to get him and I was able to brush his teeth with out a fuss as I pretended to chase the "Buggy" with his toothbrush. My son thought this was hysterical and I never had a problem brushing his teeth again. Make a chore or something else you want them to do into a game or a challenge (can we get the buggy) and they want to do it.

Alisha,

I guess I have the other problem. How do I get my 16 month old to stop playing in the water while washing hands?

What we do because she's fascinated with the running water (of any kind), is just let her play in the water. Turn it on, let her stick her hand under the faucet, laugh as she tries to gram the stream. Then after a little bit of play time we scrub her palms together under the water, turn it off and say all done, while signing all done at the same time.

Her hearing is fine, we just use sign language as a way of communicating in the time where they want to communicate, but don't talk yet. That, though, is a soapbox I will try not to get up on right now.

My advice: Let your son play in the water a bit, make it fun and enjoyable. We even have tub toys that are stackable cups and some of them have holes in the bottom. My daughter loves those.

Hope this helps,
Melissa

Maybe a special kids soap that you let him pick out from the store to use.

I have found that using those special soaps for kids that are called kandoo! I think that is what they are called. Let him pick out the soap at the store and see if that works. It helped me with my little 3 yr old at that time.

Hi, Alisha!
I am also an elementary special education teacher and a mother to two boys. We have gone through the same thing with our toddler in the past. Have you seen that special squid soap that stays a certain color until it is all washed off? Maybe that will help your boy want to wash his hands. Or is there a certain flavor of soap he likes to smell? What about a special treat (like 1 M&M for example) after he is done? I know bribes aren't always the best thing in the world, but they do work! Good luck to you.

Smiles,
S. G.
Bothell, WA

sing the abc song or row,row your boat, or his favorite song while he washes. or use a little food coloring in the pump soap and have a few by the sink so he can choose the color he wants! Let me know if either of these work!

S. @ Hair Lounge

Hi,
I have a two year old and 5 year old girl. I bought this stool at target when my youngest was about your son's age so awhile ago. The stool is called Max and it has an on off switch thank the lord :) but it plays rhymes about brushing teeth and the rhyme is two minutes long the time your child will want to learn to brush his teeth for when he is older. But I played some of the rhymes for hand washing too.. Also I use the foaming soap either a kids brand or some times bath and body works. I noticed that the doctors office only uses foaming soap too. Foaming soap works better with little kids it doesn't just glob out and wash down the drain. Also I found with the foaming soap my children like scrubing their hands more and their hands are cleaner:)
Best of luck,
Lenci

My son did very well when we sang the ABC song during washing. It has also been a great way to teach him the ABC's at that age, and to make sure his hands are really clean! He is now 7, and a fanatic hand washer! Good luck!

Do you have a special soap dispenser? We have a hippopotamus one that my 3 year old loves to pump.

What worked for my daughter is that I turned it into a bubble game. The goal is to cover both hands in completely in suds (bubbles) before the other. Whoever wins gets a sticker. It worked for me. Some soaps make better bubbles than others so you'll have to experiment. My problem was that she would smear and rinse and just wouldn't take the time to do a good job. I hope this helps but 16 months is pretty young still. I think I was still doing the wash cloth/diaper wipe clean up when they were that little... Good habits have to start young! Good job!

Hi Alisha,
I think everything you suggested is great. In addition what I do with my kids, is sing Happy Birthday. We change it up (different names or the zoo version) but it passes the time and insures that we have a good washing.

:)

Pampers Candoo makes a soap dispenser that plays music from when the pump is pushed until it's time to rinse. It smells super yummy and makes washing a little more fun.