Flu season might be coming to a close, but there’s always another winter – and if your kids go to school, play sports, or spend time in daycare then you know there’s no season that’s germ free. So if you’re looking for a way to convince your kids or grandkids to do more than fake washing their hands after a trip to the bathroom or before a meal, you could try this teacher’s “bread experiment” at home.
Because it’s certainly reinforced the point for me.
A teacher at Cape Fear High School in North Carolina wanted to do an experiment with her students who were entering a Certified Nursing Assistant program to really drive home how important hygiene and hand washing is to keeping themselves (and patients) healthy.
Image Credit: Pixabay
Ms. Gill took three piece of bread and put one into a plastic baggie and sealed it, all while wearing gloves. That was her control bread.
Then she took off the gloves, washed her hands*, and put a second piece of bread into a bag – the “clean” bread.
Then, she took a third piece of bread and passed it around the room, making sure everyone touched it and no one had a chance to wash their hands first – the “dirty” bread.
She hung the three pieces up in her classroom and together, they debated what would happen and waited to see who was right.
Image Credit: Facebook
As you can see, the “dirty” bread looks disgustingly full of bacteria and germs while the other two slices are relatively unchanged.
Wash. Your. Hands.
Image Credit: Pixabay
*The only way to wash your hands and ensure that germs won’t remain once you dry them off is to wet your hands, apply soap and make sure you scrub the fronts and backs, under your nails, and between your fingers (this should take you at least 20 seconds or two “Happy Birthday” songs to be effective), then rinse and dry with a clean towel.
There you have it – the proof is in the (bread) pudding!
