I spoke to my son’s preschool teacher today and offered to be sure she had enough alcohol-based hand sanitizer for the classroom (not enough sinks to make frequent hand washing practical.)
I’ll buy her stuff by the case if need be, and I’m sure I can get other moms to chip in.
I’m thinking small, refillable pump dispensers. My question — what would be the cheapest yet effective way to provide this? I know the alcohol concentration must be at least 62% — is there a way to just buy the alocohol and put it into a soap or gel? Any links would be welcome.
Great minds think alike…..I will be doing the same thing at my kids school. I have already started stocking up on “germ-X” its 62% Ethyl Alcchol…Kills 99% germs…..I got it in the 40 oz. Cant remember how much it was but I got this size at Wal-Mart in the hand soap section. Also bought the Antibacterial hand soap in the very large container…..
Already plan to send boxes of tissues and a large bottle of Wally World hand sanitizer to my granddaughter’s teacher. I only hope some time is spent on teaching hygiene in the classroom this fall. We had a nasty norovirus that nearly emptied some of the elementary schools here this spring. Students, teachers, and staff all affected.
Comercial size, alcohol gel dispensers and refils ($8 per liter) at mooremedical.com
I can’t remember wheather its the NXT or “bag-in-the-box” refil that comes with the dispenser. I would call them. That is the cheapest per ounce high quality hand gel I have seen.
be aware that these items have been prone to back order since H5N1 issue began
for what its worth:
Coldeeze (zinc gluconate) did a study in NY public schools that showed that one lozenge a day given to middle school students prophylacticly cut the seasonal flu rate by nearly 50% if I remember correctly. Might be worth a try.
All those supplies you are thinking about are actually mandatory for most students in my area. The list of stuff a child is expected to purchase and bring to school for their classroom is staggering … no more “free” public school it seems.
Mine are homeschooled so I’m speaking in generalities … some specific schools may differ.
Walmart makes an fairly inexpensive store-brand of the hand sanitizer. You can get the “giant size” of the same thing at SAMs.
One of the frugal recipes for making a homemade version of hand sanitizer follows:
Homemade Hand Sanitizer
(Do not use Frangranced Oil)
Mix well
Kathy in FL – at 12:23
This Homemade Hand Sanitizer isn’t 62% alcohol, is it ?
doesn’t sound like an effective virucidal alcohol content
I teach 1st grade in Maryland and began 2 years ago asking for donations of hand sanitizer. My classroom attendance improved dramatically (spelling?). Most parents sent donations. I even gave the small pocket size for Christmas presents and the children were quite happy…especially the ones who didn’t have any of their own. This year I finally convinced my team members to include that on our beginning of the year supply list along with the other school supplies. I also do a unit on “germs”.
One year my daughter’s teacher did the thing where they wet their hands (can’t remember if it was water or something else) & then put their palm into glitter. The glitter was “germs”. Then someone would shake hands with them & look at how the glitter germs transferred the to person. More effective than any of my nagging, that’s for sure!
Yep…we did the same activity. Makes the whole idea of germs very concrete!
Now, what about those water fountains? Wasn’t ther a study done in Korea maybe? that shopping vart handles and water fountains … mouthpiece thingies — were the most “germy” areas? I’m thinking, get parents to send their kids to school with reusable water bottles, with their name on it — no sharing., return home each day for washing. What do you think? Is this practical, esp at the preschool level?
I totally agree! If you could see what kids do at water fountains you would never drink from one again!! I let my kids bring water bottles and just keep them on their desks. It also saves time when we return from outside and everyone wants a drink! Still, some parents won’t send bottles.
Our teachers area always asking parents to send in supplies of hand sanitizer - none is supplied by the school. I usually find the big bottles at BJ’s or Wallyworld. Target has it’s own private label brand as well. After having problems with the well that supplied our school they shut off the drinking fountains and started supplying bottled water. However, they would often run out. Many parents just started sending water in, however, many did not. Teachers were then having to bring in water for students whose parents were either clueless, didn’t care or couldn’t afford it.
Just thinking about my own child’s situation here — I can’t deal with the rest of the worl, but I can work with his one class. There are 24 kids total in the nursery school class, some AM some PM and some full day. I know many of the moms of the kids. I think a lot of them would be willing to chip in for alcohol-based hand gel and the teacher is willing to enforce more rigorous handwashing. She’s concerned people will balk at the cost, so I am looking into lower cost alternatives.
Also, each month, every family sends in juice and a snack. I am going to suggest that instead of paying $5 for 2 bottles of juice-drink, people who are on a budget spend that money on hand-gel and send in water instead — all pediatricians I know recommend kids drink less juice and more water, anyhow! Nice sparkling fresh ice-cold water, yum, from their very own special bottles.
What kind of reaction will this idea get from most of the parents? I’m not sure. My gut is telling me that come September, we will be seeing a bit more in the mainstream media about pandemic flu possiblity and general improvement of infection control. I’m hoping that will happen and I can piggyback off of it. But at least my child’s teacher supports me in this — I think as withe everything else, it is a question of money. No one has the money (or thinks they do.)