Brief Notes on Personal Hygiene

Personal Hygiene is very essential from health point of view. It refers to various activities pertaining to the health of the individual himself; the responsibilities of which rests with him alone.

Essentials of Personal Hygiene

Personal Hygiene includes individual and environment both interacting simultaneously.

The important elements of hygiene are:

(a) Good and healthy habits

(b) Cleanliness of the skin.

(c) Cleanliness and care of the hair, eyes, teeth, nose, throat, etc.

(d) Cleanliness of the nails and fingers.

(e) Cleanliness, tidiness and fitness of the clothes and the footwear.

Training in Personal Hygiene

Personal hygiene can not come to a child all at once. The parents should patiently teach and inculcate in the child good habits.

The training of personal hygiene has to undergo the following stages:

Drill Stage:

In the early stages of the childhood, he has to be trained in personal hyiegene habits.

Stage of Social Approval:

After constant practice the child develops the habit of own cleanliness. He now tries to keep clean not on account of fear of anybody but on account of feeling that to remain clean and tidy and well dressed, is a point of prestige and respect in the society.

The Stage of Self-Respect:

This stage comes near about adolescence. The child now understands and feels that practicing healthy habits are helpful for living up certain ideals that are his own.

Acquiring Healthy Eating Habits

This may be easier to accomplish with children than with adults. One program involves identifying various foods : “Go” foods can be eaten in unlimited quantities e.g. salads, raw fruits and vegetable “caution” foods can be eaten only in moderate amounts; e.g. sugar, butter, ghee, fried food etc. “Stop” foods should be avoided e.g. fast foods and rich sweets desserts. Children can understand these categories readily, and knowing which foods to avoid seems to help.

Self-monitoring:

Children are taught to self-monitor by keeping a log of foods they eat; they earn points for holding their total number of calories down.

Factors Affecting Food Habits

A number of factors influence the food habits. These include the educational and economic level of community, availability and cost of foods and social and cultural practices. Once the food habits are established, they are handed down from generation to generation to generation.