Emily Isom has a resolution for kids and their parents: pledge to keep your hands clean and away from your face to prevent the spread of illness.

Isom, a certified medical assistant in pediatrics at OSF HealthCare, often sees young people biting dirty fingernails and not washing their hands properly. Here’s a primer:

Nail hygiene

Isom says people of all ages should trim their nails regularly. Once a week for fingernails and once or twice a month for toenails is a good rule of thumb. In between trimmings, watch for dirt and other filthy matter caught under the tip of the nail. Some nail clippers come with a scraper tool to remove that debris. But don’t use your mouth to clean your nails.

“Our nails carry so many germs and bacteria. That’s how people keep getting sick and spreading illness,” Isom warns, referring to putting fingernails in your mouth or on your face. You can also chip teeth and get facial warts and pimples from putting nails on your face, she says.

Some people have long nails, either real or artificial. In these cases, use a nail brush to regularly wipe the nails clean. If you’re at work or school and don’t have a brush, wash the nails thoroughly. Lather warm water and soap on the palms of your hands. Take your fingertips and scratch against the palm of the other hand to get the soap in the fingernail. Do that for 20 seconds. Then, pull down the fingertips to the palm of the same hand and massage the soap in further. Put your hands upside down under hot running water to rinse.

Hand washing

Isom says most people concentrate on their palms when hand washing.

“You need to get in between the fingers, underneath the nails, on the back of the hands, rub your knuckles together and scrub your wrists,” Isom says.

After wetting your hands, scrub all those areas in soap for 20 seconds. Find a song that has a 20-second chorus and hum it while you scrub. Then, rinse under warm water, and dry your hands with a clean, dry towel. Isom also suggests wrapping a paper towel around your hand when touching dirty surfaces on your way out of the bathroom. Use the towel to shut off the faucet and open the door, then throw the towel away after you exit.

If a hand dryer is what’s available, run your hands under the warm air until they are completely dry. Resist the urge to dry halfway and walk out. Isom says that may do more harm than good and attract bacteria faster.

“Bacteria want to live on wet surfaces. They’re attracted to moistness,” she points out.

If a soap and sink aren’t available, Isom says to use sanitizer or wipes that are at least 60% alcohol based. The same process applies – lather or wipe all parts of your hand and wrist thoroughly.

If you have a cut or wound on your hand, like a paper cut, wash with care.

“Get a washcloth wet with warm water. Put soap on it. Then, clean around the cut or wound,” Isom says. “Don’t put [soap] directly into the cut. That could really irritate it.”

Convincing kids

Isom is a pediatrics provider and a mother. So, she knows getting kids to wash their hands and mind their nails is easier said than done. Her advice: make it fun.

“When handwashing, sing the ABCs for 20 seconds. Or have them sing to you.” Isom suggests. “Make a chart. Every time they wash their hands, have them put a sticker on the chart. They are going to fall in love with it and want to wash their hands over and over again.”

And remember Simon Says? Isom says it works with her daughter.

“Simon says don’t touch your face,” Isom says with a smirk.

Learn more

Read more about how to keep your hands clean and prevent the spread of illnesses on the OSF HealthCare and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention websites.

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If the COVID-19 pandemic taught us one thing, it was the importance of washing our hands.

Apparently, not everyone got the message.

In May, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) launched the Hands In For Handwashing campaign to raise awareness about the importance of handwashing to help stop the spread of infectious diseases. The campaign includes the 2025 NFID State of Handwashing Report, based on a new national survey of U.S. adult handwashing knowledge and habits.

The survey found that only 33% of respondents report washing their hands more now than they did during the COVID-19 pandemic. Men were more likely to not wash their hands at key times than women.

The more startling fact is that nearly half of adults (48%) admit to forgetting or deciding not to wash their hands at important times, like after shopping, eating at a restaurant or visiting a health care setting.

“I was surprised to learn that only half of people wash their hands at key times, because as a nurse, that's the first thing they teach us – hand washing. Because they want us to keep our patients healthy,” says Breanne Gendron, a nurse practitioner for OSF HealthCare. “Bacteria and viruses live on surfaces and people, and we need to wash our hands, so we don't spread them amongst each other.”

The top reasons that motivate adults to wash their hands are after using the bathroom, touching food and handling human or animal waste. Washing your hands is a difference maker, especially since 80% of infectious diseases are spread by dirty hands.

“The most important times to protect yourself is before you eat,” Gendron says. “You're exposed to an exponential number of bacteria when you use the bathroom, just because of how our body's waste system works.” 

Gendron offers other important tips – don’t touch your face, especially when you’re in public. Alcohol-based hand sanitizer is good to use, especially if you can’t wash your hands. But it doesn’t kill all germs. There’s no substitute for washing your hands with soap. Wash with warm or cold water for a good 20 seconds, which is enough time to sing the Happy Birthday song twice.

“The most important thing is, when you're washing you make sure you're scrubbing in between all the backs, the tops, all the parts of your hands and then rinse, just making sure you're hitting all of it,” says Gendron.

Interestingly, many people admit to washing their hands more often in the fall and winter, even though germs that cause colds and norovirus and other infectious diseases spread throughout the entire year. Gendron says make a commitment to always wash your hands.

“It's just the easiest way to remain healthy,” she says. “If you wash your hands after you go to the bathroom and before you eat, you're just giving yourself such a leg up on avoiding infecting yourself with something or people that you love and are around. It's easy, so wash your hands.”

For more information on the importance of handwashing, visit the OSF HealthCare website.

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You should not feed a fever and starve a cold, hydration is key when you're sick. 

Do not go back to work or school until you're fever free for 24 hours, that's less than 100.4 degrees, and have improving symptoms. 

You do not need really hot water to wash hands, shower, or bathe. Warm water is fine. 

And for ears, ditch those Q-Tips.

“The ear is a self-cleaning oven. Most everything inside the ear will come out on its own," says Awad Alyami, MD, a pediatrician with OSF HealthCare. "When we put anything inside the ear, we are pushing everything from the outside to the inside, especially earwax. It makes it harder for the ear to clean itself.”

And the five second rule? It's fiction. 

Bacteria from the floor can get on food in a second. So don't try to sneak a bite.

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