My Tiny Hands in Action!
I’m not a germophobe. Really, I’m not. I’m not a fan of hand sanitizer. My preference is for soap and water. I believe children need to be exposed to all sorts of things in the world. Please, my daughter goes to daycare and we have pets! But I also think it’s okay to be careful about unnecessary exposure of babies to lots of germies. Babies jam their hands in their mouths, and for some odd reason, strangers think babies’ pudgy little hands are community property and it’s okay to fondle them. Ummmm, no.
When I was pregnant with my daughter I read a post by Tertia Albertyn about a product called My Tiny Hands. It’s a little plastic sign you can hang on the stroller that reminds people to wash their hands before touching the baby’s hands. She read about it in an article on momlogic.com that was critical of the product, saying it “goes a little overboard.” Tertia did not agree. Neither did I. I went to the website for the product and purchased one before I read any of the 82(!) comments on Tertia’s post. Oh, the comments! So strident on both sides.
My daughter was born during the H1N1 epidemic. And right smack in the thick of flu and cold season. At first, I didn’t hang the sign on her stroller. During the cold weather, she was all bundled up, so people didn’t have access to her hands. As soon as the weather got warmer, like a homing device, people grabbed her hands. I hung the sign. Despite all the commenters who thought the sign was rude or passive aggressive, I have not gotten a single negative reaction to it. I have had lot of people tell me they thought it was a great idea and asked where I got it. I’m assuming that some people who might have grabbed her hands have read it, restrained themselves from putting their grubby hands on my girl’s hands, but don’t comment on the sign.
In my opinion, it was well worth the money I spent on it. My daughter has been in daycare since she was 13 weeks old. She’s had one cold (at 5 months), which she knocked out in 4 days (I was sick with it for a week and a half). Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. Take a look at the “What Doctors Say“ and the “Germ FAQ” pages on mytinyhands.com. Signs come in several colors and are currently $7.95.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you so, so much for passing this idea along. I’ve been having nightmares about what to do with my very anti-handwashing, anti-antibacterial anything SIL and her family when the baby comes. These signs will definitely help.
That, or adoption of my very forbidding aura…no one ever touched my daughter, yet they would always comment on how cute she is. But if you can’t work the “Don’t touch me or anything of mine” vibe, then a sign is a good way to go.
Having had preemie twins, we were nazis about sanitizing and washing – nobody could touch the boys without having de-germed themselves first! We definitely had some people think we were rude, but – hello? We were the ones who would have to deal with 2 sick babies at a time! I wish we’d had these signs for them.