Hand washing is the best way to prevent the transmission of germs, even better than all the hand sanitizers on the market. Encouraging children to wash their hands before eating and after using the washroom is very important. We also teach our kids to wash their hands as soon as they come home and after handling money or library books.
My kids love to wash their hands with foaming soap pumps. They don’t need to spend as much time lathering up their hands, and the foam rinses off easily. The problem is, the pumps empty so fast and replacing them can get expensive, not to mention wastefully and environmentally unfriendly.
I have yet to see foaming soap refills at the stores, probably because a special dispenser is required to make the foam. My solution is to just refill the bottles using regular liquid soap. You need one part soap for four parts water. For example, one ounce of soap and four ounces of water. The first time I did it, I accidentally used 2 ounces of soap and 6 ounces of water to fill my 8 ounce bottle. The foam was thicker, but still worked fine.
Refilling Foaming Hand Soap Pumps are especially useful for those parents concerned about super-viruses and mutated bacteria caused by all the anti-bacterial products in use these days. I’ve only seen anti-bacterial versions of the foaming hand soaps in the stores near me. Now anyone can now make non-anti-bacterial foaming hand soap with any liquid soap. Leaps and Bounds sells a foaming soap pump bottle that has fill lines for easier measuring. The reviews for the actual bottle are mixed, but most people like the measuring lines and the refillable concept.
I prefer the Bath and Body Works Pumps. I usually buy 1 foaming bottle and the rest regular liquid soap bottles when there’s some kind of promotion or coupon (3 for $10, 5 for $15, etc.). Though they are antibacterial, my family likes the scent. I purchase all the same variety so no one even knows that the bottles were refilled! Bath and Body Works also has a Kid’s Signature line, but no refills or regular liquid soap available. They do sell 16 oz refills of their regular antibacterial foaming soaps in certain scents for about $5, but that’s really about 3 oz of soap and 13 oz of water. It’s much more economical to make your own foaming soap solution. Even more so if you stay away from the brand name products.
What other ways do you encourage your children to wash their hands? How else do you stretch your dollar at home? We’d love to hear your ideas!
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There are several studies showing that anti-bacterial soap is no better than regular soap. Please read labels and consider not buying soap that contains triclosan or triclocarban as these may interfere with reproductive hormone activity and do not break down easily in the environment.
For more info, search “anti-bacterial soap” or “triclosan” or “triclocarban”.
Since I have just emptied a bottle of bath and body works foaming hand soap, I decided to find a recipe to make my own. Thank you! I just went to the bathroom to make it up and it works beautifully! Kudos Elaine! You rock!!!