Do you wash your hands after using the bathroom

[SandrA9810]

like i know bacteria on our hands are the reason we do wash them...

but it was more of do we really get that much more on our hands when using the restroom or by the time we do use the restroom we've got quite a bit on our hands, and it's time to clean them??

I'm not a germaphob person... so i don't carry around a bottle of purrel and try to disinfect the whole world. I believe we need to come in contact with some to build immunity. But good handwashing is essential.

 

[GoodFairies]

There is no such thing as immunity to gastrointestinal viruses and bacteria, so no, we do not need exposure to them. Due to the potentially deadly side of effects of rapid dehydration, there is no need to expose one's self to any GI bug - there's not a single good thing that can come from it.

 

[DawnCt1]

not saying it's a bad thing... but like why did it become popular after using the bathroom.

I wash after going every time, but who decided that should be when we wash our hands? some one had to start the trend.

To me using the bathroom doesn't seem quite that dirty as a lot of other things we do in our daily lives. And the fact that there's been news reports on like 20/20 saying that using a keyboard at work is worse than sitting on the toilet. And at least your butt doesn't touch your face like your fingers do.


It wasn't something that peeked my interest. I just wanted to know what others thought.

Actually, it is an interesting question because we live in an age where indoor plumbing is assumed, we have sewer systems that take the waste away, and sinks in bathrooms. I wonder how this question would have been answered in the 1800's where there was little recognition that pathogens were microscopic and caused disease. Back in the 1800's women died of "childbed" fever, also known as puerperal fever.
"Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis[1] (1818 – 1865) was a Hungarian physician. He discovered that cases of puerperal fever, a form of septicaemia also known as childbed fever, could be cut drastically if doctors washed their hands in a chlorine solution before gynaecological examinations.

While employed as assistant to the professor of the maternity clinic at the Vienna General Hospital in Austria in 1847, Semmelweis introduced hand washing with chlorinated lime solutions for interns who had performed autopsies. This immediately reduced the incidence of fatal puerperal fever from about 10 percent (range 5–30 percent) to about 1–2 percent. At the time, diseases were attributed to many different and unrelated causes. Each case was considered unique, just like a human person is unique. Semmelweis' hypothesis, that there was only one cause, that all that mattered was cleanliness, was extreme at the time, and was largely ignored, rejected or ridiculed. He was dismissed from the hospital and harassed by the medical community in Vienna, which eventually forced him to move to Pest."

Semmelweis was outraged by the indifference of the medical profession and began writing open and increasingly angry letters to prominent European obstetricians, at times denouncing them as irresponsible murderers. His contemporaries, including his wife, believed he was losing his mind, and in 1865 he was committed to an asylum. In an ironic twist of fate, he died there of septicaemia only 14 days later, possibly after being severely beaten by guards. Semmelweis' practice only earned widespread acceptance years after his death, when Louis Pasteur developed the germ theory of disease which offered a theoretical explanation for Semmelweis' findings. He is considered a pioneer of antiseptic procedures.

So the question is a good one? When did handwashing become a part of the ritual of bathroom use? Probably after Semmelweiss's views were accepted and Louis Pasteur confirmed them and Robert Koch came on the scene.

 

[PatsMom]

A: because going to the bathroom is dirty bussiness??

B: because ever so long ago when plumbing was introduced that's just kinda where the sinks ended up??

C: because we go enough times a day, it's one of those good reminder times?



I'm sure when there were outhouses it wasn't the norm to always wash your hands after going... So when did it become so popular to do it then??

What do you mean "when there were outhouses"? Where I live there are still outhouses. In fact I have one for my guest house. And the guest house is where we go stay when the power goes out for any length of time mainly because it is so much easier to have an outhouse than a bathroom when you have no running water!

But it is the norm to wash your hands after using the outhouse where I live. When you come back into the guesthouse, you pick up a load of wood from the shed on your way through (if its heating season), drop it in the woodbox. Then go to the washbasin and run a little water and wash up. There is a sink that drains into a dry well to empty the basin. Or if you are running low on water, there is Purell.

Answer to your question - I agree with those who say that hand washing became common as understanding of disease grew.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

This thread is cracking me up a little! Of course I wash my hands after I go to the bathroom, but I think it is a valid question. Maybe the question ought to be "Why is it my habit to wash after I go to the bathroom and not so many other times?" Like why don't I wash my hands every time I finish typing on my computer? I probably should.

 

[Metro West]

I always wash the hands after using the bathroom.

 

[shortbun]

If you hear a grown up singing "eeee iiiiii eeee iiiiiii oooooo" while washing their hands-that's me. When my son was 5, his doctor told him to sing a whole verse of "Old MacDonald" while he was washing to make sure he washed long enough. I still do it, lol!!! (I try to sing only in my head but sometimes my head bobs and 'an oink, oink here' seeps out)

 

[cteddiesgirl]

not saying it's a bad thing... but like why did it become popular after using the bathroom.

I wash after going every time, but who decided that should be when we wash our hands? some one had to start the trend.

To me using the bathroom doesn't seem quite that dirty as a lot of other things we do in our daily lives. And the fact that there's been news reports on like 20/20 saying that using a keyboard at work is worse than sitting on the toilet. And at least your butt doesn't touch your face like your fingers do.


It wasn't something that peeked my interest. I just wanted to know what others thought.

It's not touching your butt that you get the germs. It's from possible contamination from the piss and feces. That stuff comes out of our bodies for a reason. You do not want to put it back into your body.

Washing hands after using the toilet became the thing to do after people became aware of the health issues not doing so causes.

Most of the time the germs, while more numerous, on keyboards and phones, etc are not as deadly to us. But this is also a good reason to washing your hands before fixing and/or eating any food.

 

[C.Ann]

A: because going to the bathroom is dirty bussiness??

B: because ever so long ago when plumbing was introduced that's just kinda where the sinks ended up??

C: because we go enough times a day, it's one of those good reminder times?



I'm sure when there were outhouses it wasn't the norm to always wash your hands after going... So when did it become so popular to do it then??

----------------------
Yes - I always do..

As for the outhouse comment, I'm reading a series of books right now about the Amish - beginning in the 1930's.. Several times it has been mentioned that "so and so" was washing their hands - after using the "out house".. So I guess it's been a habit for a lot longer than you might be thinking..

 

[PADISFAM]

I'm a nurse -- I wash my hands BEFORE & after using the bathroom

(trust me the other nurses will agree )

 

[PatsMom]

This thread is cracking me up a little! Of course I wash my hands after I go to the bathroom, but I think it is a valid question. Maybe the question ought to be "Why is it my habit to wash after I go to the bathroom and not so many other times?" Like why don't I wash my hands every time I finish typing on my computer? I probably should.

I work with a woman (one of the germaphobes I mentioned) who washes her hands or santizes every time she touches a doorknob. But only on exterior doors for some reason.

 

[happygirl]

I don't in public restrooms. I have no idea what has touched those faucets I use GermX. At home every time

 

[cteddiesgirl]

If you hear a grown up singing "eeee iiiiii eeee iiiiiii oooooo" while washing their hands-that's me. When my son was 5, his doctor told him to sing a whole verse of "Old MacDonald" while he was washing to make sure he washed long enough. I still do it, lol!!! (I try to sing only in my head but sometimes my head bobs and 'an oink, oink here' seeps out)

 

[snoopyluvsdis]

I read in a doctor advice column, that you needn't wash your hands after using the toliet if you didn't get anything on them. It fair more important to wash your hands before eating. How many people do that?

 

[kc10family]

this was a fun read

 

[HSMndLKfan92]

Hygiene and etiquette.

 

[redrosesix]

not saying it's a bad thing... but like why did it become popular after using the bathroom.

I wash after going every time, but who decided that should be when we wash our hands? some one had to start the trend.

To me using the bathroom doesn't seem quite that dirty as a lot of other things we do in our daily lives. And the fact that there's been news reports on like 20/20 saying that using a keyboard at work is worse than sitting on the toilet. And at least your butt doesn't touch your face like your fingers do.


It wasn't something that peeked my interest. I just wanted to know what others thought.

Which is why I voted that the sink being there was a good reminder to wash my hands -- not an issue so much when at home, but definitely when you're sharing everything in a theme park with 10,000 other people.

I carry purell with me. After washing you face the dirtiest part of the bathroom. The door handle. I like the trend of removing the door or doors that open in the direction of exit from bathroom.

Instructions seen in bathroom of hospital.

1. Wash hands
2. dry hands
3. use towels to turn off water and open door.

And especially the door handle. LOVE the WDW bathrooms without the doors.

I read in a doctor advice column, that you needn't wash your hands after using the toliet if you didn't get anything on them. It fair more important to wash your hands before eating. How many people do that?

Yes, I've read this too. Which is why I might choose not to wash in a bathroom that has an icky looking door handle. But washing before eating? -- every single time.

We also do wilderness camping -- it takes a couple of days to get used to not being able to wash your hands all the time. But we always wash up before cooking or eating.

 

[SCHBR'smom]

It has never occurred to me not to wash my hands after using the restroom. The problem is when we're at the beach and there are no restrooms or sinks to use.

 

[Sparx]

a & c
a, because my hands get dirty.
c, because my hands get dirty during hte day too, and its good to regularly wash your hands.

 

[hichewlova]

ALWAYS! Ugh not washing hands is a sure way to come down with at least one strain of the flu.