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jadavi
05-09-2012, 12:49 PM
How do people organise the drying of hands? I can't be doing with different towels (although now I'm coming round to the idea - anyone know where I can get twelve different colours? Cheaply?)
I was wondering about the paper towel dispenser box with a stack of disposable paper towels in? We have been using kitchen rolls with kids tearing it off but it does get into a mess....
What do you all prefer?

JA x

dette
05-09-2012, 12:53 PM
I have a row of little stick on hooks with a coloured sticker on then i hang a little IKEA flannel on each childs hook.Big enough to dry little hands.They have different coloured hanging loops sewn onto one corner ...works for us :)

Jods
05-09-2012, 01:00 PM
just from pre-school experience, the towels have to go into a lidded bin x (or so Mrs O demi god type demanded!!) x

SandCastles
05-09-2012, 01:02 PM
I use to have a flannel for each child but now I have a stack of them near the basin, they use it for drying hands and then throw into the washing bin, I have kept to one colour so the lo dont disturb the pile trying to find a certain colour.

Mouse
05-09-2012, 01:12 PM
I use kitchen roll, but tear it into squares myself and leave a pile of it out ready.

loocyloo
05-09-2012, 01:19 PM
i've used flannels as hand towels in the past both as individual towels and a pile to take one and use it and put in a bin, and also paper towels in a basket.

i decided i didn't like having a load of hooks on my wall, so when i moved, i stopped the individual ones... i can't make up my mind which way to go again now! using up the end of my paper towels, but am thinking of the pile of flannels again!

sorry waffling and repeating myself! :D

although, at the moment, there is a hand towel hanging up as we had visitors and the LO are loving using that! once upon a time i used to just use a fresh hand towel every day ... we're all still here to tell the tale !!! :rolleyes:

AliceK
05-09-2012, 01:30 PM
i've used flannels as hand towels in the past both as individual towels and a pile to take one and use it and put in a bin, and also paper towels in a basket.

i decided i didn't like having a load of hooks on my wall, so when i moved, i stopped the individual ones... i can't make up my mind which way to go again now! using up the end of my paper towels, but am thinking of the pile of flannels again!

sorry waffling and repeating myself! :D

although, at the moment, there is a hand towel hanging up as we had visitors and the LO are loving using that! once upon a time i used to just use a fresh hand towel every day ... we're all still here to tell the tale !!! :rolleyes:

This is what I do. Are we not meant to then? :panic:


xx

bunyip
05-09-2012, 01:30 PM
I have a separate flannel and towel for each child. Getting them to use them individually is an entirely different matter. ;)

Tbh, it's something I do but resent rather. I'm sure we all used to share towels when I was young, and don't recall anyone getting ill, despite the fact that we only had one clothes-washing day a week. "Miss, Jimmy can't come to school today. He's dangerously ill in hospital with some virulent disease he picked up from his mum's bath towel. The doctors still can't be sure if he's going to pull through."

Has anyone been to any funerals recently for towel-related victims? Ever??? :huh:

I suppose a sense of proportion from the powers-that-be would be far too much to ask? After all, I read in yesterday's paper that 1000 pople in the UK get infected with cat-borne toxoplasma gondii, a parasite which has been linked to dementia, schizophrenia, birth defects and death. But we have to worry about s0dding towels.:angry:

In any case, you can guarantee that 2 minutes after careful handwashing, they'll have a finger up a nostril or worse. :rolleyes:

Bushpig
05-09-2012, 01:32 PM
I use kitchen roll, but tear it into squares myself and leave a pile of it out ready.

Exactly what I do too.

cathtee
05-09-2012, 01:37 PM
I have a separate flannel and towel for each child. Getting them to use them individually is an entirely different matter. ;)

Tbh, it's something I do but resent rather. I'm sure we all used to share towels when I was young, and don't recall anyone getting ill, despite the fact that we only had one clothes-washing day a week. "Miss, Jimmy can't come to school today. He's dangerously ill in hospital with some virulent disease he picked up from his mum's bath towel. The doctors still can't be sure if he's going to pull through."

Has anyone been to any funerals recently for towel-related victims? Ever??? :huh:

I suppose a sense of proportion from the powers-that-be would be far too much to ask? After all, I read in yesterday's paper that 1000 pople in the UK get infected with cat-borne toxoplasma gondii, a parasite which has been linked to dementia, schizophrenia, birth defects and death. But we have to worry about s0dding towels.:angry:

In any case, you can guarantee that 2 minutes after careful handwashing, they'll have a finger up a nostril or worse. :rolleyes:

totall agree with all of this, flannels for me too all the same colour:thumbsup:

moogster1a
05-09-2012, 01:46 PM
I use one hand towel. All the kids share it and it gets changed each day. I wrote to the head of environmental health for Lancashire council and got a very helpful letter back saying this was more than adequate and listing the reasons why using a seperate towel for each child, or using paper towels was a waste of time , money and washing!!
( this letter is in my file ready to thrust in the face of any jobsworth with no knowledge of infection control who tries to tell me I should be doing otherwise!!)

bunyip
05-09-2012, 02:06 PM
The whole thing is bonkers.

Ofsted are content for each child to have a clean flannel and towel each day. But the research on towel infections recommends that any sort of towel (including fabric ones) should be for single use only.

In that case, we might as well be using paper towels. But further research shows these present a risk of infection if they are disposed of in the house. So you have to take them outside to the wheelie bin. But then the wheelie bin is covered in germs and you have to come back indoor, wash your hands, dry them with a paper towel, dispose of that in the germ-laden wheelie bin and.... oh...... :doh:

Alternatively, we could all install a hot-air hand drier. Research shows these blow germs around a 30-foot radius, so they're great, eh?

Mad, mad, mad :jump for joy:

Mouse
05-09-2012, 02:22 PM
I think it's all a bit daft.

A child goes to the toilet, then pulls their clothes up. So any germs are transfered to their clothes.
They then wash their hands. Many of the germs will have gone, so minimal germs will be transfered to the towel?

But what about those on their clothes? They'll sit down, come into contact with other children, you'll perhaps lift them up or sit them on your knee. All the times the germs are being transfered from their clothes. It doesn't seem to bother anyone...but Ofsted are up in arms about the risk of sharing a towel?

Helen Dempster
05-09-2012, 02:23 PM
I've got individual flannels (the ones from Ikea, with different coloured tags on, that I use to hang on the hooks by). I also have different towels (different colours) for each child. They all know which is theirs and seem happy with it. However, I have a downstairs toilet specifically for the children, as well as an upstairs one, and I only have 6 on a busy day, so it's not too bad and the hooks don't bother me.

kel1983
05-09-2012, 07:29 PM
Im sorry but I only use 1 towel a day Maybe more if the children decide to mop the floop them selves with it. And no I am not likely to use paper towels. They cost a fortune.

jadavi
05-09-2012, 07:37 PM
I liked the flannel idea till I worked out how many individual dryings would be using a different flannel each time on my busiest day ( 9 kids) three meal times = 9x3=27 and that's before the messy play and that's just one day !!! 28 flannels on one day? Avin a larf?!!!!

Back to the drawing board ....

shimmy
05-09-2012, 08:00 PM
I got cheap 20p flannels from ikea and bought some tea towel loops to hang them up with. They each chose their coloured loop and where to hang it and then i just change the flannel everyday

LittleLadybirds
05-09-2012, 08:49 PM
I have a box of red flannels for use at mealtimes (one per child) that then go in the wash.

I also have red towels in the bathroom - one per day, or changed if we have done a lot of activities that need hand washing, or if they have been going to the loo a lot.

I have a white towel in the kitchen for my use for food prep, and some spare white ones if the children are doing baking.

Mrs O gave me outstanding on health & hygiene, and safeguarding sections, so this is perfectly acceptable. I have a bit in my policies that states if a child has an illness (such as conjunctivitus) they will use paper towel whilst they are ill to minimize the risk of cross infection.

Children do have their own cot sheets, which are marked and stored in individual PE bags between uses.

jadavi
05-09-2012, 08:57 PM
Has anyone had a air blower dryer installed? I think the noise would drive me mad.... Still undecided. So no one has done this individual towel dispenser thingy?

suzyjane73
05-09-2012, 08:58 PM
One basket of cheap white flannels in the toilet/washroom, they are used once for washing faces, drying hands, spillages, whatever then tossed into a little wash basket under the sink. Simples! I tried all that different towels for each child thing but the end up using each others what ever you do.

clareelizabeth1
05-09-2012, 09:22 PM
In my house I use flannels only to clean up after lunch/snack or if they are to little after arts n crafts but I take them from the draw they get used and I pop them straight in to the washing machine.

as for bathroom I just put a clean hand towel in there each day, Ofsted were happy with this. I thorght of doing the different colour towel thing but your still ment to wash them every day.

I don't think I could stand doing the paper towel thing they had it at the nursery I worked at and do many children would take as many paper towels as they possibly could fit in there hands each time, which just got on my nerves. I am so OCD about those sort of things.

I want one of them dyson hand driers but big enough for my whole body so as I step out of the shower all the water just falls off me. Of no use to you but I think it would be great.

mum24
05-09-2012, 09:29 PM
i use the cheapest kitchen towel (so that if it accidentally gets thrown into the toilet rather than the bin the loo isnt blocked) its on a dispenser, we pull off 2 or 3 squares to dry our hands and then the used towel goes into the little pedal bin.
I claim back the cost of the towels on my tax. I usually go through 3 a week at the moment, having 2 toilet training.
This works well for me.

hectors house
05-09-2012, 09:29 PM
Mine all have different coloured hand towels with a picture on it, even the one year old knows that his has a chicken on it (even if he doesn't recognise the colour is green) - think it is ridiculous to expect that each towel is only used once, mine get washed at end of each day.

Ofsted was fine with this for my inspection 3+ years ago - I'm going to take my chances and stick with my system until told otherwise. Articles in the press keep telling us to stop wrapping children in cotton wool - like someone said on earlier post, children don't die from using a towel more than once or heaven forbid using someone elses towel. Surely they don't all have separate towels at home (we don't in our main bathroom), or when they go to play at a friends house?

miffy
06-09-2012, 05:15 AM
I use the Ikea flannels too and they go inthe wash bin after use. I haven't got space to hang individual towels so this is easiest for me.

Miffy xx

mummyMia
06-09-2012, 01:26 PM
I started off using paper towels but I found that I was getting through a massive amount of them every day. Far more than I ever imagined. So now the paper towel dispenser is standing empty and we are sharing a single hand towel. Naughty of me I know, but honestly sometimes I just can't be bothered with what Ofsted say.

caz3007
06-09-2012, 03:54 PM
One clean hand towel is put on the rail as we go to do the school run in the morning, we all use that, have done that since I started cming and no one has died or got sick cos of this. If it got messing cos we had been painting or hubby had been doing garden, then it would obviously be changed

PrincessFiona
08-09-2012, 07:28 AM
Paper towels here! Load up the dispenser and it's one less thing to think about/wash. (for a few days!)

Monkey26
08-09-2012, 08:26 AM
Paper towels and a dispenser in this house (well the downstairs cloakroom). I bulk buy the paper towels in macro and store them until the dispenser is empty x