Puberty comes without any alarm. That is the reason why teens are mostly unaware of their personal hygiene. The sudden rush of hormones brings about a lot of changes in their body and mind. In most of the occasions the teens fail to cope with these changes and eventually miss out on their hygiene routines.

Starting from washing their hands to cleaning their teeth, keeping their private parts dry to cleaning their underwear, there are a lot of things you teen must learn. They must take care of their hair and face and cope with the sudden changes of their body.

Why Personal Hygiene is Important for Teens?

There are many reasons why personal hygiene matters for teens. From lack of awareness to preventing diseases, teens need to learn to keep themselves clean for various reasons.

7 Best Tips for Teens Personal Hygiene

Sudden Change in Body

Teens were just children a year or two ago. They are completely unaware of the sudden changes and they often fail to cope with them. Personal hygiene needs to be taught to them so that they can keep themselves clean. (Harbard, 2016)

They have not needed it before

As babies they did not need to worry about the smell or hygiene. They always smelled well and were without a worry in their lives. But suddenly all of a sudden the changes make them look awkward and smelly. They get confused as to what needed to be done. That is why teaching them to maintain personal hygiene is important.

To Prevent them from Infections and Diseases

Lack of personal hygiene amongst teens can make them fall prey to various infections and diseases. Starting from urinary tract infection to dental problems, not maintaining hygiene might lead to various problems in children. Skin allergies and bad odor are few of them. Also since they are unaware of how to maintain the hygiene the probability of the diseases are more.

To Make them Socially Presentable

Due to the awkwardness in their appearance and odor the teens sometimes exclude themselves from social encounters. They tend to lock themselves in their rooms and feel embarrassed to go out publicly. This is a very critical phase in a child’s life and the knowledge about maintaining personal hygiene can help them by a great extent.

Personal Hygiene Tips

Regular Bath

Sounds cliché but lack of proper and regular bathing does affect a teenager. The sweat of a child does not carry any foul odor as there are no hormonal secretions along with them. However, in case of a teenager the sweats are not as harmless as compared to the babies.

Sweats shed by teenagers are nor as harmless as the toddlers or pre-school children. There is hormonal secretion which mixes with the sweat. These hormones create a foul smell in the body. It also causes skin allergies and infections which are pretty difficult to deal with if not cleaned on a regular basis. So, it is important that teenagers take regular baths and clean their private parts. This will prevent the sweats from accumulating and creating further problems. (Harbard, 2016)

Choosing Clean Clothes

Teens have this disgusting habit of sticking to one set of t-shirt or jeans for weeks. This allows the bacteria to accumulate through the sweat and then it spreads throughout the body. Wearing new clothes, on a daily basis is a healthy habit and they should start to come to this habit. Fresh clean clothes should ideally be worn on a daily basis. Teenagers tend to sweat more profusely than either babies or adults. That is why it is important to change the clothing as frequently as possible.

Removing socks and changing them is also another important factor contributing to the overall hygiene of your teen. Wearing the same sock day-in and day-out can result in serious foot infection and your teenager needs to be made aware of that.

Washing the Hair

The gels and the hair color put on by modern teenagers often rob the hair from its natural nourishments. Sometimes the dust and the sweat might damage the roots of the hair. Then hair will start falling off prematurely. It will spit and will cause ruptures. It is very important to take care of your hair when you are a teenager. So, teach your son/daughter to shampoo their hair every alternate day.

Also tell them to dry the hair properly after washing so that no water remains accumulated at the roots of the hair. This also might harm the hair.

Cleaning their Private Parts

Teenagers undergo tremendous changes in their body shape and size. Sometimes they are not aware of these changes. As a parent it is your duty to educate your child about the changes that he or she might undergo. They need to clean the private parts more cautiously because the hormonal secretions will cause those areas to sweat more. If not properly cleaned then those areas might cause problems in the future like rashes and itches. (Singh, 2014)

Teach them to clean the parts vigilantly and keep them dry. The risk of bacterial infestation in those areas is high during the teenage. Not cleaning the private parts might lead to serious problems like urinary tract infection and other disorders in teens. So, it is important that you teach your son or daughter to take care of their private parts and keep them clean and well ventilated. Sometimes wearing tight clothes throughout the day causes itchiness and sweat. Ignoring these signs would not be a wise thing to do.

Wash their Undergarments

As a part of growing up the teenagers must also learn to do their own laundry and especially their undergarments. The teens start to explore their bodily change and as a result they have many private moments on their own. Now saying that, they should take responsibilities of their own undergarments and keep them clean.

A clean undergarment often prevents the spread of infection in the private parts of your teen.

Wearing properly washed and dried undergarments actually solve a major part of the problems that most of the teens face. It will reduce the body odor and will help them stay healthy. (Harbard, 2016)

Wash the Face and Hands

Whenever your son or daughter is coming back home from school or university then make sure that he/she washes her hands and face. This is a basic hygiene routine that all young adults should follow. Sometimes teens tend to forget about washing the hands and then they pop in some food with their bare hands. This passes the dust and bacteria into their stomach. Also they should cut their finger and toe nails on a regular basis. Dirt accumulated under the long nails can cause food poisoning and other stomach related problems. (Singh, 2014)

Washing the face is also equally important as it would reduce the chances of having pimples. Anyway due to excess hormonal secretion the teenagers experience a lot of pimples on their faces. However, regular cleaning might restrict and prevent them from coming back.

Brush and Floss regularly

The changes in the body will actually make the teenagers’ get a foul breath. As babies they never realized that their breath can smell nasty but the hormonal changes often alter the composition of the oral health. That is why it is important that your teenager actually brushes and flosses on a regular basis to keep the oral health intact.

Conclusion:

Teaching personal hygiene to kids is not a luxury but a necessity. Most of the teens learn it in the hard way and sometimes well in their twenties. The consequences are not always good as they might recoil themselves and exclude themselves from the others. It does not also do any good to their overall level of confidence.

Teenage is the period where your kids need to develop the foundation of the adulthood and if they start losing confidence in this age then they might face various developmental problems. As a parent you must prepare your child for adulthood by giving him/her the basic lessons on personal hygiene.

 Reference:

https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(15)00730-2/fulltext

http://oaji.net/articles/2015/887-1427176115.pdf